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HERODOTU S, 

TRANSLATED 



FROM THE GREEK, 



WITH 



NOTES AND LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



-i'* 1 
V 



BY THE REV. WILLIAM RELOE. 



A NEW EDITION, CORRECTED AND REVISED. 



LONDON: 
PUBLISHED BY JONES & CO. 

TEMPLE OF THE MUSES, (t*. Lack^oWs), F1NSBURY SQUARE. 

MDCCCXXX. 









ifer 






G LASOOW: 
HUTCHISON AND BROOKMAN, PRINTERS, VII.LAFIELD. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Whoever has employed his time on a long and laborious work, is anxious to prove to 
others, as well as to himself, the utility of what he has performed ; since the imputation 
and the consciousness of having misapplied such efforts, are almost equally unpleasing. 
If authority be allowed an adequate justification, the translator from classic writers has 
little occasion to argue in his own defence, the practice of the ablest men in the most 
enlightened countries being undeniably on his side. Of Italian and French literature, 
translations from the classics form no small or unimportant part; and if in our own 
language, accurate versions of many ancient authors be still wanting, the deficiency is 
owing, I conceive, to some other cause, rather than to any disapprobation of such works 
in those by whom they might have been performed. Perhaps the literary rank assigned 
in this country to translators, is not elevated enough to gratify the ambition of the 
learned; perhaps the curiosity of the public has not yet been turned sufficiently that 
way, to make the reward in general proportionate to the labour. Whatever be the 
cause that more has not been done, translations of eminent merit have appeared among 
us in a sufficient number, to prove decisively the opinion held of them by some of our 
most accurate and judicious scholars. In translating the Ancient Poets, our countrymen 
have, indeed, very honourably exerted their talents, and their success has proved that 
our language is fully calculated for the transfusion of the highest classical beauties: 
while the French, among whom the demand for translations has urged them to be per- 
formed at any rate, have been obliged to content themselves with prosaic versions of the 
noblest poems of antiquity. The honour thus acquired, ought to have encouraged us to 
proceed in laying open the remaining stores of ancient literature. But it is an humbler 
task to follow the steps of a prose writer, than to emulate the flights and harmony of a 
poet. 

There appears to be only one important objection, that can be made to works of this 
nature, which is founded on a fear that they may encourage indolence, and introduce 
the superficial ostentation of a knowledge neither sound nor accurate, to the prejudice of 
real learning. That vanity may be furnished, by translations, with the means of pre- 
tending to acquisitions which she has not made, cannot perhaps be denied, and such 
effects may certainly be traced in many writings of our continental neighbours ; but that 
literature will thereby be injured, is not equally capable of proof. The foundation of 
learning is usually laid, if laid at all, and the taste for it imbibed, if it can be communi- 
cated, before the student has the liberty of considering whether it is easier to read the 
ancients in their own languages or in modern versions ; and till we hear that some per- 
sons have studied Greek, because there Avere books in that language of which they could 
not find translations, we may rest satisfied, that few, if any, will neglect such studies on 
the mere prospect of that assistance. But an abuse, if it did exist, ought not to preclude 
the use ; and whoever recollects how much our favourite Shakspeare enlarged the trca- 



iv INTRODUCTION. 

sures of his active mind, by information deduced from these secondary sources, will con- 
fess, at least, that an excellent, as well as an impertinent or idle use may be made of 
translated Classics. 

In this country, where successful industry produces elevation of rank, and gives access 
to polished society, there will always be many persons, who with enlightened and dis- 
cerning minds, and a considerable disposition to literature, are debarred from the perusal 
of ancient authors by the want of a suitable education. Many by birth entitled to every 
advantage, are early called away from learning to scenes of active occupation. Some 
such I have seen, and highly value, who, not ashamed of a deficiency occasioned by una- 
voidable circumstances, or by honest, useful, and honourable occupations, are desirous to 
form, if possible, complete collections of approved and elegant translations. But whether 
the desire of such aid be thus general, or directed only to particular authors, whether it 
be entertained by men or women, it is liberal in its kind, and ought by all means to be 
gratified. 

Nor is it only to unlearned persons that translations may be of service : to those also 
who are employed in the study of the ancient languages, they are often highly useful. In 
obscure and perplexed passages, they who publish notes, not unfrequently consult their 
ease, by passing over in silence what they are not able to explain ; and even they by 
whom the Latin versions annexed to Greek authors were formed, will be found on many 
occasions, by rendering word for word, to have left the sense as dark as they found it in 
the original ; but a translator into vernacular language, is a commentator, who is bound, 
if possible, to explain every thing : his version, in order to be approved, must have the 
air and manner of an original, and he has no more license to be obscure than if it really 
were so. Being confined to this attention throughout, he usually examines and compares 
with greater diligence than any other commentator : he is compelled at least to under- 
stand himself, which is one good step towards being intelligible to others, and, where he 
finds this wholly impracticable, is driven ingenuously to confess it. If this reasoning be 
not fallacious, it must happen, that, in good versions, illustrations will often be found, 
which could not be obtained from any editions of the original : this at least I have found 
by experience, in rendering Herodotus, that, after consulting all the commentators, I have 
frequently been obliged to have recourse to new considerations, before I could make my 
translation entirely clear and satisfactory to myself. 

If the practice of translating be fully approved, there can be no doubt concerning the 
claim of Herodotus to an early distinction of this kind. His matter is no less curious 
than diversified, and his history, as far as his own knowledge and diligent researches 
could make it, entitled to attention and belief. When he approaches to his own times, 
there is little reason to suspect him of error or inaccuracy ; and, whatever we may think 
of some particulars respecting the Persian invasion, he is in that matter as moderate as 
any of his countrymen ; and, in a case so very extraordinary, the deposition of such a 
witness must deserve particular consideration. 

Yet Herodotus, though mentioned always with respect, and dignified by courtesy with 
the title of the Father of History, has been treated with some neglect by the English 
literati. While Thucydides and Xenophon have been naturalized among us, in correct 
and elegant translations, this Historian, the first remaining link of that important chain, 
has hitherto been represented only by Littlebury. The scarceness of that translation, 
notwithstanding the inconvenience of its form, from wanting the usual subdivisions ; the 
entire absence of notes, so particularly necessary to this author ; and other defects, which 
it might seem invidious here to mention, first pointed out the necessity of supplying the 
public with another. From the nature of the notes subjoined to the present translation, 



INTRODUCTION. v 

it will easily be perceived, that I have been more desirous to assist and to amuse the 
English reader, than to claim the credit of abstruse or uncommon learning- It may, in- 
deed, be said, by such as are more ready to throw out an acute than a candid observation, 
that 'in so doing-, 1 have probably consulted my own strength, as much as the reader's 
convenience. This I shall neither acknowledge nor deny: but when it shall be seen 
how various the matter is, which, even for the above-mentioned purposes, I have been 
obliged to collect, the imputation perhaps will not be thought extremely formidable. For 
my own part, I shall be fully satisfied with what I have done, if it shall be pronounced, 
by those who are capable of deciding, that in many topics of inquiry, I have in general 
, been happy enough to avoid misleading my readers. 

From the notes to M. Larcher's celebrated French translation, which are very numer- 
ous, and intended evidently for the critical and the learned, rather than the common 
reader, I have extracted such as seemed most suited to my own design : to these I have 
subjoined his name. For the rest, which have the signature T. annexed, I confess my- 
self responsible : except in the case of a very few, the contribution of one or two friends, 
which for many reasons, I should have been glad to have had so numerous, as to have 
demanded separate signatures. The assistance, however, that I have received, I shall 
always thankfully acknowledge, and be rather proud to declare, than studious to conceal. 

I shall now conclude this address, by which, I hope the reader will be convinced, that 
I offer him a useful work, and one executed with the spirit of a man who wishes to 
serve the public, and to promote the cause of literature. The labour of almost three 
years is now submitted to his judgment; for which though I have not conscious dignity 
enough to dismiss it without any apprehension, I request no further indulgence than 
candour will readily bestow on a work of difficult execution ; I have done my best, and 
must abide the consequences. Avocations, cares, and ill-health, I have had in common 
with others ; but these are so inseparable from human life, that they ought perhaps to 
be supposed in every estimate of labour. It has been remarked, by critics of deserved 
eminence and popularity, that the perfections and beauties of a translation are usually, 
without reserve, referred to the merit of the original work ; while all defects and imper- 
fections are heaped upon the shoulders of the poor translator. To this common lot of my 
brethren, I also very willingly submit ; nor can there perhaps be two authors more likely 
to justify such decisions than Herodotus and his Translator. Had I been aware how 
much of my time would be occupied by this undertaking, I should probably have shrunk 
from it : now it is completed, whether I shall again venture upon that perilous ocean, 
where many a braver heart than mine has trembled, will depend perhaps upon the degree 
of approbation which the present adventure shall obtain from my impartial and judicious 
countrymen. 



HH 



SKETCH OF THE LIFE 



HERODOTUS. 



It may be observed of biography, that few things confessedly so useful have been so 
much perverted or so frequently abused. Perhaps it is neither unjust nor uncandid to 
add, that this has been in a peculiar manner the error of modern times. We have seen 
the lives of men remarkable neither for the splendour nor the extent of their accomplish- 
ments displayed in formidable volumes, and obtruded on the world with a confidence 
which private partiality could not justify, and which a reverence for the public might 
well have moderated : we have seen the minute occurrences of domestic life, I had almost 
said betrayed, and the little weaknesses of exalted and amiable minds ostentatiously enu- 
merated, from the mistaken idea of satisfying a curiosity beneficial neither to science nor 
to virtue. In writing ancient lives, this fault indeed cannot be committed ; but even that 
species of biography has been much disfigured by the ambition of collecting every trifling 
hint that antiquity has left, and swelling out the rest by vague and often very arbitrary 
conjectures. For my own part, I should little suppose that I treated the English reader 
with becoming respect, if, in professing to give a Life of Herodotus, I did not immediately 
inform him that my materials were not only very dubious but very scanty : such howevei 
as they are, it would be no difficult task to imitate the example of many who have pre- 
ceded me, and expand my observations into a serious volume. Were I to glean all that 
has been said of my Historian, from the different books which I have necessarily read ; 
were I to obey the suggestions of fondness and the impulse of fancy, rather than those of 
my cooler judgment and my regard for the correctness of historic truth, I have a subject 
before me which might be protracted at pleasure. To me it seems acting a more consis- 
tent part, once for all to declare, that there is no regular account of Herodotus, either 
more ancient or more authentic than that of Suidas ; and this is comprised in a very 
narrow compass. What all modern editors of his works have said of him rests chiefly 
on the relation of Suidas as a basis, and I might labour in vain to find a better guide. I 
wish therefore my readers to understand, that what I shall produce will be derived from 
the same authority, with a few additional remarks suggested by passages produced in the 
Bibliotheca Grseca of Fabricius, or the Prolegomena of Wesseling. 

It appears that the father of history was born at Halicarnassus, the metropolis of Caria. 
At what particular period may be collected from Aulus Gellius, book xv. chapter 23, who 
informs us that the three celebrated historians, Hellanicus, Herodotus, and Thucydides, 
flourished nearly at the same time. " At the commencement of the Peloponnesian war," 
says he, " Hellanicus was sixty-five years old, Herodotus fifty-three, and Thucyt'ides 

b 



viii LIFE OF HERODOTUS. 

forty." The Peloponnesian war began in the second year of the eighty-sixth Olympiad . 
Herodotus must consequently have been born in the first year of the seventy-fourth 
Olympiad. This was four years before Xerxes invaded Greece, and four hundred and 
forty-four years before the Christian era. 

The name of his father was Lyxes, of his mother Dryo : and we are told also, that his 
family was illustrious. At this time Lygdamis was prince of Halicarnassus, and, as it 
should seem, universally detested for his insolence and tyranny. It is certain that when 
he grew up, Herodotus left his native place and removed to Samos : Suidas says, on 
account of Lygdamis ; but it does not appear whether he was violently expelled by his 
arbitrary master, or whether, in abhorrence of the tyrant, he voluntarily withdrew him- 
self. At Samos he studied the Ionic dialect; but as this subject may be less intelligible 
to the English reader, I shall digress a little upon it. By birth Herodotus was a Dorian, 
and the dialect of his country was, comparatively speaking, so rude and dissonant, that, 
even in later times, we hear the other Greeks reflecting on those who used it, for their 
broad and inharmonious pronunciation. 

See Theocritus, Id. xv. ver. 88. 

Tfvyovis tzxvcuffivvrxi trXctTVCLtrdenrai cttrocvrot. 

The meaning of which is, " They make a noise like pigeons, pronouncing every thing 
with a broad dialect." To which remark, as a kind of vindication, it is replied, in the 
verse which follows : 

Which is, Surely Dorians may speak Doric. 

Hesychius also, at the word fiu^u^ocpcdvoh tells us that the inhabitants of Elis, as well 
as the Carians, were so named on account of their harsh and indistinct pronunciation. 

Herodotus himself, book i. chapter 56, informs us, that the Greek language properly 
so called, is divided into two dialects, the Doric and the Ionic ; the first, the language of 
the Pelasgi, the last of the Hellenes. Strabo also, in his eighth book, observes, that the 
Ionic was the language of Attica, and the Doric of JEolia. The iEolic and the Doric did 
not materially vary from each other, and the Attic was the Ionic more refined. Herodo- 
tus therefore having learned the Ionic dialect, as more pleasing than his native Doric, 
composed his history in it. To collect materials lie travelled through Greece, Egypt, 
Asia, Colchis, Scythia, Thrace, and Macedonia, &c. ; and it is sufficiently evident that he 
personally visited most of the places he describes. 

Of the ardour with which he was inspired in the cause of liberty, we have strong and 
unequivocal testimony. First, in his exile from his country, whether voluntary or not ; 
in various animated expressions to this effect, scattered through his books ; but best of 
all in his subsequent conduct. Understanding that a party was formed against Lygdamis, 
he left Samos, and joined the friends of freedom. By their common exertions, the tyrant 
was expelled, and the public liberty restored. But, as not unfrequently happens on simi- 
lar occasions, contentions arose, factions were formed, and Herodotus M r as a second time 
compelled to leave his country. He now visited Greece again, which became the noble 
theatre of his glory. It was then the time of celebrating the Olympic games, and he did 
not omit the favourable opportunity of reciting his history to so illustrious an audience. 
Probably it was only the introductory parts, or certain particular and selected portions ; 
but there must have been something very captivating in his style, some regular and con- 
nected series of interesting history, some superior and striking character of genius : for 
we are informed that he was listened to with universal delight and applause; and we are 



LIFE OF HERODOTUS. ix 

farther gratified with the curious anecdote of Thucydides, which has so often been re- 
lated. He was present at this great solemnity, with his father Olorus, and on hearing 
the composition of Herodotus, discovered the seeds of those exalted talents which after- 
wards made his name immortal. After listening to the father of history with the most 
composed and serious attention, he burst into tears. He was then no more than fifteen 
years old ; and Herodotus, observing his emotion, exclaimed to Olorus, o^yce. % <pvaig row 
viov aov TTQog rec potdy/xctroi. — Your son burns with an ardour for science. This is said to 
have happened in the eighty-first Olympiad. Twelve years afterwards the Historian 
read a continuation or second portion of his work to the Athenians, at the feast of the 
Panathenaea. The people of Athens, not satisfied with heaping praises upon him, pre- 
sented him with ten talents, which gift was solemnly ratified by a decree of the people. 

The next incident of our author's life of which we have to speak, may at first sight ap- 
pear inconsistent and extraordinary. Honoured as all illustrious strangers were at 
Athens, and favourable as the opportunity must have been to have prosecuted his studies, 
and to have indulged his ardour for science, he might reasonably have been expected to 
have fixed his residence at Athens ; but this we find was not the case. In the beginning 
of the following Olympiad, he joined himself to a colony sent by the Athenians to form 
a settlement in Magna Grsecia. Whether he was prompted on this occasion by that 
fondness for travelling, which always distinguished him, or whether he was induced to 
take this step from motives of private connection and attachment, is totally unknown. 
It is certain that Lysias, who afterwards became so famous as an orator, was one of those 
who accompanied him. At Thurium, ' which was the place then colonized, it is more 
than probable that he spent the remainder of his days, though there are some who assert 
that he died at PeJlaJn Macedonia. Pella however gave no name to Herodotus, but be- 
came aftewards famous for being long the residence of Euripides, who from this circum- 
stance has frequently been called the Bard of Pella ; an appellation which our poet 
Collins happily introduces in his beautiful Ode to Pity : 

By Pella's bard, a magic name, 

By all the griefs his thought could frame, 
Receive my humble rite ; 

Long, Pity, let the nations view 

Thy sky-worn robes of tenderest hue, 
And eyes of dewy light. 

Herodotus, in like manner, from his long continuance at Thurium, obtained the epithet 
of the Thurian. This appellation is no where to be found more early than in the works 
of Aristotle. Avienus, Julian, Pliny, and others, call him the Thurian; while Strabo, of 
greater antiquity than any of these, Aristotle excepted, in his fourteenth book, expressly 
calls him the Halicarnassian, adding however, that he was afterwards named the Thurian, 
because he removed with a colony to that place. 

Pliny has an expression relating to Herodotus, which many have misinterpreted. 
" Auctor," says he, " ille Herodotus historiam condidit, Thuriis in Italia ;" which has 
been understood as asserting that ho wrote his history at Thurium. But this is impossible 
in fact, because I have shown, that many years before he went to Thurium at all, he had 
publicly recited his work, or certain portions of it, on two very memorable occasions; at the 
Olympic games, and at Athens. It is therefore more reasonable and consistent to under- 
stand by this expression of Pliny, that he revised, corrected, and perhaps enlarged his 
history at Thurium. Suidas positively declares, that Herodotus died at Thurium; and 

1 Written also Thurii and Thuriae ; and founded almost upon the spot where formerly had 
i>tood Sybaris, so infamous for effeminate manners. 



x LIFE OF HERODOTUS. 

though he mentions, as I have before intimated, that some affirmed him to have died at 
Pella, he produces no authority, which he would probably have done, if there had been 
any that deserved much notice. This assertion therefore appeal's not to claim any great 
degree of confidence ; but an argument against his having died at Thurium rests on a 
passage which occurs in the life of Thucydides, by Marcellinus, who affirms, that the 
tomb of Herodotus was to be seen at Athens, among the monuments of Cimon. The 
President Bouhier has from this concluded and asserted that he died at Athens. Of this 
the question of M. Larcher, as he has applied it from Dodwell, seems a sufficient and sa- 
tisfactory refutation. How can it be proved, says the learned Frenchman, that this was 
not a cenotaph, one of those marks of honour frequently paid to illustrious characters, 
without regarding the place where they might happen to die ? Stephen of Byzantium 
gives an inscription, said to have been found at Thurium, which asserts unequivocally, 
" This earth contains in its bosom Herodotus son of Lyxes, a Dorian by birth, but the 
most illustrious of the Ionian historians;" 

Of the works of Herodotus we have remaining these nine books, to which the names 
of the Nine Muses have been respectively annexed; upon which subject I have spoken 
somewhat at large, in a note at the beginning of the third book. Whether he ever wrote 
any thing else, has been a matter of much controversy among scholars. Certain allusions 
and expressions, to be found in the Nine Muses, seem at first sight to j ustify the opinion, 
that we do not possess all his works. But this must ever remain a matter of extreme 
uncertainty ; yet it becomes me to add, that there are no references pointed out by the 
learned to any other of his works, in any ancient author. Aristotle, in his History of 
Animals, book viii. chap. 18, censures Herodotus for saying, that at the siege of Minos an 
eagle was seen to drink, when it is notorious that all birds ya^auvzss, having crooked 
claws, never do drink. Now it is certain, that no such expression occurs in what we 
have remaining of Herodotus. " Probably," says Fabricius, in reply to this, " Aristotle 
might have a more perfect copy of the Nine Muses than has come down to us." 

The style of Herodotus might well demand a separate dissertation : this, perhaps, is 
not the properest place to speak at any length upon the subject. It has been unviersally 
admired for being, beyond that of all other Greek writers of prose, pure and perspicuous. 
Cicero calls it fusum atque tractum, at the same time copious and polished. Aristotle 
gives it as an example of the *e%tg zt^opeun, which is literally, the connected style, but as 
he explains it, it means rather what we should call the flowing style ; wherein the sen- 
tences are not involved or complicated by art, but are connected by simple conjunctions, 
as they follow in natural order, and have no full termination but in the close of the sense. 
This he opposes to that style which is formed into regular periods, and rather censures 
it as keeping the reader in uneasy suspense, and depriving him of the pleasure which 
arises from foreseeing the conclusion. The former, he says, was the method of the an- 
cients ; the latter of his contemporaries (Rhet. iii. 9.) His own writings afford an exam- 
ple of the latter style, cut into short and frequent periods, but certainly much less 
pleasing than the flowing and natural smoothness of Herodotus, Plutarch, who wrote a 
treatise expressly to derogate from the fame and authority of Herodotus, in more places 
than one speaks of his diction with the highest commendation. Longinus also, as may 
be seen in various passages which I have introduced, and commented upon in the progress 
of my work, added his tribute to the universal praise. 

Every one knows, who has made the experiment, how difficult and almost impossible 
it is to assimilate to the English idiom, the simple and beautiful terseness of Greek com- 
position. If any scholar therefore, who may choose to compare my version with the 



LIFE OF HERODOTUS. xi 

original Greek, shall be inclined to censure me for being- occasionally diffuse, I would 
wish him to remember this. — I would desire him also to consider, that it was my duty to 
make that perspicuous to the less learned reader, which might have been conveyed in 
fewer terras to the apprehensions of the more learned or the more intelligent. 

On the subject of translations in general, I entirely approve of the opinion of Boiicau. 
In a preceding- publication, I have before referred to this, but I see no impropriety in its 
having- a place here, in the words of lord Bolingbroke. 

" To translate servilely into modern lang-uag-e an ancient author, phrase by phrase, and 
word by word, is preposterous : nothing can be more unlike the original than such a 
copy ; it is not to show, it is to disguise the author. A good writer will rather imitate 
than translate, and rather emulate than imitate : he will endeavour to write as the 
ancient author would have written, had he wrote in the same language." 

Letters on History. 
Perhaps I ought not to omit, that many eminent writers, both of ancient and modern 
times, accuse Herodotus of not having had a sufficient regard to the austere and sacred 
dignity of historic truth. Ctesias, in Photius, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Aulus Gellius, 
and, above all, Plutarch, have made strong and violent objections to many of his asser- 
tions. To many general censures which in this respect have been aimed against the 
fame of our historian, I have made reply in various parts of my notes ; and the plausible 
but unjust tract of Plutarch, on the Malignity of Herodotus, has been carefully examined, 
and satisfactorily refuted, by the Abbe Geinoz, in the Memoirs of the Academy of In- 
scriptions and Belles Lettres. 

It is my intention, if what I here offer the public be deemed worthy of encouragement, 
to translate this tract of Plutarch, and with it the learned Abbe's three Dissertations. 
As these last are alike remarkable for their learning, their acuteness, and their efficient 
answer to all that Plutarch has alleged, the whole will, I think, make a very necessary 
and useful supplement to my present work. 

I have little to say concerning the life of Homer, imputed by some to Herodotus, and 
in more modern editions published with his works. It seems generally determined 
among scholars, that though undoubtedly of great antiquity, it must have been written 
by some other hand. Vossius, Faber, Rykius, Spanhemius, Berglerus, Wesseling, and 
others, are decidedly against its authenticity ; which has nevertheless been vindicated by 
Fabricius, by our countryman Joshua Barnes, and lastly by the President Bouhier. It 
must strike the most careless and indifferent observer, that the style of the Life of 
Homer, whoever was the author, does not bear the smallest resemblance to that of the 
Nine Muses. " In the life of Homer," says Wesseling, " that unvaried suavity of the 
Ionic dialect, so remarkable in the Muses, never occurs at all." The great and the most 
satisfactory argument against its being genuine seems to be this : — Of all the ancient 
writers, -who have taken upon them to discuss the birth, the fortunes, or the poems of 
Homer, not one has ever, by the remotest allusion, referred to this work, which bears the 
name of Herodotus. 

Almost every European language has to boast of a translation of Herodotus. There 
is one in Dutch, German, Italian, and more than one in French. My work appeared in 
1791, not long after which a single volume was published by Mr Lempriere, the learned 
compiler of the Classical Dictionary, who has not been pleased to favour the public with 
his continuation. 

And here my account of the historian must conclude ; but when I consider the great 
admiration which for successive ages he has deservedly obtained, when I reflect on the 
instruction he communicates in the most pure and delightful style, I cannot but regret, 



xii LIFE OF HERODOTUS. 

that the sources of information concerning him are not more clear as well as more 
copious. I would not trifle with my reader, by leading- him through the mazes of a 
labyrinth, where a few intervals of light and beauty would but ill compensate for the 
tediousness and uncertainty of his way ; I have rather chosen to place before him a plain 
uninterrupted path, from which he may discern at one view the clearest prospect I could 
present to him, as well as the materials of which it is composed. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Introduction, iii 

Sketch of the Life of Herodotus, . - . . . . ; . . . vii 

Book L— CLIO, . 1 

IlJ— EUTERPE, 67 

III— THALIA, 135 

IV.-rMELPOMENE 189 

V— TERPSICHORE, 245 

VI — ERATO, . .281 

VIL—POLYMNIA, 321 

VIII.— URANIA, 381 

IX.— CALLIOPE, 419 



% »' -f \ 



HERODOTUS. 



CLIO. 



I. ' To rescue from oblivion the memory of 
former incidents, and to render a just tribute of 
renown to the many great and wonderful actions, 
both of Greeks and Barbarians, 2 Herodotus 3 
of Halicarnassus produces this historical essay. ' 

1 The simplicity with which Herodotus commences 
his history, and enters immediately on his subject, has 
been much and deservedly admired, and exhibits a strik- 
ing contrast to the elaborate introductions of modern 
writers. It is not, however, peculiar to Herodotus ; it 
was the beautiful distinction of almost all the more an- 
cient authors. — T. 

2 Barbarians. ,] — As this word so frequently occurs in 
the progress of our work, it may be necessary, once for 
all, to advertise the English reader, that the ancients 
used it in a much milder sense than we do. Much as 
has been said of the pride of the old Romans, the word 
in question may tend to prove, that they were in some 
instances less tenacious of their national dignity than the 
Greeks. The appellation of Barbarians was given by the 
Greeks to all the world but themselves ; the Romans gave 
it to all the world but the Greeks.— T. 

3 Herodotus.] — It has been suggested as a doubt, by 
many of the learned, whether it ought not to be written 
Erodotus. For my own part, as I am able to remember 
no proper name terminating in dorus and dotus, as Dio- 
dorus, Diodotus, Heliodorus, &c. which is not derived 
from the name of a divinity, I have no scruple in assert- 
ing my belief, that it must be Herodotus, compounded 
of dotus and the Greek name of Juno. — T. 

There is hardly any author, ancient or modern, who 
has been more warmly commended or more vehemently 
censured than this eminent historian ; but even the se- 
vere Dionysius declares, he is one of those enchanting 
writers, whom you peruse to the last syllable with plea- 
sure, and still wish for more. Plutarch himself, who has 
made the most violent attack on his veracity, allows him 
all the merit of beautiful composition.— Hayley. 

4 In my version, as it now stands, I have not satisfied a 
friend, whose opinion I respect no less than I value his 
esteem. This gentleman considers the expression of 
"historical essay," as not conveying an adequate ex- 
planation of the original Greek. He approves of the 
criticism in Jortin's Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, 
vol. i. p. 59, to which I refer the reader. 

History, in the Greek, is derived from a verb, signify- 
ing to enquire minutely j and it is the opinion of Kuster, 
as well as of other eminent critics, that the word history 
itself, in its original sense, implies accurate enquiry, and 
stands properly for what the author's own researches 



Among other things, it will be necessary to 
investigate the sources of the hostilities which 
subsisted between these people. The more 
learned of the Persians assert the Phoenicians 
to have been the original exciters of contention. 
This nation migrated from the borders of the 
Red Sea 5 to the place of their present settle- 
ment, and soon distinguished themselves by 
their long and enterprising voyages. 6 They 



demonstrated to him, and what he learned by the infor- 
mation of others. According to this interpretation, the 
first words of Herodotus might be rendered thus : 

" Herodotus of Halicarnassus produces this work, the 
result both of his own researches, and of the enquiries 
made by Mm of others." 

This is certainly paraphrastical, but the criticism is in- 
genious, and appears to be well founded. The material 
point to be established from it is, that in the time of Her- 
odotus, <Vt«§<») did not signify history, the word then 
used in that sense was euyyga.^ — T. 

5 From the borders of the Red Sea.]— When Herodo- 
tus speaks, for the first time, of any people, he always 
goes to their original source. Some authors make the 
Phoenicians to have originated from the Persian Gulf; 
which opinion, though reported, is not believed by Stra- 
bo. Voltaire, taking it for granted that they migrated 
by sea, ridicules the idea of their coming from the Red 
Sea to Phoenicia ; as well he might. Larcher proves, in 
the most satisfactory manner, that his misconception 
arose from his ignorance of Greek. It is evident from 
another passage in Herodotus (Book vii. chap. 89.) that 
the Phoenicians, when they changed their place of resi- 
dence, passed over by land. — Larcher (principally ) 

6 Long and enterprising voyages.] — The first among 
the Greeks who undertook long voyages were the Io- 
nians. Upon this people, Mr Wood, in his Essay on 
Homer, has the following remark : " From the general 
character by which Homer constantly distinguishes the 
Phoenicians, as a commercial and seafaring people, it has 
been naturally supposed, that he was ipdebted to that 
nation for much of his information with regard to distant 
voyages. I think we cannot be at a loss to account for 
the poet's acquiring, at home, all the knowledge of this 
kind which we meet with in his works. We know the 
Ionians were amongst the earliest navigators, particu- 
larly the Phocaeans and Milesians. The former are ex- 
pressly called the discoverers of Adria, Iberia, Tuscany, 
and Tartessus." — Wood on Homer. 



HERODOTUS. 



exported to Argos, amongst other places, the } 
produce of Egypt and Assyria. Argos, at 
that period, was the most famous of all those 
states which are now comprehended under the 
general appellation of Greece. ' On their ar- 
rival here, the Phoenicians exposed their mer- 
chandise to sale ; after remaining about six 
days, and when they had almost disposed of 
their different articles of commerce, the king's 
daughter, whom both nations agree in calling 
Io, came among a great number of other wo- 
men, to visit them at their station. Whilst these 
females, standing near the stern of the vessel, 
amused themselves with bargaining for such 
things as attracted their curiosity, the Phoeni- 
cians, in conjunction, made an attempt to seize 
their persons. The greater part of them es- 
caped, but Io remained a captive, with many 
others. They carried them on board, and di- 
rected their course for Egypt. 

II. The relation of the Greeks differs essen- 
tially : but this, according to the Persians, was 
the cause of Io's arrival in Egypt, and the first 
act of violence which was committed. In pro- 
cess of time, certain Grecians, concerning whose 
country writers disagree, but who were really 
of Crete, are reported to have touched at Tyre, 
and to have carried away Europa,, the daughter of 
the prince. Thus far the Greeks had only re- 
taliated : 3 but they were certainly guilty of the 
second provocation. They made a voyage in 
a vessel of war s to Ma, a city of Colchos, near 
the river Phasis ; and, after having accomplish- 
ed the more immediate object of their expedi- 
tion, they forcibly carried off the king's daugh- 
ter, Medea. The king of Colchos despatched 
a herald to demand satisfaction for the affront, 
and the restitution of the princess ; but the 

1 Greece.] — The region known by the name of Hellas 
or Greece, in the time of Herodotus, was, previous to the 
Trojan war, and indeed long afterwards, only discrimi- 
nated by the names of its different inhabitants. Homer 
speaks of the Danaans, Argives, Achaians, &c. but never 
gives these people the general name of Greeks.— Lar- 
cher. 

2 Thus far the Greeks had only retaliated.] — The edi- 
tor is in possession of a translation of the two first books 
of Herodotus, published in London so early as the year 
1584. It is in black letter, and may be considered as a 
great curiosity. The above passage is thus rendered : 
" It chaunced afterward, that certaine Greekes, whose 
names they knew not, taking shore and landing at Ty- 
rus, in like manner made a rape of the kinges daughter, 
named Europa. These were the people of Crete, other- 
wise called the Cretenses. By which meanes yt was 
cardes and cardes betweene them, the one beyng full 
meete and quit with the other." — The first Booke of Clio, 
London, 1584. 

3 In a vessel ofwar.~] — Literally in a long vessel. — The 
long vessels were vessels of war, the round vessels, mer- 
chantmen avl transports. — T. 



Greeks replied, that they should make no re- 
paration in the present instance, as the violence 
formerly offered to Io 4 remained still unexpiated. 

III. In the age which followed, Alexander, 
the son of Priam, encouraged by the memory 
of these events, determined on obtaining a wife 
from Greece, by means of similar violence ; 
fully persuaded that this, like former wrongs, 
would never be avenged. 

Upon the loss of Helen, the Greeks at first 
employed messengers to demand her person, as 
well as a compensation for the affront. All 
the satisfaction they received was reproach for 
the injury which had been offered to Medea ; 
and they were farther asked, how, under cir- 
cumstances entirely alike, they could reason- 
ably require, what they themselves had denied. 

IV. Hitherto the animosity betwixt the two 
nations extended no farther than to acts of per- 
sonal and private violence. But at this period, 
continue the Persians, the Greeks certainly 
laid the foundation of subsequent contention : 
who, before the Persians ever invaded Europe, 
doubtless made military incursions into Asia. 
The Persians appear to be of opinion, that they 
who offer violence to women must be insensi- 
ble to the impressions of humanity and justice, 
but that such provocations are as much beneath 
revenge, as the women themselves are unde- 
serving of regard : it being obvious, that all the 
females thus circumstanced must have been 
more or less accessary 5 to the fact. They as- 
serted also, that although women had been for- 
cibly carried away from Asia, they had never 



4 Violence formerly offered to Io.~\ — It may be urged 
that the king of Colchos had nothing to do with the vio- 
lence offered to Io ; she was carried off by the Phoenici- 
ans. But, according to the Persians, all the rations of 
Asia composed but one body, of which they were the 
head. Any injury, therefore, offered to one of the mem- 
bers, was considered as an hostility against the whole. 
Thus, as we see in a succeeding paragraph, the Persians 
considered the Greeks as their enemies, from the time of 
the destruction of Troy. — Larcher. 

5 More or less accessary, %c.~\ — Plutarch, who has writ- 
ten an essay expressly to convict Herodotus of malignity, 
introduces this as the first argument of the truth of lii$ 
accusation. The Greeks, says he, unanimously affirm, 
that Io had divine honours paid her by the Barbarians ; 
that many seas and capacious harbours were called after 
her name ; that to her many illustrious families owe their 
original : yet this celebrated writer does not hesitate to 
say of her, that she suffered herself to be enjoyed by a 
Phoenician mariner, with whom she fled, from the fear 
of being disgraced by the publication of her crime. He 
afterwards endeavours to throw an odium on the most 
illustrious actions of his countrymen, by intimating that 
the Trojan war was undertaken on account of a profli- 
gate woman. " For it is evident," says he, " that these 
women would have been never carried away except with 
their own consent." — Plutarch on the malignity of Hero- 
dotus. 



CLIO. 



resented the affront. The Greeks, on the con- 
trary, to avenge the rape of a Lacedaemonian 
woman, had assembled a mighty fleet, entered 
Asia in a hostile manner, and had totally over- 
thrown the empire of Priam. Since which 
event they had esteemed themselves justified 
in considering the Greeks as the public ene- 
mies of their nation. It is to be observed, that 
the Persians esteem Asia, with all its various 
and barbarous inhabitants, as their own pecu- 
liar possession, considering Europe and Greece 
as totally distinct and unconnected. 

V. The above is the Persian tradition ; who 
date the cause and origin of their enmity to 
Greece from the destruction of Troy. What 
relates to Io is denied by the Phoenicians ; who 
affirm that she was never forcibly carried into 
Egypt. They assert, that during their con- 
tinuance at Argos, she had an illicit connection 
with the pilot of their vessel, 6 and proving 
pregnant, she voluntarily accompanied them to 
Egypt, to avoid the detection of her crime and 
the indignation of her parents. Having now 
stated the different representations of the Per- 
sians and. Phoenicians, I shall not detain the 
reader by an investigation of the truth of either 
narrative. I shall commence with an account 
of that personage, of whose first attacks upon 
Greece there exists the most unquestionable 
testimony. I shall, as I proceed, describe with 
some minuteness the smaller cities and larger 
communities : for, many of these, at present 
possessed neither of opulence nor power, were 
formerly splendid and illustrious ; others have, 
even within my remembrance, risen from hu- 
mility to grandeur. From my conviction, there- 
fore, of the precarious nature of human felicity, "' 
these shall all be respectively described. 



6 Connection with the pilot of their vessel'} — I make no 
apology for inserting the following singular translation 
of the above passage : — With whose assertions the Phce- 
nices agree not aboute the lady Io ; whom they flatly 
denye to have beene caryed by them into iEgipt in man- 
ner of a rape : she win ge howe that in their abode at Ar- 
gos, shee fortuned to close with the mayster of a shippe, 
and feelynge herselfe to bee spedde, fearynge and doubt- 
inge greatlye the severitye and cruel tyrannie of her pa- 
rentes, and the detection of her owne follye, shee willing- 
lye toke shippe and fledde strayght awaye." — Clio. b. 1. 

7 Precarious nature of human felicity.'} — This moral 
reflection of Herodotus cannot fail of bringing to mind 
the consolatory letter written from Greece, by Sulpicius 
to Cicero, on the death of Tullia the orator's daughter. 
At the distance of more than four hundred years from 
the time of Herodotus, Sulpicius thus expresses himself 
on a similar occasion : — " On my return from Asia, as I 
was sailing from JEgina towards Megara, I could not 
help looking round on the circumjacent country. Be- 
hind me was iEgina, before me Megara, Piraeus on my 
right hand, Corinth on my left ; all which places, formerly 



VI. Croesus, by descent a Lydian, was the 
son of Alyattes, and sovereign of those coun- 
tries which lie on this side of the river Halys. 
This stream, in its passage from the south * 
towards the north, passes through Syria 9 and 
Paphlagonia 10 and finally empties itself into the 
Euxine. Croesus, we have reason to believe, was 
the first of the barbarian princes who exacted tri- 
bute from some nations of Greece, and entered 
into leagues of amity with others. Before his 
time, the Greeks were universally free : he, 
however, subdued the iEolians, the Ionians, 
with such of the Dorians as are situate in Asia, 
whilst he formed a friendly alliance with the La- 
cedaemonians. It appears that the incursion of 
the Cimmerians " into Ionia, was before the 



flourislung and happy, now laid before my eyes prostrate 
and in rums, &c." The whole letter is eminently beau, 
tiful, and I lament that it is beyond our limits to tran- 
scribe it. — T. 

8 This stream, in its passage from the south.} — There 
are different opinions concerning the course of this river. 
Arrian says, that it does not flow from the south, but from 
the east. This author having in his mind the place of the 
sun's rising in the winter, accuses Herodotus of a mis- 
take in the passage before us. Wesseling had the 
same idea, who nevertheless has not solved the difficulty. 
The truth is, there were two rivers of this name, the one 
rising from the south, the other from the east. Hero 
dotus speaks of the first, Arrian of the last. D' Anville is 
of the same opinion. — Larcher. 

9 Syria.}— Syria was at that time the name of Cappa- 
docia. See chapter lxxvi. — T. 

10 Paphlagonia.} — It may appear matter of surprise 
to some, that Herodotus should make the Syrians border 
on the Paphlagonians. But by the Syrians, Herodotxis 
here means the Cappadocians, called by the Greeks Leu- 
co-or White-Syrians. This is obvious from Strabo, as 
well as from Herodotus himself, in his second book. — 
Palmerius. 

11 Cimineriam.} — Strabo dates this incursion of the 
Cimmerians about the time of Homer, or somewhat be- 
fore. Wesseling thinks, and with reason, the authority 
of the geographer of less weight than that of our histori- 
an, who supposes it to have been in the reign of Ardyis. 
See chap. xv. of this Book : and chap. xii. of Book IV. 
For my own part, I am of opinion that the two authors 
speak of two distinct incursions. Herodotus refers to the 
last. At the time of the first there were no Greek cities 
in Asia Minor ; and it was his intention to intimate, that 
the last had no operation injurious to the liberties of 
Greece. — Larcher. 

Many learned men are of opinion, that the Cimmerians 
were the descendants of the scripture Gomer. The rea- 
sons alleged are of this nature. In the genealogical table 
of Moses, we are told that Gomer was the son of Japhet. 
The Scholiasts, and those of them too which are most 
authentic, say, that Cimmeris was the son of Japetus. 
Japetus is by Apollodorus said to be the son of Ccelum 
and Terra, that is of Noah, who was called Vir Terra?. 
On Cimmerian darkness, see book iv. c 1. n. The Greek 
Ki,u^oi , means a mist or darkness, and Cimmerius, the 
Latin derivative, is applied to any thing dark or black. 
Strabo says that the soil of their country was black, from 
excessive heat ; but this could not be peculiar to the 
country of the Cimmerians, it was probably common to 
other lauds affected by the same cause. — T. 



HERODOTUS. 



time of Croesus ; but their sole object was 
plunder, and none of the cities were molested. 

VII. The family of Croesus were termed the 
Mermnadae ; and it may be proper to relate by 
what means the empire descended to them from 
the Heraclidae. Candaules, whom the Greeks 
call Myrsilus, was king of Sardis, and of the 
family of Alcaeus the son of Hercules '. The 
first of the Heraclidae was Agron 2 who reigned 
also at Sardis : he was the son of Ninus, the 
grandson of Belus, the great-grandson of 
Alcaeus. Candaules the son of Myrsus was 
the last of this race. The people of this dis- 
trict were in ancient times called Meonians ; 
they were afterwards named Lydians from Ly- 
dus the son of Atys. From him, before the 
time of Agron, the princes of the country de- 
rived their origin. The Heraclidae, descended 
from Hercules and a female slave of Jardanus 3 , 
enjoyed a delegated authority from these prin- 
ces, and afterwards obtained the supreme dig- 
nity from the declaration of an oracle. They 
retained their power in regular and uninter- 
rupted succession, from father to son, to the 
time of Candaules, a period equal to twenty- 
two ages of man 4 , being no less than five hun- 
dred and five years. 

VIII. Candaules 5 was attached to his wife 



1 AIccbus the son of Hercules'] — Concerning the name 
of the son of Hercules by the female slave of Jardanus, 
Diodorus Siculus and our historian are at variance. 
Herodotus calls him Alcaeus, Diodorus says his name 
was Cleoalus. But it is by no means surprising, that in 
matters of such remote antiquity writers should disagree. 
Apollodorus contradicts both Herodotus and Diodorus, 
and makes Croesus not one of the Mermnadae, but one of 
the Heraclidae, born of Agelaus son of Hercules by Om- 
phale. Diodorus calls the son of Hercules, by Omphale, 
Lacon. I presume not to decide in this controversy, but 
with me the authority of Herodotus has the greatest 
weight. — Palmerius. 

2 Agron] — Thus the best manuscripts spell this name. 
Julius Pollux says, that Ninus son of Belus, called his son 
Agron because he was born in the country. — Larcher. 

3 Jardanus.] — In contradiction to both Herodotus and 
Diodorus Siculus, Palaephatus de Incredibilibus writes 
Jordanus. — T. 

4 Twenty-two ages of man.]— For twenty-two, Lar- 
cher reads fifteen ages. — That it ought to be so we are 
ready enough to believe, and his arguments on the sub- 
ject are clear, ingenious, and convincing; but having 
no authority for this reading in any edition which we 
have had the opportunity of consulting, it was thought 
proper literally to translate the text. — T. 

5 Candaules.] — The story of Rosamond, queen of the 
Lombards, as recited by Mr Gibbon, bears so exact are- 
semblance to this of Candaules, that we are unable to 
forego the pleasure of transcribing it, — " The queen of 
Italy stooped from her throne to the arms of a subject : 
and Helmichis, the king's armour bearer, was the secret 
minister of her pleasure and revenge. Against the pro- 
posal of the murder he could no longer urge the scruples 
of fidelity or gratitude ; but Hehnichis trembled when he 



beyond the common limits of affection, and 
conceived, in the ardour of his passion, that her 
beauty was beyond all competition. Among 
those who attended near his person, Gyges the 
son of Dascylus had rendered him essential ser- 
vice, and was honoured by his particular confi- 
dence. To him he frequently extolled the 
beauty of his wife in exaggerated terms. Under 
the influence of a most fatal delusion, he took 
an opportunity of thus addressing him • " Gy- 
ges, I am satisfied, that we receive less convic- 
tion from what we hear, than from what we 
see e , and as you do not seem to credit all I tell 
you of my wife's personal accomplishments, I 
am determined that you shall see her naked." 
" Suffer me," replied Gyges, " to remonstrate 
against the imprudence of your proposal. Re- 
member, Sir, that with her clothes a woman 



revolved the danger, as well as the guilt. He pressed, 
and obtained, that one of the bravest champions of the 
Lombards should be associated to the enterprize ; btit no 
more than a promise of secrecy could be drawn from the 
gallant Perideus. — The mode of seduction employed by 
Rosamond, betrays her shameless insensibility both to 
honour and to love. She supplied the place of one of her 
female attendants who was beloved by Peridius, and 
contrived some excuse for darkness and silence, till she 
could inform her companion, that he had enjoyed the 
queen of the Lombards, and that his own death, or the 
death of the king, must be the consequence of such trea- 
sonable adultery. In this alternative he chose rather to 
be the accomplice than the victim of Rosamond, whose 
undaunted spirit was incapable of fear or remorse." — 
Gibbon. 

6 From what we hear, than from what we see.] — 
Dionysius Halicarnassensis remarks on this passage, 
that Herodotus here, introducing a barbarian to notice, 
makes use of a figurative expression peculiarly appropri- 
ate to Barbarians ; substituting the ears and the eyes for 
the discourse and sight of objects. 

Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem 

Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus — Hor. Ars Poet. 180. 
Polybius coincides in part with our lustorian, when he ad- 
vances, that nature having provided us with two instru- 
ments, if they may be so termed, of the senses, hearing 
and sight, the latter, according to Heraclitus, is the most 
certain,the eyesbeingmore decisive evidence than the ears. 
This is in many respects true ; but Theophrastus has 
sagaciously remarked, according to Plutarch, that of all 
the senses the ear is that by which the passions may be 
the most easily excited. — Larcher. 

Our veneration for the ancients, however, must not 
prevent us from perceiving, that both the above remarks 
want solidity. The truth is, that we do not more im- 
plicitly believe our eyes than our ears, or the contrary, 
except in those cases which respectively demand the tes- 
timony of either organs. It should be remembered, that 
when any thing is related to us, our ears give no kind of 
testimony concerning the fact, they inform us only that 
such words are spoken to us : after which, if what is re- 
lated be an object of sight, we wish to appeal to our eyes 
for proof ; if an object of hearing, to our ears ; if of taste, 
smell, or touch, to the organs formed for such decision : 
aDd this is the sole ground of preference in any case. 
The remark of Horace rests on a different foundation, 
and is very just— T. 



CLIO. 



puts off her modesty 7 . Many are the precepts 
recorded by the sages for our instruction, but 
there is none more entitled to our regard than 
that, ' it becomes a man to look into those 
things only which concern himself.' I give im- 
plicit confidence to your assertions, I am will- 
ing to believe my mistress the most beautiful 
of her sex ; but I beg you not to repeat a request 
with which it will be criminal to comply." 

IX. Gyges, from apprehension of the event, 
would have persevered in his refusal ; but the 
king could not be dissuaded from his purpose. 
" Gyges," he resumed, " you have nothing to 
fear from me or from your mistress ; I do not 
want to make experiment of your fidelity, and 
I shall render it impossible for the queen to 
detect you. I myself will place you behind an 
open door of the apartment in which we sleep. 
As soon as I enter, my wife will make her ap- 
pearance ; it is her custom to undress herself 
at leisure, and to place her garments one by one 
in a chair near the entrance. You will have 
the fairest opportunity of contemplating her per- 
son. As soon as she approaches the bed, and her 
face is turned from you, you must be careful to 
leave the room without being discovered." 

X. Gyges had no alternative but compliance. 
At the time of retiring to rest, he accompa- 
nied Candaules to his chamber, and the queen 
soon afterwards appeared. He saw her enter, 
and gradually disrobe herself. She approached 
the bed ; and Gyges endeavoured to retire, but 
the queen saw and knew him. She instantly 
conceived her husband to be the cause of her 
disgrace, and determined on revenge. She had 
the presence of mind to restrain the emotions 
of her wounded delicacy, and to seem entirely 
ignorant of what had happened; although, 
among all the Barbarian nations 8 , and among 
the Lydians in particular, for even a man to be 
seen naked, is deemed a matter of the greatest 
turpitude. 

7 With her clothes a woman puts off her modesty.] — 
We can by no means, says Plutarch, in his Conjugal Pre- 

y epts, allow this saying of Herodotus to be true : for 
surely, at this time, a modest woman is most effectually 
veiled by bashfulness, when the purest but most diffident 

/ affection proves, in the privacy of matrimonial retire- 
ment, the surest testimony of reciprocal love. — T. 

Timaeus in Athenams affirms, that the Tyrrhenians ac- 
customed themselves to be waited upon by naked wo- 
men ; and Theopompus, in the same author, adds, that in 
the above-mentioned nation it was by no means disgrace- 
ful for women to appear naked amongst men. — Larcher, 

8 Among all the barbarian nations.] — Plato informs 
us, that the Greeks had not long considered it as a thing 
equally disgraceful and ridiculous for a man to be seen 
naked ; an opinion, says he, which still exists amongst 
the greater part of the Barbarians. — Larcher. 



XI. The queen persevered in the strictest 
silence ; and, having instructed some confiden- 
tial servants for the occasion, she sent in the 
morning for Gyges. He, not at all suspicious 
of the event, complied instantly with the mes- 
sage, as he was accustomed to do at other 
times, and appeared before his mistress. 9 As 
soon as he came into her presence, she thus 
addressed him : " Gyges, I submit two propo- 
sals to your choice; you must either destroy 
Candaules, and take possession of me and of 
the kingdom, or expect immediate death. 
Your unqualified obedience to your master, 
may prompt you to be once again a spectator of 
what modesty forbids : the king has been the 
author of my disgrace ; you also in seeing me 
naked, have violated decorum ; and it is neces- 
sary that one of you should die." Gyges, af- 
ter he had somewhat recovered from his aston- 
ishment, implored her not to compel him to so 
delicate and difficult an alternative. But when 
he found that all expostulations were in vain, 
and that he must either put Candaules to death, 
or die himself, he chose rather to be the survi- 
vor. " Since my master must perish," he re- 
plied, " and, notwithstanding my reluctance, by 
my hands, by what means can your purpose be 
accomplished?" "The deed," she answered, 
" shall be perpetrated in that very place which 
was the scene of my disgrace. You shall kill 
my husband in his sleep." 

8 XII. Their measures were accordingly con- 



To the above remark of Larcher may be added, that, 
according to Plutarch, it was amongst the institutes of 
Lycurgus, that the young women of Sparta should dance 
naked at their solemn feasts and sacrifices; at which 
time also they were accustomed to sing certain songs, 
whilst the young men stood in a circle about them, to 
see and hear them.— T. 

9 Appeared before his mistress.]— The wife of Candau- 
les, whose name Herodotus forbears to mention, was, 
according to Hephaestion, called Nyssia. Authors are 
divided in their account of tliis Gyges, and of the man- 
ner in which he slew Candaules. Plato makes him a 
shepherd in the service of the Lydian king, who was 
possessed of a ring which he found on the finger of a dead 
man inclosed within a horse of bronze. The shepherd, 
learning the property which this ring had, to render him 
invisible when the seal was turned to the inside of his 
hand, got himself deputed to the court by his fellows, 
where he seduced the queen, and assassinated Candau- 
les. Xenophon says he was a slave ; but this is not in- 
consistent with the account of Plato, were it in other re- 
spects admissible. Plutarch pretends, that Gyges took up 
arms against Candaules, assisted by the Milesians. The 
opinion of Herodotus seems preferable to the rest : born in 
a city contiguous to Lydia, no person could be better quali- 
fied to represent what relates to that kingdom.— Larcher. 

8 Upon the event recorded in this chapter, the firste 
booke of Clio has this curious remark in the margin : " The 
Divil in old tyme a disposer of kingdomes, and since the 
Pope."— T. 



HERODOTUS. 



certed : Gyges bad no opportunity of escape, | 
nor of evading the alternative before proposed. 
At the approach of night, the queen conducted 
him to her chamber, and placed him behind the 
same door, with a dagger in his hand. Can- 
daules. was murdered in his sleep, and Gyges 
took immediate possession of his wife and of 
the empire. Of the above event, Archilochus ' 
of Paros, who lived about the same period, has 
made mention in some Iambic verses. 

XIII. A declaration of the Delphic oracle, 
confirmed Gyges in his possession of the sove- 
reignty. The Lydians resented the fate of 
Candaules, and had recourse to arms. A stipu- 
lation was at length made betwixt the different 
parties, that if the oracle decided in favour of 
Gyges, he should continue on the throne ; if 
otherwise, it should revert to the Heraclidae. 
Although Gyges retained the supreme author- 
ity, the words of the oracle expressly intimated, 
that the Heraclidae should be avenged in the 
person of the fifth descendant of Gyges. To 
this prediction, until it was ultimately accom- 
plished, neither prince nor people paid the 
smallest attention. Thus did the Mermnadae 
obtain the empire, to the injurious exclusion of 
the Heraclidae. 

XIV. Gyges, as soon as he was established 
in his authority, sent various presents to Del- 
phi, a a considerable quantity of which were of 



1 Archilochus.'} — As without these concluding lines 
the sense would be complete, many have suspected them 
to have been inserted by some copyist. Scaliger has rea- 
soned upon them, as if Herodotus meant to intimate, 
that because Archilochus makes mention of Gyges in his 
verses, he must have lived at the same period ; but this 
by no means follows. 

Of Archilochus, Quintilian remarks, that he was one 
of the first writers of Iambics ; that his verses were re- 
markable for their ingenuity, their elegant style, and 
nervous sentiment. Book x. chap. 1. — He is also hon- 
ourably mentioned by Horace, who confesses that he 
imitates him. See 19th Epistle, Book 1st. Ovid, if the 
Ibis be his, speaks too of the Parian poet. Cicero, in his 
Tusculan Questions, says, that he lived in the time of 
Romulus. His compositions were so extremely licen- 
tious, that the Lacedaemonians ordered them to be re- 
moved from their city, and Archilochus himself to 
be banished. He was afterwards killed in some military 
excursion, by a person of the name of Coracus. Who- 
ever wishes to have a more particular account of Ar- 
chilochus, may consult Lilius Gyraldus de Poetar. His- 
tor. dialog, ix. chap. 14. 

2 Presents to Delp7ii.} — Amongst the subjects of liter- 
ary controversy betwixt Boyle and Bentley, this was 
one : Boyle defended Delphos, principally from its being 
the common usage ; Bentley rejects Delphos as a barbar- 
ism, it being merely the accusative case of Delphi. He 
tells a story of a popish priest, who for thirty years bad 
read mumpsimus in his breviary, instead of sumpsimus ; 
and, when a learned man told him of his blunder, re- 
plied, I will not change my old mumpsimus, for your 



silver. Among other marks of his liberality, 
six golden goblets, 3 which weighed no less 
than thirty talents, deserve particular mention. 
These now stand in the treasury of Corinth ; 
though, in strict truth, that treasure was not 
given by the people of Corinth, but by Cypse- 
lus the son of Eetion. 4 This Gyges was the 
first of the Barbarians whose history we know, 
who made votive offerings to the oracle, after 
Midas the son of Gordius, 5 king of Phrygia. 
Midas consecrated to this purpose his own roy- 
al throne, a most beautiful specimen of art, 
from which he himself was accustomed to ad- 
minister justice. This was deposited in the 
same place with the goblets of Gyges to whose 
offerings of gold and . silver the Delphians as- 
signed the name of the donor. Gyges, as soon 
as he succeeded to the throne, carried his arms 
against Miletus and Smyrna, and took the city 
Colophon. Although he reigned thirty-eight 
years, he performed no other remarkable ex- 
ploit : we shall proceed, therefore, to speak of 
his son and successor, Ardys. 

XV. This prince vanquished the Prienians, 
and attacked Miletus. During his reign, the 
Cimmerians, being expelled their country by 
the Nomades of Scythia, passed over into Asia, 
and possessed themselves of all Sardis, except 
the citadel. 

XVI. After reigning forty-nine years, he was 
succeeded by his son Sadyattes, who reigned 



new sumpsimus. From a similar mistake in the old edi- 
tions of the Bible in Henry the Eighth's time, it was 
printed Asson and Mileton ; under Queen Elizabeth, it 
was changed into Asson and Miletum ; but in the reign of 
James the first, it was rectified to Assos and Miletus. — 
Swift made a point of always writing Delphos, upon 
which Jortin facetiously remarks, that he should have 
submitted to reason, and received instruction from 
whatever quarter it came ; from Wooton, from Bentley, 
or from Beelzebub. — T. See Bentley on Phalaris. 

3 Six golden goblets.~\— In the time of Herodotus, the 
proportion of silver to gold was as one to thirteen : these 
six goblets, therefore, were equivalent to 2,106,000 livres. 
The calculations of Herodotus differ in some respects 
from those of Diodorus Siculus. — Voyage de Jeune Ana. 
charsis. 

Alyattes and Croesus obtained their wealth from some 
mines in Lydia situated between Atarna and Pergamos. 
The riches of Gyges were proverbial, and were men- 
tioned in the verses of Archilochus : those of Croesus ef- 
fectually surpassed them. 

Divitis audita est cui non opulentia Croesi— Ovid. 

Larcher 

4 But by Cypselus the son of Eetion.} — In the temple 
at Delphi were certain different apartments or chapels, 
belonging to different cities, princes, or opulent individ- 
uals. The offerings which these respectively made to 
the deity, were here deposited.— Larcher. 

5 Midas the son of Gordius.} — There were in Phrygia 
a number of princes called after these names, as is sutti- 
ciently proved by Boulder. — Larcher. 



CLIO. 



twelve years. After him, his son Alyattes pos- 
sessed the throne. He carried on war against 
Cyaxares 6 the grandson of Deioces, drove the 
Cimmerians out of Asia, took Smyrna, which 
Colophon '' had huilt, and invaded Clazomenae. 
In his designs upon this place he was disap- 
pointed ; but he performed, in the course of his 
reign, many very memorable actions. 

XVII. He resumed against the Milesians, 
the war which his father had commenced ; and 
he conducted it in this manner : — As the time 
of harvest approached, he marched an army in- 
to their country, to the sound of the pastoral 
pipe, harp, and flutes masculine and feminine. ti 
On his arrival in their territories, he neither 
burned, nor in any respect injured, their edifi- 
ces which stood in the fields ; but he totally 
destroyed the produce of their lands, and then 
returned. As the Milesians were securely sit- 
uated near the sea, all attack upon their city 
would probably have proved ineffectual. His 
motive for not destroying their buildings was, 
that they might be induced again to cidtivate 
their lands and that on every repetition of his 
incursions he might be secure of plunder. 

XVIII. In this manner was the war pro- 
tracted during a period of eleven years; in which 
time the Milesians received two remarkable de- 
feats, one in a pitched battle at Limeneium, 
within their own territories, another on the 
plains of Meander. Six of these eleven years, 
Sadyattes the son of Ardys reigned over the 
Lydians : he commenced the Milesian war, 
which his son Alyattes afterwards continued 
with increase of ardour. The Milesians, in 
this contest, received no assistance from any of 
their neighbours, except from Chios. The in- 
habitants of Chios offered their support, in re- 
turn for the aid which they had formerly re- 
ceived from the Milesians, in a Avar with the 
Erythrseans. 

6 Against Cyaxares.]— Tins is perfectly consistent. 
Phraortes, the father of Cyaxares, reigned in Media at 
the same time that Ardys, grandfather of Alyattes, sat 
on the throne of Sardis. — Larcher. 

7 Colophon.]— Gyges had taken Colophon, about which 
time doubtless a colony deserted it, and settled at Smyr- 
na. Kti^si, as Wesseling properly observes, is continu- 
ally used for, to send out a colony. In chap. cl. it is said, 
that some Colophonians, banished for sedition, had set- 
tled at Smyrna. If he alludes to the same emigrants, 
their sedition was probably against Gyges, after his con- 
quest ; but these could hardly be numerous or respecta- 
ble enough to deserve the name of a colony. — T. 

8 Flutes masculine and feminine.] — Aulus Gellius says, 
that Alyattes had in his army female players on the flute. 
Larcher is of opinion, that Herodotus alludes only to the 
different kinds of flutes mentioned in Terence, or per- 
haps to the Lydian and Phrygian flutes, the sound of 
one of which was grave, of the other acute. — T. 



XIX. In the twelfth year of the war, the fol- 
lowing event happened, in consequence of the 
corn being set on fire by the enemy's army. A 
sudden wind directed the progress of the flames 
against the temple of the Assesian Minerva, tf 
and entirely consumed it. It was not at first 
considered as a matter of any importance ; but 
after the return of the army to Sardis, Alyattes 
was seized with a severe and lingering disease. 
From the impulse of his own mind, or from 
the persuasion of his friends he sent to make 
inquiries of the oracle concerning his recovery. 
On the arrival of his messengers, they were in- 
formed, that till the temple of the Assesian 
Minerva, which they had consumed by fire, 
should be restored, no answer would be given 
them. 

XX. Of this circumstance I myself was in- 
formed at Delphi ; but the Milesians add more. 
They inform us, that Periander the son of 
Cypselus, when he heard the answer given to 
Alyattes, despatched an emissary to Thrasybu- 
lus king of Miletus, with whom he was inti- 
mately connected, desiring him to pay suitable 
attention to the present emergence. This is 
the Milesian narrative. 

XXI. Alyattes, on the return of his mes- 
sengers, despatched an herald to Miletus, whose 
commission was, to make a truce with Thrasy- 
bulusfor such time as might be required to repair 
the temple. Thrasybulus, in consequence ot 
the intimation he had received, was aware of 
the intentions of Alyattes, and conducted him- 
self in this manner ; All the corn which was 
found, or could be procured at Miletus, was, 
by his direction, collected in the most public 
place of the city : he then ordered the Milesi- 
ans, at an appointed period, to commence a 
scene of feasting and convivial mirth ,u . 



9 Assesian Minerva.] — Assesos was a small town de- 
pendent on Miletus. Minerva here had a temple, and 
hence took the name of the Assesian Minerva. This 
deity was then called the Minerva of Assesos, as we say, 
at the present day, the Virgin of Loretto. — Larcher. 

The Virgin, in the Romish church, certainly resembles, 
in all respects, a heathen tutelary divinity ; and affords 
one of those instances of similarity between one worship 
and the other, so well illustrated in Middleton's cele- 
brated Letter from Rome. — T. 

10 Convivial mirth.] — Many stratagems of a similarna- 
ture with this of Thrasybulus may be found in the strat- 
agemata of Polyaenus ; a book not so well known as it 
merits. A similar artifice is recorded of one of the Ro- 
man generals, I forget which, who, though reduced to the 
extremest want, ordered all the bread they had remain- 
ing, after a long siege, to be tin-own over the walls 
among the enemy. The besiegers, fatigued and exhaust- 
ed, imagined that their opponents were prepared to hold 
out much longer, and hastily retired. See also Ca-.-ar, in 
his account of the civil war, book iii, 18, where he tell* 



8 



HERODOTUS. 



XXII. Thrasybulus intended the Sardian 
ambassador should inform his master of the 
scene of festivity, and of the abundance of pro- 
visions he had beheld. He was not disappoint- 
ed : the herald witnessed the above-mentioned 
spectacle, delivered his message, and returned to 
Sardis. This, as I have been informed, was 
the sole occasion of the peace which ensued. 

Alyattes had imagined, that the Milesians 
suffered exceedingly from the scarcity of corn, 
and were reduced to extreme distress. The 
return of his messenger convinced him he had 
been mistaken. A strict alliance was imme- 
diately formed betwixt the two nations : instead 
of one, Alyattes erected two temples to Min- 
erva, and was soon afterwards restored to 

health The above is a faithful account of the 

war betwixt Alyattes and the Milesians. 

XXIII. Periander, the son of Cypselus, 
who communicated to Thrasybulus the reply of 
the oracle, was king of Corinth. A most won- 
derful incident is said by the Corinthians to 
have happened in his time, and the story is 
confirmed by the Lesbians. It is asserted, 
that Arion the Methymnaean was carried to 
Tsenarus on the back of a dolphin. » He ex- 
celled all his cotemporaries in his exquisite 
performance on the harp ; and we have rea- 
son to suppose he was the first who invented, 
named, and taught at Corinth, the Dithyrambic 
measure 8 . 

XXIV. After residing for a considerable 
time at the court of Periander, he was desirous 
of visiting Italy and Sicily. Acquiring there 
considerable wealth, he wished to return with 
it to Corinth : with this view, he embarked at 
Tarentum in a Corinthian vessel, preferring 
the mariners of that nation. As soon as they 
stood out to sea the sailors determined to des- 
troy Arion, for the sake of his riches. He 
discerned their intentions, and offered them his 
money to preserve his life. The men were 

us, that his soldiers made bread of a root called 
chara, adding, ex hoc effectos panes, quum in colloquiis 
Ponipeiani famem nostris objectarent, vulgo in eos jacie- 
bant, ut spem eorum minuerent. 

1 Re excelled.] — Arion, it seems, was a citharaedus, 
which differed from the citharistes in this : the former 
accompanied his instrument with his voice ; the latter 
did not. 

2 Dithyrambic measure,] — This was a kind of verse 
or hymn in honour of Bacchus, or in praise of drinking ; 
it was a rude and perplexed composition, replete with 
figurative and obscure expressions. — Bellanger. 

Clemens of Alexandria affirms, that the inventor of 
the Dithyrambic was Lassus or Lasus of Hermione. It 
should seem, however, from Pindar and his 'scholiast, 
that this species of poetry is so very ancient that its ori- 
ginal inventor cannot be ascertained.— Larcher. 



obdurate, and insisted that he should either kill 
himself, that they might bury him on shore 3 , 
or leap instantly into the sea. Reduced to this 
extremity, he entreated, that if they would not 
spare his life, they would at least suffer him to 
decorate himself in his most valuable clothes, 
and to give them a specimen of his art in sing- 
ing ; promising, that as soon as he had finished, 
he would destroy himself. They were anxious 
to hear a man, reputed the greatest performer 
in the world, and, in compliance with his request, 
retired from him, to the centre of their vessel. 
He accordingly dressed himself sumptuously, 
and, standing on the side of the ship with his 
harp in his hand, he sang to them a species of 
song, termed Orthian 4 . As soon as he had 
finished, he threw himself dressed as he was in- 
to the sea. The mariners pursued their course 
to Corinth ; but he, it is affirmed 5 , was ta- 
ken up by a dolphin and carried to Taenarus. 
As soon as he got on shore, he went, without 
changing his dress, to Corinth, and on his arri- 
val told what had befallen him. Periander 
disbelieved his story : and, keeping him in close 
custody, endeavoured to find out the crew. As 
soon as he had met with them, he inquired if 
they could give him any intelligence of Arion ; 
they replied, that his excursion to Italy had 
been successful, and that they had left him well 
at Tarentum. Arion then appeared, dressed 
as they had seen him leap into the sea : over- 
come with terror at the circumstance, they con- 
fessed their crime. This event is related both 
by the Corinthians and the Lesbians ; and 
there remains at Tsenarus a small figure in brass 
of a man seated on a dolphin's back, the votive 
offering of Ariort himself. 



3 Bury him on shore.] — This passage which perplexed 
the learned Reiske, seems to me sufficiently clear. The 
sailors indirectly promised Arion that they would bury 
him, if he would be the instrument of his own death. — 
Wesseling. 

4 Orthian.]— -The Orthian hymn was an air performed 
either on a flute or cithara, in an elevated key and quick 
time. It was, therefore, peculiarly adapted to animate 
combatants. See Aulus Gellius. By this species of song, 
Timotheus so inflamed the ardour of Alexander, that he 
instantly leaped up and called for his arms. See Eusta- 
thius. See also, Dryden's Ode on St Csecilia's day.— Max- 
imus Tyrius says, that to excite military ardour, the 
Orthian song was peculiarly adapted, as that called Pa- 
raenion was for social and convivial occasions. See also 
Homer, Book xi. 

Thence the black fury through the Grecian throng 
With horror sounds the loud Orthian song — T. 
5 It is affirmed.]— Voltaire abuses Herodotus for tell- 
ing this story, as considering it true ; but surely without 
reason, as he by no means vouches for its truth. 

Gibbon, however, calls the story-telling tone of Her- 
odotus half sceptical and half superstitious.— T. 



CLIO. 



XXV. When he had put an end to the 
Milesian war, and after a reign of fifty-seven 
years, Alyattes died. He was the second of 
his family who made an offering at Delphi, 
which he did in consequence of his recovery 
from illness. He presented a large silver goblet, 
with a saucer of iron 6 , curiously inlaid ; it is 
of surprising workmanship, and as worthy of 
observation as any of the things preserved at 
Delphi. The name of the maker was Glau- 
cus, an inhabitant of Chios, and the inventor of 
this art of inlaying iron. 

XXVI. On the death of his father, Croesus 
succeeded to the throne ; he began to reign at 
the age of thirty-five, and he immediately 
commenced hostilities with the Ephesians. 
Whilst he besieged Ephesus ' with an army, 
the inhabitants made a solemn dedication of 
their city to Minerva, connecting by some liga- 
tuie 9 their walls to the temple of the goddess. 
This temple is at a distance of about seven sta- 
dia from the old town. Soon afterwards he 
attacked every state, both of the Ionians and 
the iEolians : the motives which he assigned 
were various, important in some instances, but, 
when such could not be found, frivolous pre- 
texts sufficed. 

XXVII. Not satisfied with compelling the 
Asiatic Greeks to render him tribute, he de- 
termined on building a fleet, to attack those 
who lived in the islands. From this purpose, 
although he had made great preparations, he 
was deterred by the memorable reply of Bias 9 
of Priene, who was at that time in Sardis ; or, 
as others say, of Pittacus 10 of Mitylene. Of 

6 Saucer of iron.] — This basin is mentioned in Pausa- 
nias, Book x : where also Glaucus is spoken of as the 
original inventor of the art. A further account of Glau- 
cus may be found in Junius de Pictura Veterum. — T. 

7 Whilst he besieged Ephesus.'] — The prince of Ephe- 
sus, at this time, was Pindar the nephew of Croesus ; the 
story is told at length by iElian, Book iii. chap. 26 T. 

8 By some ligature.] — The object of the ancients, by 
thus consecrating- their towns, was to detain the deities 
by a kind of force, and prevent their departure. It was 
believed, that when a city was on the point of being ta- 
ken, the deities abandoned it. — Lurcher. 

9 Bias.] — Diogenes Laertius, Plutarch, and Valerius 
Maxiraus, severally give an account of Bias. He was 
one of the seven wise men of Greece. Some fishermen 
found a golden tripod, upon which was inscribed, " To 
the wisest :" it was given to Bias, who sent it to Delphi. 
When his vanquished countrymen fled before the enemy, 
each took with him the most valuable part of his property. 
Bias took nothing : on being asked why, " I always 
carry," he replied, " my most valuable things with me," 
meaning his learning and abilities. — T. 

10 Pittacus.]— Pittacus of Mitylene was another of the 
neven wise men. His life is written by Diogenes Laer- 
tius. In a war betwixt the Athenians and the people of 
Mitylene, he challenged the enemy's general to single 



this person the king was inquiring whether 
there was any intelligence from Greece : " The 
islanders, Sir," he replied, " are about to form 
a body of ten thousand horse, with the inten- 
tion of attacking you at Sardis." The king, 
supposing him serious, said, that nothing would 
be more agreeable to him, than to see the 
islanders invading the continent of Lydia with 
cavalry. The other thus interrupted him : 
" Your wish to see the inhabitants of the is- 
lands pursue such measures, is certainly reason- 
able ; but do you not imagine, that the circum- 
stance of your building a fleet to attack the 
islanders, must give them equal satisfaction ? 
They can wish for no better opportunity of re- 
venging the cause of these Greeks on the con- 
tinent, reduced by you to servitude, than by 
meeting the Lydians on the ocean." The 
wisdom of the remark was acceptable to Croe- 
sus": he not only declined all thoughts of con- 
structing a fleet, but entered into an amicable 
alliance with the Ionians of the islands. 

XXVIII. He afterwards progressively sub- 
dued almost all the nations which are situate 
on this side the river Halys. The Cilicians 
and the Lycians alone, were not brought under 
his yoke j but he totally vanquished the Lydi- 
ans, Phrygians, Mysians, Mariandynians, 11 Cha- 
lybians, Paphlagonians, Thracians, Thynians, 
Bithynians, Carians, Ionians, Dorians, iEoli- 
ans, and Pamphylians. 

XXIX. After Croesus had obtained all these 
victories, and extended the power of the Ly- 
dians, Sardis became the resort of the great and 
the affluent, as well as of such as were celebrated 
in Greece for their talents and their wisdom. 
Among these was Solon: la at the request of the 
Athenians, he had formed a code of laws for their 
use. Pie had then engaged in a course of tra- 



combat, and with a net which he secretly brought, he 
entangled and easily conquered his adversary. From tlus 
circumstance, the contests of the retiarii and mirmillones 
are said first to have arisen. His most memorable say- 
ing was — " Endeavour to prevent calamity : if it happen, 
bear it with equanimity." — T. 

1 1 Mariandynians.] — These people were the inventors 
of the shrill pipe used at funerals, which was sometimes 
also called gingros (yyyz "?)• Hence M«f<«adwo? auXes, 
more Mariandyno vociferat. Pollux says this pipe was 
contrived by a Phoenician. — By a Phcemcian these authors 
seem to mean, one who spoke the eastern language, and 
not the Greek. iEschylus has the expression, Ma^tccvhvvov 
(3oa. — T 

12 Solon.] — To give a particular account of Solon, 
would exceed our limits. He was one of the seven wise 
men of Greece, born at Salamis ; and, according to Aulus 
Gellius, flourished at Athens, when Tarquinius Priscua 
reigned at Rome. He was a wise, but severe legislator, 
rescuing his countrymen from superstition, ignorance, 
and vice. His life is given at length by Plutarch.— T. 

B 



10 



HERODOTUS. 



vels, which was to be of ten years' continuance ; 
his avowed purpose was of a philosophical na- 
ture ; but his real object was to avoid the ne- 
cessity of abrogating the laws he had enacted. 
The Athenians were of themselves unable to 
do this, having bound themselves, by the most 
solemn oaths, to preserve inviolate, for ten 
years, the institutions of Solon. 

XXX. During his absence, Solon had visit- 
ed Amasis in iEgypt, and came now to Croe- 
sus, ' at Sardis. He was received on his arri- 
val with the kindest hospitality, and entertained 
in the palace of Croesus. In a few days, the 
king directed his servants to attend Solon to the 
different repositories of his wealth, and to show 
him their splendid and valuable contents. When 
he had observed them all, Croesus thus addressed 
him : — " My Athenian guest, the voice of fame 
speaks loudly of your wisdom. I have heard 
much of your travels ; that you have been led, 
by a truly philosophic spirit, to visit a consid- 
erable portion of the globe. I am hence in- 
duced to inquire of you, what man, of all you 
have beheld, has seemed to you most truly 
happy ?" The expectation of being himself es- 
teemed the happiest of mankind, prompted his 
inquiry. Solon proved by his reply, his at- 
tachment to truth, and abhorrence of flattery. 
" I think," said he, " O king, that Tellus the 
Athenian best deserved the appellation of hap- 
py." Croesus was astonished; " On what," he 
asked, " were the claims of Tellus, to this dis- 
tinction, founded ?" " Because," answered So- 
lon, " under the protection of a most excellent 
form of government, Tellus had many virtuous 
and amiable children ; he saw their offspring, 
and they all survived him : at the close of a 
prosperous life, we celebrated his funeral, with 
every circumstance of honour. In a contest 
with some of their neighbours, at Eleusis, he 
flew to the assistance of his countrymen : he 



1 Came now to Croesus.] — It is doubted by some au- 
thors, whether the interview which is here described, 
ever took place. The sagacious reply of Solon to Croesus 
has been introduced in a variety of compositions ancient 
and modern. See Juvenal, Sat. x. verse 273. See Au- 
sonius also, and Ovid. The dying speech of Julian, as 
given by Mr Gibbon, from Libanius, (vol. iv. p. 200, oc- 
tavo edition) contains many sentiments similar to these 
of Solon. " I have learned," says Julian, " from reli- 
gion, that an early death has often been the reward of 
piety." Upon which, after commending this story of 
Cleobis and Bito, in Herodotus, our English historian 
adds, " Yet the Jupiter (in the 16th Book of the Iliad) 
who laments with tears of blood the death of Sarpedon 
his son, had a very imperfect notion of happiness or glory 
beyond the grave." Pausanias relates, that this history 
is represented in a marble monument at Argos. — T. 



contributed to the defeat of the enemy, and met 
death in the field of glory. The Athenians 
publicly buried him, in the place where he fell ; 
and his funeral pomp was magnificently at- 
tended." 

XXXI. Solon was continuing to make re- 
spectful mention of Tellus, when Croesus an- 
xiously interrupted him, and desired to know, 
whom, next to Tellus, he esteemed most hap- 
py ; not doubting but the answer would now be 
favourable to himself. " Cleobis and Bito," 
replied Solon : " they were Argives by birth, 
fortunate in their circumstances, and so remark- 
able for their bodily prowess, that they had 
both of them been crowned as conquerors in 
their public games. It is further related of 
them, that on a certain festival of Juno, their 
mother was to have been carried to the temple 
in a chariot drawn by oxen. The beasts were not 
ready 2 for the purpose ; but the young men in- 
stantly took the yokes upon themselves, and 
drew their mother in the carriage to the temple, 
through a space of forty-five furlongs. Having 
performed this in the presence of innumerable 
spectators, they terminated their fives in a man- 
ner which was singularly fortunate. In this 
event, the deity made it appear, that death is a 
greater blessing to mankind than life. The 
surrounding multitude proclaimed their praise : 
the men commended their prowess : the wo- 
men envied their mother ; who was delighted 
with the deed itself, and the glory which at- 
tended it. Standing before the shrine, she im- 
plored the divinity, in whose honour her sons' 
exertions had been made, to grant them the 
greatest blessing man could receive. After 
her prayers, and when the succeeding sacrifice 
and festival were ended, the young men retired 
to rest within the temple ; but they rose no 
more. The Argives have preserved at Delphi 
the figures of Cleobis and Bito, as of men 
deserving superior distinction. " This, accord- 
ing to Solon's estimate, was happiness in the 
second degree. 

XXXIL Croesus was still dissatisfied : 
" Man of Athens, " he resumed, " think you 
so meanly of my prosperity, as to place me even 
beneath men of private and obscure condition ?" 
<e Croesus," he replied, " you inquire of me my 
sentiments of human nature •, of me, who con- 



2 The beasts were not ready.]— Servius, in his commen- 
taries on Virgil, says, that the want of oxen, on this oc- 
casion, was on account of a pestilential malady, which 
had destroyed all the cattle belonging to Argos.— S^-vius 
ad Virgil. Georg. lib. iii. 522. 



CLIO. 



11 



sider the divine beings as viewing us men 
with invidious and malignant aspects. 3 In the 
space of a protracted life, how many things oc- 
cur, winch we see with reluctance and support 
with anguish. I will suppose the term of hu- 
man life to extend to seventy years ; 4 this pe- 
riod, if we except the intercalatory months, 
will amount to twenty-five thousand two hun- 
dred days : to make our computation regular 
and exact, suppose we add this month to each 
alternate year, we shall then have thirty-five 
additional months, or one thousand two hun- 
dred and fifty days. The whole seventy years 
will therefore consist of twenty-six thousand 
two hundred and fifty days, yet of this number 
will every day be productive of some new in- 
cident. Thus, Croesus, 5 does our nature appear 
a continued series of calamity. I see you as 
the sovereign of many nations, and possessed 
of extraordinary affluence and power. But I 
shall not be able to give a satisfactory answer 
to the question you propose, till I know that 
your scene of life shall have closed with tran- 
quillity. The man of affluence is not, in fact, 
more happy than the possessor of a bare suffi- 
ciency ; unless, in addition to his wealth, his 
end of life be fortunate. We often discern 
misery in the midst of splendid plenty, whilst 
real happiness is found in humbler stations. 
The rich man, who knows not happiness, sur- 
passes but in two things the humbler but more 
fortunate character, with which we compare him. 
Yet there are a variety of incidents in which 
the latter excels the former. The rich man 



3 With invidious and malignant aspects."] This is 

one of the passages in which the malignity of Herodotus, 
according to Plutarch, is most conspicuous. Thus, says 
Plutarch, attributing to Solon what he himself thinks of 
the gods, he adds malice to blasphemy. — T. 

4 The term of human life to extend to seventy years, 
&c.]— This passage is confessedly one of the most diffi- 
cult in Herodotus. Larcher has a long and ingenious 
note upon the subject, which we have omitted ; as well 
from its extreme length, as from its not being entirely 
consistent with our plan. It is not unworthy observa- 
tion, that Stobaeus, who has given this discourse of Solon, 
omits altogether the passage in question ; and, indeed, 
Larcher liimself is of opinion, that the original text of 
Herodotus has been here altered— See Psalm xc. 10. 
" The days of our age are threescore years and ten, and 
though men be so strong that they come to fourscore 
years, yet-is their strength then but labour and sorrow, 
so soon passeth it away, and we are gone."— T. 

5 Thus Croesus.'] See Spenser, canto ii. 14 : 
For who will bide the burden of distress, 

Must not here think to live, for life is wretchedness. 

6 His end of life be fortunate.]— Tlus sentence of Solon 
is paraphrased by Sophocles, in his CEdipus Tyrannus. It 
was, indeed, a very favourite sentiment with the Greeks 
in general. See the Andromache of Euripides, verse 99 ; 
with many other places in Ins tragedies.— Larcher. 



can gratify his passions ; and has little to ap- 
prehend from accidental injuries. The poor 
man's condition exempts him entirely from 
these sources of affliction. He moreover pos- 
sesses strength and health ; a stranger to mis- 
fortune, he is blessed in his children and ami- 
able in himself. If at the end of such a life, 
his death be fortunate, this, O king, is the 
truly happy man ; the object of your curious 
inquiry. Call no man happy till you know the 
nature of his death ; he is at best but fortunate. 
All these requisites for happiness it is in no 
man's power to obtain, for no one region can 
supply them ; it affords perhaps the enjoyment 
of some, but it is remarkable for the absence 
of others. That which yields the more numer- 
ous sources of gratification is so far the best : 
such also is the imperfection of man, excellent 
in some respects, weak and defective in others. 
He who possesses the most advantages, and 
afterwards leaves the world with composure, he 
alone, O Croesus, is entitled to our admiration. 
It is the part of wisdom to look to the event of 
things ; for the Deity often overwhelms with 
misery, those who have formerly been placed 
at the summit of felicity." 

XXXIII. To these words of Solon, Croesus 
refused both his esteem and praise, and he after- 
wards dismissed the philosopher with indiffer- 
ence. 7 The sentiment which prompts us not to 
be elate with temporary bliss, but to look be- 
yond the present moment appeared to Croesus 
neither wise nor just. 

XXXIV. Solon was no sooner departed, 
than, as if to punish Croesus for his arrogance, 
in esteeming himself the happiest of mankind, 
a wonderful event befell him, which seemed a 
visitation from heaven. He saw in his sleep a 
vision, menacing the calamity which afterwards 
deprived him of his son. Croesus had two 
sons : the one marked by natural defect, being 
dumb : the other, whose name was Atys, was dis- 
tinguished by his superior accomplishments. The 
intimation of the vision which Croesus saw, 
was, that this Atys should die by the point of 



7 Dismissed the philosopher with indifference.] — At 
this period the celebrated iEsop was also at the court of 
Croesus, and much respected. He was afflicted with the 
disgrace of Solon ; and, conversing with him as a friend, 
— " You see, Solon," said he, "that we must either not 
come nigh kings, or we must entertain them with things 
agreeable to them." " That is not the point," replied So. 
Ion; "you should either say nothing to them, or tell 
them what is useful." — " I must confess," says Bayle, 
after relating the above, " that this caution of .Esop, ar- 
gues a man well acquainted with the court and groat men ; 
but Solon's answer is the true lesson of divines, who di. 
rect the consciences of princes. "— T. 



12 



HERODOTUS. 



an iron spear. Roused and terrified by this 
dream, he revolved the matter seriously in his 
mind. His first step was to settle his son in 
marriage : he then took from him the command 
of the Lydian troops, whom he before con- 
ducted in their warlike expeditions . the spears 
and darts, with every other kind of hostile 
weapon, he removed in a heap to the female 
apartments, that his son might not suffer inju- 
ry from the fall of them. 

XXXV. "Whilst the nuptials of this son 
employed his attention, an unfortunate homi- 
cide arrived at Sardis, a Phrygian by nation, and 
of the royal family. He presented himself at the 
palace of Croesus, from whom he required and 
received expiation ' with the usual ceremonies. 
The Lydian mode of expiation nearly resem- 
bles that in use among the Greeks. When 
Croesus had performed what custom exacted, 
he inquired who and whence he was, " From 
what part," said he, " of Phrygia, do you come ? 
why are you a suppliant to me ? what man or 
woman have you slain ?" " O king ?" replied 
the stranger, " I am the son of Gordius, who 
was the son of Midas. My name is Adras- 



1 Expiation.]— It was the office of the priests to ex- 
piate for crimes committed either from accident or de- 
sign, and they were therefore called Kathartai, Purifiers : 
but it should appear from the above, and other similar 
incidents, that kings anciently exercised the functions of 
the priesthood. — T. 

The scholiast of Homer informs us, (see verse 48, last 
book of the Iliad) that it was rastomary amongst the an- 
cients,for whoever had committed an involuntary murder, 
to leave his country, and fly to the house of some power- 
ful individual. There, covering himself, he sate down, 
and entreated to be purified. No person has given a 
more full, and at the same time more correct account of 
the ceremonies of expiation, than Apollonius Rhodius. 

Their visit's cause her troubled mind distress 'd ; 

On downy seats she placed each princely guest. 

They round her hearth sate motionless and mute ; 

With plaintive suppliants such manners suit. 

Her folded hands her blushing face conceal; 

Deep in the ground he fix'd the murderous steel : 

Nor dare they once, in equal sorrow drown'd , 

Lift their dejected eye-lids from the ground. 

Circe beheld their guilt : she saw they fled 

From vengeance hanging o'er the murderer's head. 

The holy rites, approved of Jove, she pays : 

Jove, thus appeased, his hasty vengeance stays. 

These rites from guilty stains the culprits clear, 

Who lowly suppliant at her cell appear. 

To expiate their crime in order due, 

First to her shrine a sucking pig she drew, 

Whose nipples from its birth distended stood; 

Its neck she struck and bathed their hands in blood. 

Next, with libations meet, and prayer she plied 

Jove, who acquits the suppliant homicide. 

Without her door a train of Naiads stand, 

Administering whate'er her rites demand. 

Within, the flames that round the hearth arise, 

Waste, as she prays, the kneaded sacrifice ; 

That thus the Furies' vengeful wrath might cease, 

And, Jove appeased, dismiss them both in peace, 

Whether they came to expiate the guilt 

Of friends' or strangers' blood, by treachery spilt. 

Fankes' Apollonius Rhodius. 



tus s : unwillingly I have killed my brother, 
for which I am banished by my father, and ren- 
dered entirely destitute. " " You come," replied 
Crcesus, "of a family whom I esteem my 
friends. My protection shall, in return, be 
extended tp you. You shall reside in my pal- 
ace, and be provided with every necessary. 
You will do well not to suffer your misfortune 
to distress you too much." Croesus then re- 
ceived him into his family. 

XXXVI. There appeared about this time, 
near Olympus in Mysia, a wild boar 3 of an ex- 
traordinary size, which, issuing from the moun- 
tain, did great injury to. the Mysians. They 
had frequently attacked it ; but their attempts 
to destroy it, so far from proving successful, 
had been attended with loss to themselves. In 
the extremity 5 therefore, of their distress, they 
sent to Croesus a message of the following im- 
ports " There has appeared among us, O king ! 
a wild boar of a most extraordinary size, injur- 
ing us much; but to destroy which all our 
most strenuous endeavours have proved inef- 
fectual. We entreat you, therefore, to send to 
us your son, at the head of a chosen band, with 
a number of dogs, to relieve us from this for- 
midable animal." Croesus, remembering his 
dream, answered them thus : " Of my son you 
must forbear to make mention : him I cannot 
send; he is lately married, and his time and 
attention sufficiently employed. But a chosen 
band of Lydians, hunters and dogs, shall attend 
you ; and I shall charge them to take every 
possible means of relieving you, as soon as pos- 
sible, from the attacks of the boar." 






2 Adrastus.] — There is a passage in Photius relative to 
this Adrastus, which two learned men, Palmerius and 
Larcher, have understood and applied very differently. 
The passage is this : Photius, in his Bibliotheca, giving 
an account of the historical work of Ptolemseus son of 
Hephaestion, says thus : " He also relates that the name 
of the person who, in the first book of Herodotus, is said 
to have been killed by Adrastus son of Gordius, was 
Agathon, and that it was in consequence of some dispute 
about a quail." 

The above, and, as it should seem with greater proba- 
bility, Palmerius, applies to the brother of Adrastus ; 
Larcher understands it of the son of Crcesus. 

With respect to the quail, some of our readers may 
probably thank us for informing them, that the ancients 
had their quail as the moderns have their cock-fights.— T. 

His cocks do win the battle still ofmine 
When it is all to nought, and his quails ever 
Beat mine inhooped at odds. — Shakspeare. 

3 A wild boar. 1— It should seem, from the accounts of 
ancient authors, that the ravages of the wild boar were 
considered as more formidable than those of the other 
savage animals. The conquest of the Erymanthian boar 
was one of the fated labours of Hercules ; and the story 
of the Caledonian boar is one of the most beautiful in 
Ovid.— T. 



CLIO. 



13 



XXXVII. This answer of Croesus satis- 
fied the Mysians; 4 but the young man hear- 
ing of the matter, and that his father had re- 
fused the solicitations of the Mysians for him 
to accompany them, hastened to the presence 
of the king, and spoke to him as follows : "It 
was formerly, Sir, esteemed, in our nation, 
both excellent and honourable to seek renown 
in war, or in the hunting of wild beasts : but 
you now deprive me of both these opportunities 
of signalizing myself, without having reason to 
accuse me either of cowardice or sloth. 
Whenever I am now seen in public, how mean 
and contemptible shall I appear! How will 
my fellow-citizens, or my new wife, esteem 
me ? what can be her opinion of the man whom 
she has married ? Suffer me, then, Sir, either 
to proceed on this expedition, or condescend to 
convince me that the motives of your refusal 
are reasonable and sufficient." 

XXXVIIL "My son," replied Croesus, 
" I do not in any respect think unfavourably of 
your courage, or your conduct. My behaviour 
towards you is influenced by a vision, which has 
lately warned me that your life will be short, 
and that you must perish from the wound of an 
iron spear. This has first of all induced me 
to accelerate your nuptials, and also to refuse 
your presence in the proposed expedition, wish- 
ing, by my caution, to preserve you at least as 
long as I shall live. I esteem you as my only 
son ; for your brother, on account of his infir- 
mity, is in a manner lost to me." 

XXXIX. " Having had such a vision," 
returned Atys to his father, " I can easily for- 
give your anxiety concerning me : but as you 
apparently misconceive the matter, suffer me to 
explain what seems to have escaped you. The 
vision, as you affirm, intimated that my death 
should be occasioned by the point of a spear ; 
but what arms or spear has a wild boar, that 
you should dread ? If, indeed, it had been told 
you that I was to perish by a tusk, or something 
of a similar nature, your conduct would have 
been strictly proper ; but, as a spear's point is 
the object of your alarm, and we are not going 
to contend with men, I hope for your permis- 
sion to join this party." 

XL. " Son," answered Croesus, " your rea- 
soning, concerning my dream, has induced 
me to alter my opinion, and I accede to your 
wishes." 



4 Satisfied the Mysians.] — Valla, Henry Stephens, and 
Gronovius, in their versions of this passage, had, quiun 
non essent contenti. Wesseling has taken away the ne- 
gative particle. 



XLI. The king then sent for Adrastus the 
Phrygian ; whom, on his appearing, he thus 
addressed : " I do not mean to remind you of 
your former calamities ; but you must have in 
memory, that I relieved you 5 in your distress, 
took you into my family, and supplied all your 
necessities. I have now, therefore, to solicit 
that return of kindness which my conduct 
claims. In this proposed hunting excursion, 
you must be the guardian of my son : preserve 
him on the way from any secret treachery which 
may threaten your common security. It is con- 
sistent that you should go where bravery may 
be distinguished, and reputation gained : valour 
has been the distinction of your family, and 
with personal vigour has descended to yourself. 

XLII. " At your request, O king !" replied 
Adrastus, " I shall comply with what I should 
otherwise have refused. It becomes not a man 
like myself, oppressed by so great a calamity, 
to appear among my more fortunate equals : I 
have never wished, and I have frequently avoid- 
ed it. My gratitude, in the present instance, 
impels me to obey your commands. I will 
therefore engage to accompany and guard your 
son, and promise, as far as my care can avail, 
to restore him to you safe." 

XLIII. Immediately a band of youths 
were selected, the dogs of chace prepared, and 
the train departed. Arrived in the vicinity of 
Olympus, they sought the beast : and having 
found his haunt, they surrounded it in a body, 
and attacked him with their spears. It so hap- 
pened, that the stranger Adrastus, who had 
been purified for murder, directed a blow at the 
boar, missed his aim, and killed the son of 'Croe- 
sus. Thus he was destroyed by the point of a 
spear, and the vision proved to be prophetic. 
A messenger immediately hastened to Sardis, 
informing Croesus of the event which occasion- 
ed the death of his son. 

XLIV. Croesus, much as he was afflicted 
with his domestic loss, bore it the less patiently, 
because it was inflicted by him whom he had him- 
self purified and protected. He broke into 
violent complaints at his misfortune, and in- 
voked Jupiter, the deity of expiation, in attes- 
tation of the injury he had received. He in- 
voked him also as the guardian of hospitality 
and friendship ; 4 of hospitality, because, in re- 



5 1 relieved you. ]— If translated literally, it should have 
been, " I purified you," &c. 

4 Guardian of hospitality and friendship.]— J 'npitei 
was adored under different titles, according to the place 
and circumstance of his differentw orshippors. — Lurcher. 

The sky was the department of Jupiter : hence he was 



14 



HERODOTUS. 



ceiving a stranger, he had received the murderer 
of his son ; of friendship, because the man 
whose aid he might have expected, had proved 
his bitterest enemy. 

XLV. Whilst his thoughts were thus occu- 
pied, the Lydians appeared with the body of 
his son : ' behind followed the homicide. He 
advanced towards Croesus, and, with extended 
hands, implored that he might suffer death up- 
on the body of him whom he had slain. He 
recited his former calamities ; to which was 
now to be added, that he was the destroyer of 
the man who had expiated him : he was conse- 
quently no longer fit to live. Croesus listened 
to him with attention ; and, although oppressed 
by his own paternal grief, he could not refuse 
his compassion to Adrastus ; to whom he spake 
as follows : " My friend, I am sufficiently re- 
venged by your voluntary condemnation of 
yourself. 2 You are not guilty of this event, 3 
for you did it without design. The offended 
deity, who warned me of the evil, has accom- 
plished it." Croesus, therefore, buried his son 
with the proper ceremonies : but the unfortu- 
nate descendant of Midas, who had killed his 
brother and his friend, retired at the dead of 
night to the place where Atys was buried, and, 
confessing himself to be the most miserable of 
mankind, slew himself on the tomb. 

XL VI. The two years which succeeded the 
death of his son, were passed by Croesus in ex- 
treme affliction. His grief was at length sus- 
pended by the increasing greatness of the Per- 
sian empire, as well as by that of Cyrus son of 
Cambyses, who had deprived Astyages, son of 
Cyaxares, of his dominions. To restrain the 
power of Persia, before it should become too 



deemed the god of tempests. The following- titles were 
given him : Pluvius, Pluviosus, Fulgurator, Fulgurum 
Effector, Descensor, Tonans. Other epithets were given 
him, relative to the wants of men, for which he was 
thought to provide. See Bos, Antiquities of Greece. 
The above observation is confined to the Greeks. — The 
epithets of the Roman Jupiter were almost without num- 
ber ; and there was hardly, as Spence observes, a town, 
or even hamlet, in Italy, that had not a Jupiter of its 
own.— T. 

1 Body of his son.] — This solemn procession of the Ly- 
dians, bearing to the presence of the father the dead body 
of Ms son, followed mournfully by the person who had 
killed him, would, it is presumed, afford no mean subject 
for an historical painting. — T. 

2 Condemnation of yours elf ] — Diodorus Siculus re- 
lates, that it was the first intention of Croesus to have 
burned Adrastus alive ; but his voluntary offer to submit 
to death, deprecated his anger. — T. 

3 You are not guilty of this event] — See Homer, Iliad 
Sd, where Priam thus addresses Helen : 

No crime of thine our present sufferings draws: 

Not thou, but Heaven's disposing will, the cause.— Pope. 



great and too extensive, was the object of his 
solicitude. Listening to these suggestions, he 
determined to consult the different oracles 4 of 
Greece, and also that of Lybia ; and for this 
purpose sent messengers to Delphi, the Pho- 
cian Abas, and to Dodona: he sent also to 



4 Oracles.] — On the subject of oracles, it may not be 
improper, once for all, to inform the English reader, that 
the Apollo of Delphi was, to use Mr Bayle's words, the 
judge without appeal; the greatest of the heathen gods 
not preserving, in relation to oracles, Ms advantage or 
superiority. The oracles of Trophomus, Dodona, and 
Ammon, had not so much credit as that of Delphi, nor 
did they equal it either in esteem or duration. The ora- 
cle at Abas was an oracle of Apollo ; but, from the little 
mention that is made of it by ancient writers, it does not 
appear to have been held in the extremest veneration. 
At Dodona, as we describe it from Montfaucon, there 
were sounding kettles ; from whence came the proverb of 
the Dodonean brass ; which, according to Menander, if a 
man touched but once, would continue ringing the whole 
day. Others speak of the doves of Dodona, wMch spoke 
and delivered the oracles : of two doves, according to 
Statius, one flew to Lybia, to pronounce the oracles of 
Jupiter ; the other staid at Dodona : of which the more 
rational explanation is, that two females established re- 
ligious ceremonies at the same time, at Dodona, and in 
Lybia; for, in the ancient language of the people of 
Epirus, the same word sigmfies a dove and an old wo- 
man. At the same place also was an oak, or, as some 
say, a beech tree, hallowed by the prejudices of the peo- 
ple, from the remotest antiquity. 

The oracle of Trophomus' cave, from its singularity, 
deserves minuter mention. He, says Pausamas, who 
desired to consult it, was obliged to undergo various pre- 
paratory ceremomes, which continued for several days: 
he was to purify Mm self by various methods, to otter sa- 
crifices to many different deities ; he was then conducted 
by mght to a neighbouring river, where he was anointed 
and washed ; he afterwards drank of the water of forget- 
fulness, that Ms former cares might be buried ; and of 
the water of remembrance, that he might forget notMng 
of what he was to see. The cave was surrounded by a 
wall ; it resembled an oven, was four cubits wide, and 
eight deep : it was descended by a ladder ; and he who 
went down, carried with him cakes made of honey ; 
when he was got down, he was made acquainted with 
futurity. For more particulars concerning tlus oracle, 
consult Montfaucon, Voyage de Jeune Anacharsis, in 
which the different descriptions of antiquity, concermng 
this and other oracles, are collected and methodized. See 
also Van Dale. Of the above a classical and correct de- 
scription may also be found m Glover's Athenaid. 

Amphiaraus was one of the seven warriors who fought 
against Thebes ; he performed on that occasion the func- 
tions of a priest, and was supposed, on that account, to 
communicate oracles after his death. They who- con- 
sulted Mm, were to abstain from wine for three days, 
and from all nourishment for twenty-four hours. They 
then sacrificed a ram before his statue, upon the skin of 
which, spread in the vestibule, they retired themselves 
to sleep. The deity was supposed to appear to them in 
a vision, and answer their questions. 

The temple of Branchidse was afterwards, according to 
Pliny, named the temple of Didymean Apollo. It was 
burned by Xerxes, but afterwards built with such extra- 
ordinary magmficence, that according to Vitruvms, it 
was one of the four edifices which rendered the names of 
their architects immortal. Some account may be found 
of this temple in Cliish nil's Asiatic Antiquities.— T. 



CLIO. 



Amphiaraus, Trophonius, and the Milesian 
Branchidae. The above-mentioned are the 
oracles which Croesus consulted in Greece : he 
sent also to the Lybian Amnion. His motive 
in these consultations, was to form an idea of 
the truth of the oracles respectively, meaning 
afterwards to obtain from them a decisive opin- 
ion concerning the propriety of an expedition 
against the Persians. 

XL VII. He took this method of proving 
the truth of their different communications. 
He computed with his Lydian messengers, that 
each should consult the different oracles on the 
hundredth day of their departure from Sardis, 
and respectively ask what Croesus the son of 
Alyattes was doing : they were to write down, 
and communicate to Croesus, the reply of each 
particular oracle. 5 Of the oracular answers in 
general we have no account remaining; but the 
Lydians had no sooner entered the temple of 
Delphi, and proposed their questions, than the 
Pythian s answered thus, in heroic verse : 
I count the sand, I measure out the sea ; 
The silent and the dumb are heard by me : 
E'en now the odours to my sense that rise, 
A tortoise boiling with a lamb supplies, 
Where brass below and brass above it lies. 

XLVIH. They wrote down the communi- 
cation of the Pythian, and returned to Sardis. 
Of the answers which his other messengers 
brought with them on their return, Croesus 
found none which were satisfactory. But a 
fervour of gratitude and piety was excited in 
him, as soon as he was informed of the reply 
of the Pythian ; and he exclaimed, without re- 
serve, that there was no true oracle but at Del- 
phi, for this alone had explained his employ- 
ment at the stipulated time. It seems, that 
on the day appointed for his servants to consult 
the different oracles, determining to do what it 



5 Reply of each particular oracle. ]— Lucian makes Ju- 
piter complain of the great trouble the deities undergo 
on account of mankind. " As for Apollo," says he, " he 
has undertaken a troublesome office : he is obliged to he 
at Delphi this minute, at Colophon the next, here at 
Delos, there at Branchidse, just as his ministers choose 
to require him : not to mention the tricks which are 
played to make trial of his sagacity, when people boil 
together the flesh of a lamb and a tortoise ; so that if he 
had not had a very acute nose, Croesus would have gone 
away, and abused him." — T. 

6 Pythian.] — The Pythian Apollo, if we may credit the 
Greeks themselves, was not always upon the best terms 
with the Muses. — Lowth on the poetry of the Hebrews. 

Van Dale, in his book de Oraculis, observes, that at 
Delphi the priestess had priests, prophets, and poets, to 
take down and explain and mend her gibberish : which 
served to justify Apollo from the imputation of making 
bad verses ; for, if they were defective, the fault was 
laid upon the amanuensis. — Jortin. 



would be equally difficult to discover or explain, 
he had cut in pieces a tortoise and a lamb, and 
boiled them together in a covered vessel of 
brass. 

XLIX. We have before related what was 
the answer of the Delphic oracle to Croesus : 
what reply the Lydians received from Amphi- 
araus, after the usual religious ceremonies, I 
am not able to affirm ; of this it is only asserted, 
that its answer was satisfactory to Croesus. 

L. Croesus, after these things, determined to 
conciliate the divinity of Delphi, by a great and 
magnificent sacrifice. He offered up three thou- 
sand chosen victims ; 7 he collected a great num- 
ber of couches decorated with gold and silver, H 
many goblets of gold, and vests of purple ; all 
these he consumed together upon one immense 
pile, thinking by these means to render the 
deity more auspicious to his hopes : he per- 
suaded his subjects also to offer up, in like 
manner, the proper objects for sacrifice they 
respectively possessed. As, at the conclusion 
of the above ceremony, a considerable quantity 
of gold had run together, he formed of it a 
number of tiles. The larger of these were six 
palms long, the smaller three, but none of them 
was less than a palm in thickness, and they 
were one hundred and seventeen in number : 
four were of the purest gold, weighing each one 
talent and a half; the rest w T ere of inferior 
quality, but of the weight of two talents. He 
constructed also a lion of pure gold, 9 which 
weighed ten talents. It was originally placed 
at the Delphian temple, on the above gold tiles ; 
but when this edifice was burned, it fell from 
its place, and now stands in the Corinthian 
treasury : it lost, however, by the fire, three tal- 
ents and a half of its former weight. 

LI. Croesus, moreover, sent to Delphi two 



7 Three thousand chosen victims.'} — This astonishing 
profusion was perfectly consistent with the genius of a 
superstitious people. Theodoret reproaches the Greeks 
with their sacrifices of hundreds and of thousands. — 
Larcher 

8 Couches decorated with gold and silver. ~\ — Prodigal 
as the munificence of Crcesus appears to have been on 
this occasion, the funeral pile of the emperor Severus, 
as described by Herodian, was neither less splendid nor 
less costly. He tells us, that there was not a province, 
city, or grandee throughout the wide circuit of the Roman 
empire, which did not contribute to decorate this superb 
edifice. When the whole was completed, after many 
days of preparatory ceremonies, the next successor to 
the empire, with a torch, set fire to the pile, and in a lit- 
tle time every thing was consumed. — T. 

9 Lion of pure gold.] — These tiles, this lion, and the 
statue of the breadmaker of Crcesus, Avere, all of them, ;it 
a subsequent period, seized by the Phocians, to defray 
the expenses of the holy war. — Larcher. 



16 



HEKODOTUS. 



large cisterns, one of gold, and one of silver : 
that of gold was placed on the right hand in 
the vestibule of the temple ; the silver one on 
the left. These also were removed when the 
temple was consumed by fire •, the golden gob- 
let weighed eight talents and a half and twelve 
minse, and was afterwar ds placed in the Clazo- 
menian treasury : that of silver is capable of 
holding six hundred amphorae ; it is placed at 
the entrance of the temple, and used by the in- 
habitants of Delphi in their Theophanian festi- 
val : they assert it to have been the work of 
Theodorus of Samos ; J to which opinion, as 
it is evidently the production of no mean artist, 
I am inclined to accede. The Corinthian trea- 
sury also possesses four silver casks, which 
were sent by Croesus, in addition to the above, 
to Delphi. His munificence did not yet cease : 
he presented also two basins, one of gold, 
another of silver. An inscription on that of 
gold, asserts it to have been the gift of the La- 
cedaemonians ; but it is not true, for this also 
Avas the gift of Croesus. To gratify the Lace- 
daemonians, a certain Delphian wrote this in- 
scription ; although I am able, I do not think 
proper to disclose his name. 2 The boy through 
whose hand the water flows, was given by the 
Lacedamonians ; the basins undoubtedly were 
not — Many other smaller presents accompa- 
nied these ; among which were some silver dish- 
es, and the figure of a woman in gold, three 
cubits high, who, according to the Delphians, 
was the person who made the bread for the 
family of Croesus. 3 This prince, besides all 
that we have enumerated, consecrated at Delphi 
his wife's necklaces and girdles. 

1 Theodorus of Samos. ] — He was the first statuary on 
record. The following mention is made of him by Pliny : 
— Theodorus, who constructed the labyrinth at Samos, 
made a cast of himself in brass, which, independent of its 
being a perfect likeness, was an extraordinary effort of 
genius. He had in his right hand a file ; with three fin- 
gers of his left he held a carriage drawn by four horses ; 
the carriage, the horses, and the driver, were so minute, 
that the whole was covered by the wings of a fly. — T. 

2 I do not think proper to disclose his nameJ\ — If Pto- 
lemseus may be credited in Photius, his name was iEthus. 
— T. 

3 Made the bread for the family of Crossus.J—Crcesus, 
says Plutarch, honoured the woman who made his bread^ 
with a statue of gold, from an honest emotion of grati- 
tude. Alyattes, the father of Croesus, married a second 
wife, by whom he had other children. This woman 
wished to remove Croesus out of the way, and gave the 
female baker a dose of poison, charging her to put it in- 
to the bread which she made for Croesus. The woman 
informed Croesus of this, and gave the poisoned bread to 
the queen's children. By these means Croesus succeeded 
his father ; and acknowledged the fidelity of the woman, 
by thus making the god himself an evidence of his grati- 
tude.— T. 



LII. To Amphiaraus, having heard of his 
valour and misfortunes, he sent a shield of solid 
gold, with a strong spear made entirely of gold, 
both shaft and head. These were all, within 
my memory, preserved at Thebes, in the tem- 
ple of the Ismenian Apollo. 

LIII. The Lydians, who were entrusted 
with the care of these presents, were directed 
to inquire whether Croesus might auspiciously 
undertake an expedition against the Persians, 
and whether he should procure any confederate 
assistance. On their arrival at the destined 
places, they deposited their presents, and made 
their inquiries of the oracles precisely in the fol- 
lowing terms : — " Croesus, sovereign of Lydia, 
and of various nations, esteems these the only 
genuine oracles; in return for the sagacity 
which has marked your declarations, he sends 
these proofs-of his liberality; he finally desires 
to know whether he may proceed against the 
Persians, and whether he shall require the as- 
sistance of any allies." The answers of the 
oracles tended to the same purpose ; both of 
them assuring Croesus, that if he prosecuted a 
war with Persia, he should overthrow a mighty 
empire ; 4 and both recommending him to form 
an alliance with those whom he should find to 
be the most powerful states of Greece. 

LIV. The report of these communications 
transported Croesus with excess of joy : elated 
with the idea of becoming the conqueror ol 
Cyrus, he sent again to Delphi, inquired the 
number of inhabitants there, and presented each 
with two golden staters. In acknowledgment 
for this repeated liberality, the Delphians as- 
signed to Croesus and the Lydians the privilege 
of first consulting the oracle, in preference to 
other nations : a distinguished seat in their tem- 
ple ; together with the immutable right, to such 
of them as pleased to accept it, of being inrolled 
among the citizens of Delphi. 

LV. After the above-mentioned marks oJf 
J his munificence to the Delphians, Croesus con- 
sulted their oracle a third time. His experi- 
ence of its veracity increased the ardour of his 
curiosity ; he was now anxious to be informed, 
whether his power would ever suffer diminu- 

4 Overthrow a mighty empire.~\ — It appears, that the 
very words of the oracle must have been here origin- 
ally : they are preserved by Suidas and others, and are 
these : 

Kg««ro? ' AXvv diafic&s (Jt,iytxXvjV ctgxyv aoi.Toe.Xv<ni : 
which Cicero renders — 

Croesus, Halym penetrans, magnam pervertet opum vim. 

De Div. xi. 56. 
By crossing Halys, Croesus will destroy a mighty power 

-~r. 



CLIO 



17 



tion. The following was the answer of the 
Pythian : 

When o'er the Medes a mule shall sit on high, 
O'er pebbly Hermus 4 then, soft Lydian, fly ; 
Fly with all haste ; for safety scorn thy fame, 
Nor scruple to deserve a coward's name. 
LVI. When the above verses were com- 
municated to Croesus, he was more delighted 
than ever ; confident that a mule would never 
be sovereign of the Medes, and that consequent- 
ly he could have nothing to fear for himself or 
his posterity. His first object was to discover 
which were the most powerful of the Grecian 
states, and to obtain their alliance. The Lace- 
daemonians of Doric, and the Athenians of 
Jonian origin, seemed to claim his distinguished 
preference. These nations, always eminent, 
were formerly known by the appellation of Pe- 
lasgians and Hellenians. 5 The former had 
never changed their place of residence ; the 
latter often. Under the reign of Deucalion, 
the Hellenians possessed the region of Phthio- 
tis ; but under Dorus the son of Hellenus, they 
inhabited the country called Istaeotis, which 
borders upon Ossa and Olympus. They were 
driven from hence by the Cadmaeans, and fixed 
themselves in Macednum, near mount Pindus : 
migrating from hence to Dryopis, and after- 
wards to the Peloponnese, they were known by 
the name of Dorians. 

LVII. What language the Pelasgians used, 
I cannot positively affirm : some probable con- 
clusion may perhaps be formed, by attending 
to the dialect of the remnant of the Pelasgians, 
who now inhabit Crestona e beyond the Tyr- 
rhenians, but who formerly dwelt in the coun- 
try now called Thessaliotis, and were neigh- 
bours to those whom we at present name Dor- 
ians. Considering these with the above, who 
founded the cities of Placia and Scylace on the 
Hellespont, but once lived near the Athenians, 
together with the people of other Pelasgian 
towns, who have since changed their names, we 
are upon the whole justified in our opinion, 



4 O'er pebbly Hermus, #c.]— It has been usually trans- 
lated fly to Hermus: but *•«?' 'E^/ucov certainly means 
trans Hermum ; and when said to a Lydian, implies, 
that he should desert his country. T. 

5 Pelasgians and Hellenians.]— On this passage Mr 
Bryant remarks, that the whole is exceedingly confused, 
and that by it one would imagine Herodotus excluded 
the Athenians from being Pelasgic. See Bryant's My- 
thol. vol. hi. 397.— T. 

6 Crestona.]— \\ appears that Count Caylus has con- 
founded Crestona of Thrace with Crotona of Magna 
Graecia ; but as he has adduced no argument in proof of 
his opinion, I do not consider it of any importance.— 
Larcher. 



\ that they formerly spoke a barbarous language. 
The Athenians, therefore, who were also of 
Pelasgian origin, must necessarily, when they 
came amongst the Hellenians, have learned 
their language. It is observable, that the in- 
habitants of Crestona and Placia speak in the 
same tongue, but are neither of them under- 
stood by the people about them. These cir- 
cumstances induce us to believe, that their lan- 
guage has experienced no change. 

L VIII. I am also of opinion, that the Hel- 
lenian tongue is not at all altered. When first 
they separated themselves from the Pelasgians, 
they were neither numerous nor powerful. 
They have since progressively increased ; 
having incorporated many nations, Barbarians 
and others, with their own. The Pelasgians 
have always avoided this mode of increasing 
their importance ; which may be one reason, 
probably, why they never have emerged from 
their original and barbarous condition. 

LIX. Of these nations, Crcesus had received 
information, that Athens suffered much from 
the oppression of Pisistratus the son of Hip- 
pocrates, who at this time possessed there the 
supreme authority. The father of this man, 
when he was formerly a private spectator of 
the Olympic games, beheld a wonderful pro- 
digy : Having sacrificed a victim, the brazen 
vessels, which were filled with the flesh and 
with water, boiled up and overflowed without 
the intervention of fire. Chilon the Laced.-v- 
monian, who was an accidental witness of the 
fact, advised Hippocrates, first of all, not to 
marry a woman likely to produce him children : 
secondly, if he was already married, to repudi- 
ate his wife ; but if he had then a son, by all 
means to expose him. He who received this 
counsel, was by no means disposed to follow it, 
and had afterwards this son Pisistratus. A 
tumult happened betwixt those who dwelt on 
the sea- coast, and those who inhabited the 
plains : of the former, Megacles the son oi 
Alcmeon was leader ; Lycurgus, son of Aris- 
tolaides, was at the head of the latter. Pisis- 
tratus took this opportunity of accomplishing 
the views of his ambition. Under pretence of 
defending those of the mountains, he assembled 
some factious adherents, and put in practice the 
following stratagem.: He not only wounded 
himself, but his mules/ which he drove into 

7 Wounded himself, but his mules.]— Ulysses, Zopyrus, 

and others, availed themselves of similar artifices for the 

advantage of their country ; but Pisistratus practised his, 

to depress and enslave his fellow-citizens. This occasion- 

C 



18 



HERODOTUS. 



the forum, affecting to have made his escape 
from the enemy, who had attacked him in a 
country excursion. He claimed, therefore, the 
protection of the people, in return for the ser- 
vices which he had performed in his command 
against the Megarians, 1 by his capture of Nisaea, 
and by other memorable exploits. The Athe- 
nians were deluded by his artifice, and assigned 
some of their chosen citizens as his guard, 2 
armed with clubs, instead of spears. These 
seconded the purpose of Pisistratus, and seized 
the citadel. He thus obtained the supreme 
power ; but he neither changed the magistrates 
nor altered the laws ; he suffered every thing 
to be conducted in its ordinary course ; and his 
government was alike honourable to himself 3 
and useful to the city. The factions of Mega- 
cles and Lycurgus afterwards united, and ex- 
pelled him from Athens. 

LX. By these means Pisistratus became 
for the first time master of Athens, and ob- 
tained an authority which was far from being 
secure. 

The parties, however, which effected his re- 
moval, presently disagreed. Megacles, being 
hard pressed by his opponent, sent proposals 
to Pisistratus, offering him the supreme power, 
on condition of his marrying his daughter. 
Pisistratus acceded to the terms ; and a method 
was concerted to accomplish his return, which 
to me seems exceedingly preposterous. The 
Grecians, from the remotest times, were distin- 
guished above the Barbarians by their aeute- 
ness ; and the Athenians, upon whom this trick 

ed Solon to say to him, " Son of Hippocrates, you ill 
apply the stratagem of Homer's Ulysses : he wounded 
his body, to delude the public enemies; you wound 
your's, to beguile your countrymen." — Larcher. 

1 Command against the Megarians.] — The particulars 
of this affair are related by Plutarch, in his life of Solon. 
—T. 

2 As his guard.] — The people being assembled to de- 
liberate on the ambuscade which Pisistratus pretended 
was concerted against him, assigned .him fifty guards for 
the security of his person. Ariston proposed the decree ; 
but when it was once passed, the people acquiesced in 
his taking just as many guards as he thought proper. 
Solon, in a letter to Epemenides, preserved in Diogenes 
Laertius, but which seems to be spurious, says, that 
Pisistratus required four hundred guards; which, not- 
withstanding Solon's remonstrances, were granted him. 
Polysenus says they assigned him three hundred. — Lar- 
cher. 

3 Honourable to himself.] — Pisistratus, says Plutarch, 
was not only observant of the laws of Solon himself, but 
obliged his adherents to be so too. Whilst in the enjoy- 
ment of the supreme authority, he was summoned before 
the Areopagus, to answer for the crime of murder. He 
appeared with modesty to plead Ids cause. His accuser 
did not think proper to appear. The same fact is related 
by Aristotle. — Larcher. 



was played, were of all the Greeks the most 
eminent for their sagacity. There was a Paea- 
niean woman, whose name was Phya ; 4 she 
wanted but three digits of being four cubits 
high, and was, moreover, uncommonly beauti- 
ful. She was dressed in a suit of armour, placed 
in a chariot, and decorated with the greatest 
imaginable splendour. She was conducted 
towards the city; heralds were sent before, 
who, as soon as they arrived within the walls 
of Athens, were instructed to exclaim aloud, — 
" Athenians, receive Pisistratus again, and 
with good-will ; he is the favourite of Miner- 
va, and the goddess herself comes to conduct 
him to her citadel. " The rumour soon spread 
amongst the multitude, that Minerva was 
bringing back Pisistratus. Those in the city 
being told that this woman was their goddess, 
prostrated themselves before her, and admitted 
Pisistratus. 5 

LXI. By these means the son of Hippo- 
crates recovered his authority, and fulfilled the 
terms of his agreement with Megacles, by 
marrying his daughter. But, as he had already 
sons grown up, and as the Alcmseonides were 
stigmatized by some imputed contamination, 7 
to avoid having children by this marriage, he 
refused all natural communication with his 
wife. This incident, which the woman for a 
certain time concealed, she afterwards revealed 
to her mother, in consequence, perhaps, of her 
inquiries. The father was soon informed of 
it, who, exasperated by the affront, forgot his 
ancient resentments, and entered into a league 
with those whom he had formerly opposed. 
Pisistratus, seeing the danger which menaced 
him, hastily left the country, and, retiring to 
Eretria, 8 there deliberated with his sons con- 

4 Phya.] — There is here great appearance of fiction. 
Phya means air, or personal courage. 

E/Soj ts, (/.{yiBo? t£, (pvviv t ocy^itrrot. toizus. 

II. 2d. T. 

5 Admitted Pisistratus.] — The ambitious in all ages 
have made religion an instrument of their designs, and 
the people, naturally superstitious and weak, have 
always been the dupes. — Larcher. 

6 By marryinghis daughter.] — Her name was Caesyra, 
as appears from the scholiast to the Nubes of Aristo- 
phanes. — Pa Imerius. 

7 Imputed contamination.]— Megacles, who was ar- 
chon in the time of the conspiracy of Cylon, put the 
conspirators to death, at the foot of the altars where they 
had taken refuge. All those who had any concern in the 
perpetration of murder were considered as detestable.— 
Larcher. 

8 Retiring to Eretria.]— There were two places of this 
name, one in Thessaly, the other in Eubcea : Pisistratus 
retired to the latter. 



CLIO. 



19 



cerning their future conduct. The sentiments 
of Hippias, which were for attempting the 
recovery of their dignity, prevailed. They 
met with no difficulty in procuring assistance 
from the neighbouring states, amongst whom a 
prejudice in their favour generally prevailed. 
Many cities assisted them largely with money; 
but the Thebans were particularly liberal. 
Not to protract the narration, every preparation 
was made to facilitate their return. A band of 
Argive mercenaries came from the Pelopon- 
nese ; and an inhabitant of Naxos, named 
Lygdamis, gave new alacrity to their proceed- 
ings, by his unsolicited assistance both with 
money and with troops. 

LXII. After an absence of eleven years, 
they advanced to Attica from Eretria, and 
seized on Marathon, in the vicinity of which 
they encamped. They were soon visited by 
throngs of factious citizens 9 from Athens, and 
by all those who preferred tyranny to freedom. 
Their number was thus soon and considerably 
increased. Whilst Pisistratus was providing 
himself with money, and even when he was 
stationed at Marathon, the Athenians of the 
city appeared to be under no alarm : but when 
they heard that he had left his post, and was 
advancing towards them, they began to assem- 
ble their forces, and to think of obstructing his 
return. Pisistratus continued to approach, 
with his men in one collected body ; he halted 
at the temple of the Pallenian Minerva, oppo- 
site to which he fixed his camp. Whilst he 
remained in this situation, Amphylitus, a 
priest of Acarnania, approached him, and, as if 
by divine inspiration, 10 thus addressed him in 
heroic verse : 

The cast is made ; the net secures the way ; 

And night's pale gleams will bring the scaly prey. 

Factious citizens.'} The whole account given by 
Herodotus, of the conduct of Pisistratus and his party, 
bears no small resemblance to many circumstances of the 
Catilinarian conspirators, as described by Cicero and 
others. Two or three instances are nevertheless recorded, 
of the moderation of Pisistratus, which well deserve our 
praise. His daughter assisted at some religious festival : 
a young man, who violently loved her, embraced her 
publicly, and afterwards endeavoured to carry her off. 
His friends excited him to vengeance. " If," says he 
in reply, " we hate those who love us, what shall we 
do to those who hate us ?" — Some young men, in a drunk- 
en frolic, insulted his wife. The next day they came 
in tears to solicit forgiveness. " You must have been 
mistaken," said Pisistratus; "my wife did not go abroad 
yesterday." — T. 

10 Divine inspiration."] — Upon this passage Mr Bryant 
has some observations, much too abstruse for our pur- 
pose, but well worthy the consideration of the curious. 
See his Mythology, vol. i. page 259.— T. 



LXIII. Pisistratus considered the declara- 
tion as prophetic, and prepared his troops ac- 
cordingly. The Athenians of the city were 
then engaged at their dinner ; after which, they 
retired to the amusement of dice, or to sleep. 11 
The party of Pisistratus, then making the at 
tack, soon compelled them to fly. Pisistratus, 
in the course of the pursuit, put in execution 
the following sagacious stratagem, to continue 
their confusion, and prevent their rallying : he 
placed his sons on horseback, and directed them 
to overtake the fugitives ; they were commis- 
sioned to bid them all remove their apprehen- 
sions, and pursue their accustomed employ- 
ments. 

LXIV. The Athenians took him at his 
word, and Pisistratus thus became a third time 
master of Athens 12 . He by no means neglect- 
ed to secure his authority, by retaining many 
confederate troops, and providing pecuniary 
resources, partly from Attica itself, and partly 
from the river Strymon. 13 The children of 
those citizens, who, instead of retreating from 
his arms, had opposed his progress, he took as 
hostages, and sent to the island of Naxos ; which 



11 To sleep.} — In all the warmer climates of the globe, 
the custom of sleeping after dinner is invariably preserv- 
ed. It appears from modern travellers, that many of the 
present inhabitants of Athens have their houses flat- 
roofed, and decorated with arbours, in which they sleep 
at noon. We are informed, as well by Herodotus, as by 
Demosthenes, Theophrastus, and Xenophon, that, an- 
ciently, the Athenians in general, as well citizens as 
soldiers, took only two repasts in the day. The meaner 
sort were satisfied with one, which some took at noon, 
others at sunset. 

The following passage from Horace cannot fail of be- 
ing interesting ; it not only proves the intimacy which 
prevailed betwixt Maecenas, Virgil, and Horace, but it 
satisfies us, that at a much later period, and in the most 
refined state of the Roman empire, the mode of spending 
the time after dinner was similar to that here mentioned : 

Lusum it Maecenas, dormitum ego Virgitiusque. 

Sermon, lib. i. 5. 

12 TJiird time master of Athens.} — Pisistratus, tyrant 
as he was, loved letters, and favoured those who culti- 
vated them. He it was who first collected Homer's 
works, and presented the public with the Iliad and Odys- 
sey in their present form. — Bellanger. 

Cicero, in one of his letters to Atticus, subsequent to 
the battle of Pharsalia, thus expresses himself: We are 
not yet certain whether we shall groan under a Phalaris, 
or enjoy ourselves under a Pisistratus — T. 

13 River Strymon.} — This river is very celebrated in 
classical story : there are few of the ancient writers 
who have not made mention of it ; at the present day it 
is called, at that part where it empties itself into the 
iEgean, Golfo di Contessa. Upon the banks of this river, 
Virgil beautifully describes Orpheus to have lamented 
his Eurydice. Amongst the other rivers memorable in 
antiquity for their production of gold, wore the Pactolus, 
Hermus, Ganges, Tagn«, Iber, Indus, nnd Arimas- 
pus.— T. 



20 



HERODOTUS. 



place he had before subdued, and given up to 
Lygdamis. In compliance also with an oracu- 
lar injunction, he purified Delos : ' all the dead 
bodies, which lay within a certain distance of 
the temple, were, by his orders, dug up, and 
removed to another part of the island. By the 
death of some of the Athenians in battle, and 
by the flight of others with the Alcmaeonides, 
he remained in undisturbed possession of the 
supreme authority. 

LXV. Such was the intelligence which 
Croesus received concerning the situation of 
Athens. With respect to the Lacedaemonians, 
after suffering many important defeats, they had 
finally vanquished the Tegeans. Whilst Sparta 
was under the government of Leon and Hege- 
sicles, the Lacedaemonians, successful in other 
contests, had been inferior to the Tegeans alone : 
of all the Grecian states, they had formerly the 
worst laws : bad with regard to their own in- 
ternal government, and to strangers intolerable. 
They obtained good laws, by means of the fol- 
lowing circumstance : Lycurgus, 2 a man of 
distinguished character at Sparta, happened to 
visit the Delphic oracle. As soon as he had 
entered the vestibule, the Pythian exclaimed 
aloud, 

Thou comest, Lycurgus, to this honour'd shrine, 

Favour'd by Jove, and every power divine. 

Or god or mortal ! how shall I decide ? 

Doubtless to heaven most dear and most allied 

It is farther asserted by some, that the priestess 
dictated to him those institutes which are now 
observed at Sparta : but the Lacedaemonians 
themselves affirm, that Lycurgus brought them 
from Crete while he was guardian to his 
nephew Leobotas king of Sparta. In conse- 
quence of this trust, having obtained the direc- 
tion of the legislature, he made a total change 
in the constitution, and took effectual care to 
secure a strict observance 3 of whatever he 

1 Purified Delos.]— Montfaucon, but without telling 
us his authority, says, that the whole island of Delos was 
consecrated by the birth of Apollo and Diana, and that 
it was not allowable to bury a dead body in any part of 
it It should seem from the passage before us, that this 
must be understood with some restriction. — T.'~ 

2 Lycurgus.] — For an account of the life and charac- 
ter of Lycurgus, we refer the reader, once for all, to 
Plutarch. His institutes are admirably collected and 
described by the Abbe Barthelemy, in his voyage du 
Jeune Anacharsis, vol. iv. 110. — T. 

3 Strict observance.] — There were some Lacedaemon- 
ians who, deeming the laws of Lycurgus too severe, 
chose rather to leave their country than submit to them. 
These passed over to the Sabines in Italy; and when 
these people were incorporated with the Romans, com- 
municated to them a portion of their Lacedaemonian 
manners.— Larcher. 



introduced : he new-modelled the military code, 
appointing the Enomotise, the Triacades, and 
the Syssitia j he instituted also the Ephori 4 
and the senate. 

LXVI. The manners of the people became 
thus more polished and improved : they, after 
his death, revered Lycurgus as a divinity, and 
erected a sacred edifice to his memory. 5 From 
this period, having a good and populous ter- 

4 Epliori (inspectors.) — Of the Enomotiae and Tria- 
cades Ave have been able to find no account sufficiently 
perspicuous to satisfy ourselves, or inform the reader : 
that of Cragius is perhaps the best. Larcher has a long 
and elaborate note upon the subject, in which he says, 
that if any person be able to remove the obscurity in 
which the subject is involved, it must be the Abbe Bar- 
thelemy, to whose study and deliberation it must of 
necessity occur in his intended work upon Greece. Thitt 
work has since appeared ; but we find in it little mention 
of the Enomotiae, &c. . 

The following account of the Ephori, as collected and 
compressed from the ancient Greek writers, we give 
from the Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis : 

" Aristotle, Plutarch, Cicero, Valerius Maximus, and 
Dion Chrysostom, were of opinion, that the Ephori were 
first instituted by Theopompus, who reigned almost a 
hundred years after the time of Lycurgus. Herodotus, 
Plato, and another ancient author named Satyrus, ascribe 
the institution to Lycurgus. The Ephori were an inter- 
mediate body betwixt the kings and the senate. They 
were called Ephori, or inspectors, because their attention 
was extended to every part of the machine of government 
They were five in number; and, to prevent any abuse 
of their authority, they were chosen annually by the peo- 
ple, the defenders of whose rights they were. They 
superintended the education of the youth. Every day 
they appeared in public, to decide causes, to arbitrate 
differences, and to prevent the introduction of any thing 
which might tend to the corruption of youth. They 
could oblige magistrates to render an account of their 
administration; they might even suspend them from 
their functions, and drag them to prison. The kings 
themselves were compelled to obey the third summons 
to appear before the Ephori and answer for any imputed 
fault. The whole executive power was vested in then- 
hands : they received foreign ambassadors, levied troops, 
and gave the general his orders, whom they could recal 
at pleasure. So many privileges secured them a venera- 
tion, which they justified from the rewards they bestow- 
ed on merit, by their attachment to ancient maxims, and 
by the firmness with which, on several occasions, they 
broke the force of conspiracies, which menaced the tran- 
quillity of the state."— T. 

5 To his memory.] — The Lacedaemonians having 
bound themselves by an oath not to abrogate any of the 
laws of Lycurgus before his return to Sparta, the legisla- 
tor went to consult the oracle at Sparta. He was told 
by the Pythian, that Sparta would be happy, as long 
as his laws were observed. Upon this he resolved to 
return no more, that he might thus be secure of the ob- 
servance of these institutions, to which they were so 
solemnly bound : he went to Crisa, and there slew him- 
self. The Lacedaemonians, hearing of this, in testimony 
of Ms former virtue, as well as of that which he discov- 
ered in his death, erected to him a temple, with an altar, 
at which they annually offered sacrifice to his honour, 
as to a hero. The above fact is mentioned both by Pau- 
sanias and PJutarch. — Larcher. 



CLIO. 



21 



ritory, they rapidly rose to prosperity and 
power. Dissatisfied with the languor and in- 
activity of peace, and conceiving themselves in 
all respects superior to the Tegeans, they sent 
to consult the oracle concerning the entire con- 
quest of Arcadia. The Pythian thus answered 
them : 

Ask ye Arcadia ? 'tis a bold demand ; 
A rough and hardy race defend the land. 
Repulsed by them, one only boon you gain, 
With frequent foot to dance on Tegea's plain, 
And o'er her fields the measuring-cord to strain. 

No sooner had the Lacedaemonians received 
this reply, than, leaving the other parts of Ar- 
cadia unmolested, they proceeded to attack the 
Tegeans, carrying a quantity of fetters with 
them. They relied upon the evasive declara- 
tion of the oracle, and imagined that they should 
infallibly reduce the Tegeans to servitude. 
They engaged them, and were defeated : 6 as 
many as were taken captive, were loaded with 
the fetters which themselves had brought, and 
thus employed in laborious service in the fields 
of the Tegeans. These chains were preserved, 
even in my remembrance, inTegea, hung round 
the temple of the Alean Minerva. 7 

LX VII. In the origin of their contests with 
the Tegeans, they were uniformly unsuccessful; 
but in the time of Crcesus, when Anaxandri- 
des and Ariston had the government of Sparta, 
they experienced a favourable change of fortune; 
which is thus to be explained : 

Having repeatedly been defeated by the 
Tegeans, they sent to consult the Delphic or- 
acle, what particular deity they had to appease, 
to become victorious over their adversaries. 
The Pythian assured them of success, if they 
brought back the body of Orestes son of Aga- 
memnon. Unable to discover his tomb, they 

6 Were defeated.]— This, incident happened during 
the reign of Charillus. The women of Tegea took up 
arms, and, placing themselves in ambuscade at the foot of 
mount Phylactris, they rushed upon the Lacedaemonians, 
who were already engaged with the Tegeans, and put 
them to flight. The above is from Pausanias. — Larcher. 
— Polyoenus relates the same fact. 

7 Temple of the Alean Minerva.] — This custom of 
suspending in sacred buildings the spoils taken from the 
enemy, commencing in the most remote and barbarous 
ages, has been continued to the present period. See 
Samuel, book ii. chap. 8. " And David took the shields 
of gold which were on the servants of Hadadezer, and 
brought them to Jerusalem ; which king David did dedi- 
cate unto the Lord, with the silver and gold of all nations 
which he subdued." 

These fetters taken from the Lacedaemonians were 
seen also in this temple in the time of Pausanias.— It is 
usual also with the moderns, to suspend in churches the 
colours taken from the enemy— T. 



sent a second time, to inquire concerning the 
place of his interment. The following was the 
oracular communication : 

A plain 9 within th' Arcadian land I know, 
Where double winds with forced exertion blow, 
Where form to form with mutual strength replies, 
And ill by other ills supported lies : 
That earth contains the great Atrides' son ; 
Take him, and conquer : Tegea then is Avon. 

After the above, the search for the body was 
without intermission continued : it was at 
length discovered by Lichas, 9 one of those 
Spartans distinguished by the name of Agatho- 
ergoi ; which title was usually conferred, after 
a long period of service among the cavalry. Of 
these citizens, five were every year permitted 
to retire ; but were expected, during the first 
year of their discharge, to visit different coun- 
tries, on the business of the public. 

L XVIII. Lichas, when in this situation, 
made the wished-for discovery, partly by good 
fortune, and partly by his own sagacity. They 
had at this time a commercial intercourse with 
the Tegeans ; and Lichas happening to visit a 
smith at his forge, observed with particular 
curiosity the process of working the iron. The 
man took notice of his attention, and desisted 
from his labour. " Stranger of Sparta," said 
he, " you seem to admire the art which you con- 
template : but how much more would your won- 
der be excited, if you knew all that I am able 
to communicate ! Near this place, as I was 
sinking a well, I found a coffin seven cubits 
long ; I never believed that men were formerly 
of larger dimensions than at present : l0 but 



8 A plain, fyc] — EviTix^podo; is singularly used here: 
it means, I presume, "then you may have to defend 
Tegea, having by victory become proprietor of it." — T. 

9 Discovered by Lichas.] — In honour of this Lichas the 
Lacedaemonians struck a medal : on one side was a head 
of Hercules ; on the reverse, a head with a long beard, 
and a singular ornament. — Larcher. 

10 Larger dimensions than at present.] — LJpon this 
subject of the degeneracy of the human race, whoever 
wishes to see what the greatest ingenuity can urge, will 
receive no small entertainment from the works of lord 
Monboddo. If in the time of Herodotus this seemed 
matter of complaint, what conclusions must an advocate 
of this theory draw concerning the stature of Ids brethren 
in the progress of an equal number of succeeding centur- 
ies!— T. 

In the perusal of history, traditions are to be found, of 
a pretended race of giants in every country of the globe, 
and even among the savages of Canada. Bones of an 
extraordinary size, found in different regions, have ob- 
tained such opinions credit. Some of these, in the time 
of Augustus, were exhibited at Caprea, formerly the re- 
sort of many savage and monstrous animals: these, it 
was pretended, were the bones of those giants who had 
fought against the gods. In 1613, they showed through 



22 



HERODOTUS. 



when I opened it, * I discovered a body equal 
in length to the coffin ; I correctly measured it, 
and placed it where I found it." Lichas, after 
hearing his relation, was induced to believe, 
that this might be the body of Orestes, con- 
cerning which the oracle had spoken. He was 
farther persuaded, when he recollected, that the 
bellows of the smith might intimate the two 
winds ; the anvil and the hammer might express 
one form opposing another j the iron, also, 
which was beaten, might signify ill succeeding 
ill, rightly conceiving that the use of iron oper- 
ated to the injury of mankind. With these 
ideas in his mind, he returned to Sparta, and 
related the matter to his countrymen ; who im- 
mediately, under pretence of some imputed 
crime, sent him into banishment. He returned 
to Tegea, told his misfortune to the smith, and 
hired of him the ground, which he at first re- 
fused positively to part with. He resided 
there for a certain space of time, when, digging 
up the body, he collected the bones, and re- 
turned with them to Sparta. The Lacedae- 
monians had previously obtained possession of 
a great part of the Peloponnese ; and, after the 
above-mentioned event, their contests with the 
Tegeans were attended with uninterrupted suc- 
cess. 

LXIX. Croesus was duly informed of all 
these circumstances : he accordingly sent mes- 
sengers to Sparta with presents, at the same 
time directing them to form an offensive alli- 
ance with the people. They delivered their 
message in these terms : " Croesus, sovereign 
of Lydia, and of various nations, thus addresses 
himself to Sparta : — I am directed by the ora- 
cles to form a Grecian alliance ; and, as I know 
you to be pre-eminent above all the states of 
Greece, I, without collusion of any kind, de- 
sire to become your friend and ally." The 
Lacedaemonians having heard of the oracular 
declaration to Croesus, were rejoiced at his dis- 
tinction- in their favour, and instantly acceded 
to his proposed terms of confederacy. It is to 

Europe, the bones of the giant Teutobachus : unluckily, 
a naturalist proved them to be the bones of an elephant. 
—Larcher. 

1 Opened it] — It may be asked how Orestes, who nei- 
ther reigned nor resided at Tegea, could possibly be 
buried there? — Strabo, in general terms, informs us, 
that he died in Arcadia, whilst conducting an JEolian 
colony. Stephen of Byzantium is more precise : he says, 
that Orestes, being bitten by a viper, died at a place call- 
ed Orestium. His body was doubtless carried to Tege- 
um, which is at no great distance, as he was descended, 
by his grandmother iErope, from Tegyates the founder 
of Tegea.— Larcher. 



be observed, that Croesus had formerly rendered 
kindness to the Lacedaemonians : they had sent 
to Sardis to purchase some gold for the purpose 
of erecting the statue of Apollo, which is still 
to be seen at mount Thornax ; Croesus present- 
ed them with all they wanted. 

LXX. Influenced by this consideration, as 
well as by his decided partiality to them, they 
entered into all his views : they declared them- 
selves ready to give such assistance as he want- 
ed j and farther to mark their attachment, they 
prepared, as a present for the king, a brazen 
vessel, capable of containing three hundred 
amphorae, and ornamented round the brim with 
the figures of various animals. This, however, 
never reached Sardis ; the occasion of which is 
thus differently explained. The Lacedaemon- 
ians affirm, that their vessel was intercepted 
near Samos, on its way to Sardis, by the Sam- 
ians, who had fitted out some ships of war for 
this particular purpose. The Samians, on the 
contrary, assert, that the Lacedaemonians em- 
ployed on this business did not arrive in time ; 
but, hearing that Sardis was lost, and Croesus 
in captivity, they disposed of their charge to 
some private individuals of Samos, who pre- 
sented it to the temple of Juno. They who 
acted this part, might perhaps, on their return 
to Sparta, declare, that the vessel had been vio- 
lently taken from them by the Samians. 

LXXI. Croesus, in the mean time, deluded 
by the words of the oracle, prepared to lead his 
forces into Cappadocia, in full expectation of 
becoming conqueror of Cyrus, and of Persia. 
Whilst he was employed in providing for his 
expedition, a certain Lydian named Sardanis, 
who had always, among his countrymen, the 
reputation of wisdom, and became still more 
memorable from this occasion, thus addressed 
Croesus : " You meditate, O king ! an attack 
upon men who are clothed with the skins of 
animals ; 2 who, inhabiting a country but little 
cultivated, live on what they can procure, not 
on what they wish ; strangers to the taste of 
wine, they drink water only ; 8 even figs are a 



2 Skins of animals.'}— Dresses made of the skins of 
animals are of the highest antiquity. Not to mention 
those of Adam and Eve, the Scythians and other north- 
ern nations used them as a defence against the cold. 
Even the inhabitants of warmer climates wore them be- 
fore they came civilized. — Bellanger. 

3 Drink water only.] — Xenophon, as well as Herodo- 
tus, informs us, that the Persians drank only water : 
nevertheless our historian, in another place, says that 
the Persians were addicted to wine. In this there is no 
contradiction : when these Persians were poor, a little 



CLIO. 



23 



delicacy with which they are unacquainted, and 
all our luxuries are entirely unknown to them. 
If you conquer them, what can you take from 
them, who have nothing? but if you shall be 
defeated, it becomes you to think of what you 
on your part will be deprived. When they 
shall once have tasted our delicacies, we shall 
never again be able to get rid of them. I in- 
deed am thankful to the gods for not inspiring 
the Persians with the wish of invading Lydia. " 
Croesus disregarded this admonition : it is 
nevertheless certain, that the Persians, before 
their conquest of Lydia, were strangers to every 
species of luxury. 

LXXII. The Cappadocians are by the 
Greeks called Syrians. Before the empire of 
Persia existed, they were under the dominion 
of the Medes, though now in subjection to 
Cyrus. The different empires of the Lydians 
and the Medes were divided by the river 
Halys ; 4 which rising in a mountain of Ar- 
menia, passes through Cilicia, leaving in its 
progress the Matienians on its right, and Phry- 
gia on its left : then stretching towards the 
north, it separates the Cappadocian Syrians 
from Paphlagonia, which is situated on the left 
of the stream. Thus the river Halys separates 
all the lower parts of Asia, from the sea which 
flows opposite to Cyprus, as far as the Euxine, 
a space over which an active man 5 could not 
travel in less than five days. 6 

LXXIII. Croesus continued to advance 
towards Cappadocia ; he was desirous of adding 
the country to his dominions, but he was prin- 
cipally influenced by his confidence in the 
oracle, and his zeal for revenging on Cyrus the 
cause of Astyages. Astyages was son of 
Cyaxares king of the Medes, and brother-in- 



satisfied them : rendered rich by the conquests of Cyrus 
and Ms successors, luxury, and all its concomitant vices, 
was introduced among them. — Larcher. 

4 Halys.] — The stream of this river was colder than 
any in Ionia, and celebrated for that quality by the ele- 
giac poets. — Chandler's Travels in Asia Minor. 

5 Active man, fyc] — The Greek is ev^tuvtu avtiy, literally, 
in English, a well-girt man. The expression is imitated 
by Horace : 

Hoc iter ignavi divisimus — altius ac nos 
Pracinctis unurn T. 

6 Five days.'] — Scymnus of Chios, having remarked 
that the Euxine is a seven day's journey distant from 
Cilicia, adduces the present passage as a proof of our 
historian's ignorance. Scymnus probably estimated the 
day's journey at 150 furlongs, which was sometimes 
done ; whilst Herodotus makes it 200. Tliis makes, 
between their two accounts, a difference of 50 furlongs ; 
a difference too small to put any one out of temper with 
our historian.— Larcher. 



law to Croesus ; he was now vanquished, and 
detained in captivity by Cyrus, son of Cam- 
byses. The affinity betwixt Croesus and Asty- 
ages was of this nature : — Some tumult having 
arisen among the Scythian Nomades, a number 
of them retired clandestinely into the territories 
of the Medes, where Cyaxares son of Phraor- 
tes, and grandson of Deioces, was at that time 
king. He received the fugitives under his pro- 
tection, and, after showing them many marks 
of his favour, he entrusted some boys to their 
care, to learn their language, and the Scythian 
management of the bow. 7 These Scythians 
employed much of their time in hunting, in 
which they were generally, though not alike 
successful. Cyaxares, it seems, was of an 
irritable disposition, and meeting them one day, 
when they returned without any game, he treated 
them with much insolence and asperity. They 
conceived themselves injured, and determined 
not to acquiesce in the affront. After some 
consultation among themselves, they determin- 
ed to kill one of the children entrusted to their 
care, to dress him as they were accustomed to 
do their game, and to serve him up to Cyaxares. 
Having done this, they resolved to fly to Sardis, 
where Alyattes, son of Sadyattes, was king. 
They executed their purpose. Cyaxares and 
his guests partook of the human flesh, and the 
j Scythians immediately sought the protection of 
I Alyattes. 

LXXIV. Cyaxares demanded their persons ; 
on refusal of which, a war commenced betwixt 
the Lydians and the Medes, which continued 
five years. It was attended with various suc- 
cess : and it is remarkable, that one of their 
engagements took place in the night. 8 In the 



7 Scythian management of the bow.]— The Scythians 
had the reputation of being excellent archers. The 
scholiast of Theocritus informs us, that, according to 
Herodotus and Callimachus, Hercules learned the art 
of the bow from the Scythian Teutarus. Theocritus 
himself says, that Hercules learned tins art from Eury- 
tus, one of the Argonauts. The Athenians had Scythians 
amongst their troops, as had probably the other Greeks. 
— Larcher. 

8 Took place in the mg-M]— Upon this passage I am 
favoured, by an ingenious friend, with the following 
note. 

" I am inclined to think that one event only is spoken 
of here by Herodotus; and that by wxtou.»x" ,cv Ttvoc he 
meant to express a kind of night-engagement, of which 
the subsequent sentence contains the particulars. Other- 
wise it seems strange, that he should mention the wxto- 
IAa.%10. as a remarkable occurrence, and not give any par- 
ticulars concerning it. The objections to this interpreta- 
tion are, the connecting the sentence by Ss instead of y«{, 
and the following account, that they ceased to fight after 



24 



HERODOTUS. 



sixth year, when neither side could reasonably 
claim superiority, in the midst of an engage- 
ment the day was suddenly involved in darkness. 
This phenomenon, and the particular period at 
which it was to happen, had been foretold to 
the Ionians by Thales ' the Milesian. Awed 
by the solemnity of the event, the parties de- 
sisted from the engagement, and it farther influ- 
enced them both to listen to certain propositions 
for peace, which were made by Syennesis of 
Cilicia, and Labynetus a of Babylon. To 
strengthen the treaty, these persons also recom- 
mended a matrimonial connection. They ad- 
vised that Alyattes should give Aryenis his 
daughter to Astyages son of Cyaxares, from 
the just conviction that no political engage- 
ments are durable unless strengthened by the 
closest of all possible bonds. 3 The ceremony 
of confirming alliances is the same in this na- 
tion as in Greece, with this addition, that both 
parties wound themselves in the arm and mu- 
tually lick the blood. 4 

the eclipse came on ; but neither of these are insuperable. 
The interpretation of rivot, is perfectly fair, and not un- 
usual. Astronomers have affirmed, from calculation, that 
this eclipse must have happened in the seventh year of 
Astyages, not in the reign of Cyaxares." 

1 Foretold to the Ionians by Thales.] — Of Thales, the 
life is given by Diogenes Laertius ; many particulars also 
concerning him are to be found in Plutarch, Pliny, Lac- 
tantius, Apuleius, and Cicero. He was the first of the 
seven wise men, the first also who distinguished lumself 
by his knowledge of astrology ; add to which, he was the 
first who predicted an eclipse. His most memorable 
saying was, that he was thankful to the gods for three 
things— That he was born a man, and not a beast ; that 
he was born a man, and not a woman; that he was born 
a Greek, and not a Barbarian. The darkness in the Iliad, 
which surprises the Greeks and Trojans in the midst of a 
severe battle, though represented as preternatural, and 
the immediate interposition of Jupiter lumself, has not 
the effect of suspending the battle. This might, perhaps, 
afford matter of discussion, did not the description of the 
darkness, and the subsequent prayer of Aj ax, from their 
beauty and sublimity, exclude all criticism. — T. 

2 Labynetus.] — The same, says Prideaux, with the 
Nebuchadnezzar of scripture. He was called, continues 
the same author, by Berosus, Nabonnedus ; by Megas- 
thenes, Nabonnidichus ; by Josephus, Naboardelus. — T. 

3 Strengthened by the closest of all possible bonds.'] — It is 
not, perhaps, much to the credit of modern refinement, 
that political intermarriages, betwixt those of royal blood, 
seem anciently to have been considered as more solemn 
in themselves, and to have operated more effectually to 
the security of the public peace, than at present — T. 

4 Lick the blood.]— The Scythians, according to Hero- 
dotus, have a custom nearly similar. " If the Siamese 
wish to vow an eternal friendship, they make an incision 
in some part of the body, till the blood appears, which 
they afterwards reciprocally drink. In this manner the 
ancient Scythians and Babylonians ratified alliances ; and 
almost all the modern nations of the Ea3t observe the 
same custom."— Civil and Natural History of Sia?n. 



LXXV. Astyages, therefore, was the grand- 
father of Cyrus, though at this time vanquished 
by him, and his captive, the particulars of 
which event I shall hereafter relate. This was 
what excited the original enmity of Croesus, and 
prompted him to inquire of the oracle whether 
he should make war upon Persia. The delu- 
sive reply which was given him, he interpreted 
in a manner the most favourable to himself, 
and proceeded in his concerted expedition. 
When he arrived at the river Halys, he passed 
over his forces on bridges, which he there found 
constructed ; although the Greeks in general 
assert, that this service was rendered him by 
Thales the Milesian. Whilst Croesus was 
hesitating over what part of the river he should 
attempt a passage, as there was no bridge then 
constructed, Thales divided it into two branch- 
es. He sunk a deep trench, 5 which commenc- 
ing above the camp, from the river, was in 
the form of a semi-circle conducted round till 
it again met the ancient bed. It thus became 
easily fordable on either side. There are some 
who say, that the old channel was entirely dried 
up, to which opinion I can by no means assent, 
for then their return would have been equally 
difficult. 

LXXVI. Croesus having passed over with 
his army, came into that part of Cappadocia 
which is called Pteria, the best situated in 
point of strength of all that district, and near 
the city of Sinope, on the Euxine. He here 
fixed his station, and, after wasting the Syrian 
lands, besieged and took the Pterians' principal 
city. He destroyed also the neighbouring 
towns, and almost exterminated the Syrians, 
from whom he had certainly received no injury. 
Cyrus at length collected his forces," and, taking 
with him those nations which lay betwixt him- 
self and the invader, advanced to meet him. 
Before he began his march, he despatched 

5 Sunk a deep trench. ] — Anciently, when they wanted 
to construct a bridge, they began by adding another chan- 
nel to the river, to turn off the waters : when the ancient 
bed was dry, or at least when there was but little water 
left, the bridge was erected. Thus it was much less 
troublesome to Croesus to turn the river than to construct 
a bridge. — Lurcher. 

6 Cyrus at length collected his forces.] — Cyrus, intimi- 
dated by the threats of Croesus, was inclined to retire 
into India. His wife Bardane inspired him with new 
courage, and advised him to consult Daniel, who, on more 
than one occasion, had predicted future events, both to 
her and to Darius the Mede. Cyrus having consulted 
the prophet, received from him an assurance of victory. 
To me this seems one of those fables which the Jews and 
earlier Christians made no scruple of asserting as truths 
not to be disputed. — Larcher. 



CLIO. 



25 



emissaries to the Ionians, with the view of de- 
taching them from Croesus. This not succeed- 
ing, he moved forwards and attacked Croesus in 
his camp ; they engaged on the plains of Pteria, 
with the greatest ardour on both sides. The 
battle was continued with equal violence and 
loss till night parted the combatants, leaving 
neither in possession of victory. 

LXXV1L The army of Croesus being 
inferior in number, and Cyrus on the morrow 
discovering no inclination to renew the engage- 
ment, the Lydian prince determined to return 
to Sardis, intending to claim the assistance of 
the Egyptians, with whose king, Amasis, he 
had formed an alliance, previous to his treaty 
with the Lacedaemonians. He had also made 
an offensive and defensive league with the 
Babylonians, over whom Labynetus was then 
king. 7 With these, in addition to the Lacedae- 
monian aids, who were to be ready at a stipu- 
lated period, he resolved, after spending a 
certain time in winter quarters, to attack the 
Persians early in the spring. Full of these 
thoughts, Croesus returned to Sardis, and 
immediately sent messengers to his different 
allies, requiring them to meet at Sardis within 
the space of five months. The troops which 
he had led against the Persians, being chiefly 
mercenaries, he disembodied and dismissed, 
never supposing that Cyrus, who had certainly 
no claims of victory to assert, would think of 
following him to Sardis. 

LXXVIH. Whilst the mind of Croesus 
was thus occupied, the lands near his capital 
were filled with a multitude of serpents ; and it 
was observed that to feed on these, the horses 
neglected and forsook their pastures. 8 Croesus 
conceiving this to be of mysterious import, 
which it unquestionably was, sent to make en- 
quiry of the Telmessian priests 9 concerning it. 

7 Labynetus was then king.]— Labynetus was the last 
king of Babylon. He united himself with Croesus to 
repress the too great power of Cyrus. The conduct of 
Amasis was prompted by a similar motive. — Laicher, 

8 Forsook their pastures.] — There is a collection of 
prodigies by Julius Obsequens; all of which were under- 
stood to be predictive of some momentous event. Amongst 
these, the example of some mice eating the gold conse- 
crated to the use of a divinity, and deposited in his temple, 
is not less remarkable than the instance before us. The 
English reader, may, perhaps, construe tlus as rather 
expressive of the preceding avarice or poverty of the 
priests, than as predictive of the destruction of Carthage, 
to which event this with other prodigies was made to 
refer.— T. 

9 Telmessian priests.] — Telmessus was a son of Apollo, 
by one of the daughters of Antenor. The god had com- 
merce with her under the form of a little drtg; and to 



The answer which his messengers received, ex- 
plaining the prodigy, they had no opportunity 
of communicating to Croesus, for before they 
could possibly return to Sardis, he was defeated 
and a captive. 

The Telmessians had thus interpreted the 
incident : — that a foreign army was about to 
attack Croesus, on whose arrival the natives 
woidd be certainly subdued ; for as the serpent 
was produced from the earth, the horse might be 
considered both as a foreigner and an enemy. 
When the ministers of the oracle reported this 
answer to Croesus, he was already in captivity, 
of which, and of the events which accompanied 
it, they were at that time ignorant. 

LXXIX. Cyrus was well informed that it 
was the intention of Croesus, after the battle of 
Pteria, to dismiss his forces ; he conceived it 
therefore advisable to advance with all imaginable 
expedition to Sardis, before the Lydian forces 
could be again collected. The measure was no 
sooner concerted than executed ; and conduct- 
ing his army instantly into Lydia, he was him- 
self the messenger of his arrival. Croesus, 
although distressed by an event so contrary to 
his foresight and expectation, lost no time in 
preparing the Lydians for battle. At that 
period no nation of Asia was more hardy or 
more valiant than the Lydians. They fought 
principally on horseback, armed with long 
spears, and were very expert in the manage- 
ment of the horse. 

LXXX. The field of battle was a spacious 
and open plain in the vicinity of Sardis, inter- 
sected by many streams, and by the Hyllus in 
particular, all of which united with one larger 
than the rest, called the Hermus. This rising 
in the mountain, which is sacred to Cybele, 
finally empties itself into the sea, near the city 
Phocaea. Here Cyrus found the Lydians pre- 
pared for the encounter ; and as he greatly 
feared the impression of their cavalry, by the 
advice of Harpagus the Mede, he took the fol- 
lowing means of obviating the danger. He 
collected all the camels which followed his 
camp, carrying the provisions and other bag- 
gage ; taking from these their burdens, he 
placed on them men accoutred as horsemen. 
Thus prepared, he ordered them to advance 
against the Lydian horse ; his infantry were to 



make her compensation, endowed her with the faculty 
of interpreting prodigies. Telmessus, her son, had the 
same gift. He was interred under the altar of Apollo, 
in the city of Telmessa, of which lie was probably the 
founder. — I.archer. 

D 



26 



HERODOTUS. 



follow in the rear of the camels, and his own 
cavalry ' closed the order of the attack. Having 
thus arranged his forces, he commanded that 
no quarter should be granted to the Lydians, 
but that whoever resisted should be put to death, 
Croesus himself excepted, who, whatever op- 
position he might make, was at all events to 
be taken alive. He placed his camels in the 
van, knowing the hatred which a horse has to 
this animal, 2 being neither able to support the 
smell nor the sight of it. He was satisfied that 
the principal dependence of Croesus was on his 
cavalry, which he hoped by this stratagem to 
render ineffective. The engagement had no 
sooner commenced, than the horses seeing and 
smelling the camels, threw their own ranks into 
disorder, to the total discomfiture of Croesus. 
Nevertheless the Lydians did not immediately 
surrender the day : they discovered the strata- 
gem, and quitting their horses, engaged the 
Persians on foot ; a great number of men fell 
on both sides ; but the Lydians were finally 
compelled to fly, and, retreating within their 
walls, were there closely besieged. 

LXXXI. Croesus, believing the siege would 
be considerably protracted, sent other emis- 
saries to his different confederates. The ten- 
dency of his former engagements was to require 
their presence at Sardis within five months. 
He now entreated the immediate assistance of 
his other allies, in common with the Lacedae- 
monians. 

LXXXIL At this crisis the Spartans them- 
selves were engaged in dispute with the Ar- 
gives, concerning the possession of a place 
called Thyrea ; 3 of which, although it really 
constituted a part of the Argive territories, the 
Lacedaemonians had taken violent possession. 



1 His own cavalry. ~\ — Xenophon remarks, book the 
seventh of the Cyropaedia, at the beginning-, that the cav- 
alry with which Cyrus proceeded on his march against 
Croesus, were covered on their heads and breasts with 
mails of brass. This may serve perhaps as an explana- 
tory comment- on Jeremiah, chap. li. verse 27, " Cause 
the horses to come up as a rough caterpillar;" that is, 
perhaps, with mails of brass on their heads and necks. 

Locusts are compared to horses and horsemen, in the 
book of Joel, chap. ii. verse 4. — " The appearance of them 
is as the appearance of horses, and like horsemen shall 
they run."— T. 

2 Horse has to this animal.']— This natural antipathy 
of the horse for the camel is affirmed by the ancients ; 
but it is disproved by daily experience, and derided by 
the best judges, the Orientals. — Gibbon. 

3 Called Thyrea.'] — Thyrea was, from its situation, a 
place of infinite importance to the Argives, as they ob- 
tained by it a communication with all their other posses- 
sions on that side.— J. archer. 



All that tract of country which extends from 
Argos, westward, to Malea, as well the conti- 
nent as Cythera, and the other islands, belonged 
to the Argives. They prepared to defend the 
part of their territories which had been attack- 
ed ; but the parties coming to a conference, it 
was agreed that three hundred men on each side 
should decide the dispute, and that Thyrea 
should be the reward of victory. Both the 
armies, by agreement, were to retire to their 
respective homes, lest remaining on the field 
of battle either should be induced to render 
assistance to their party. After their departure, 
the men who had been selected for the purpose 
came to an engagement, and fought with so 
little inequality, that out of six hundred but 
three remained, when night alone had termi- 
nated the contest. Of the Argives two sur- 
vived, whose names were Alcenor and Chro- 
mius : they hastened to Argos, and claimed 
the victory. The Lacedaemonian was called 
Othryades, who, plundering the bodies of the 
slaughtered Argives, removed their arms to the 
camp of his countrymen, and then resumed his 
post in the field. On the second day after the 
event, the parties met, and both claimed the 
victory, the Argives, because the greater num- 
ber of their men survived ; the Lacedaemonians, 
because the Argives who remained had fled, 
but their single man had continued in the field, 
and plundered the bodies of his adversaries. 
Their altercations terminated in a battle, 4 in 
which, after considerable loss on both sides, 
the Lacedaemonians were victorious. From 
this time and incident the Argives, who for- 
merly suffered their hair to grow in full length, 
cut it short, binding themselves, by a solemn 
imprecation, that till Thyrea should be recover- 
ed no man shall permit his hair to increase, nor 
Argive woman adorn herself with gold. The 
Lacedaemonians, on the contrary, issued an 
edict, that as they formerly wore their hair 
short, 5 it should henceforth be permitted to 

4 Terminated in a battle.] — Plutarch, on the contrary 
affirms, that the Ampmetyons coming to the spot, and 
bearing testimony to the valour of Othryades, adjudged 
the victory to the Lacedaemonians. He makes no men- 
tion of a second battle.— Larclier. 

5 Formerly wore tlieir hair short] — All the Greeks 
formerly wore their hair very long, which is evident 
from the epithet so repeatedly given them by Homer, of 
long-haired. Xenophon, in contradiction to the passage 
before us, remarks, that the Lacedaemonian custom of 
suffering the hair to grow, was amongst the institutions 
of Lycurgus. Plutarch also denies the fact here intro- 
duced.— Larclier: 

This battle necessarily brings to mird the contest of 



CLIO. 



27 



grow. It is reported of Othryades, the survi- 
vor of his three hundred countrymen, that 
-ashamed to return to Sparta, when all his com- 
rades had so honourably died, he put himself to 
death at Thyrea. 

LX XXIII. Whilst the Spartans were in 
this situation, the Sardian messenger arrived, 
relating the extreme danger of Croesus, and re- 
questing their immediate assistance. This they 
without hesitation resolved to give. Whilst 
they were making for this purpose preparations 
of men and ships, a second messenger brought 
intelligence, that Sardis was taken, and Croesus 
in captivity. Strongly impressed by this won- 
derful calamity, the Lacedaemonians made no 
farther efforts. 

LXXXIV. Sardis was thus taken : — On 
the fourteenth day of the siege, Cyrus sent 
some horsemen round his camp, promising a 
reward to whoever should first scale the wall. 
The attempt was made, but without success. 
After which a certain Mardian, whose name 
was Hyraeades, 6 made a daring effort on a part 
of the citadel where no centinel was stationed; 
it being so strong and so difficult of approach 
as seemingly to defy all attack. Around this 
place alone Meles had neglected to carry his son 
Leon; whom he had by a concubine, the Tel- 
messian priests having declared, that Sardis 
should never be taken, if Leon were carried 
round the walls. Leon, it seems, was carried by 
his father round every part of the citadel which 
was exposed to attack. He omitted taking him 

the Horatii and Curiatii, which- decided the empire of 
Rome. The account which Suidas gives of Othryades, 
differs essentially. Othryades, says he, was wounded, 
and concealed himself amongst the bodies of the slain ; 
and when Alcenor and Chromius, the Argives who sur- 
vived, were departed, he himself stripped the bodies of 
the enemy, erected thus a trophy, as it were, of human 
blood, and immediately died. — T. 

6 Hyrceades.] — Of this person Xenophondoes not give 
us the name. According to him, a Persian who had been 
the slave of a man on military duty in the citadel, served 
as guide to the troops of Cyrus. In other respects, his 
account of the capture of Sardis differs but little from 
that of our Historian. — Larcher. 

By means of this very rock, and by asimilar stratagem, 
Sardis was a long time afterwards taken, under the con- 
duct of Antiochus. The circumstances are described 
at length by Polybius. An officer had observed, that 
vultures and birds of prey gathered there about the offals 
and dead bodies thrown into the hollow by the besieged ; 
and inferred that the wall standing on the edge of the 
precipice was neglected, as secure from attack. He scaled 
it with a resolute party, wliile Antiochus called off the 
attention both of his own army and of the enemy, by a 
feint, marching as if he intended to attack the Persian 
gate. Two thousand soldiers rushed in at the gate open- 
ed for them, and took their post at the theatre, when the 
town was plundered and burned. — T. 



round that which is opposite to mount Tmolus, 
from the persuasion that its natural strength ren- 
dered all modes of defence unnecessary. Here, 
however, the Mardian had the preceding day ob- 
served a Lydian descend to recover his helmet, 
which had fallen down the precipice. He 
revolved the incident in his mind. He at- 
tempted to scale it ; he was seconded by other 
Persians, and their example followed by greater 
numbers. In this manner was Sardis stormed, 7 
and afterwards given up to plunder. 

LXXXV. We have now to speak of the 
fate of Croesus. He had a son, as we have 
before related, who though accomplished in 
other respects, was unfortunately dumb. 
Croesus in his former days of good fortune, had 
made every attempt to obtain a cure for this 
infirmity. Amongst other things, he sent to 
inquire of the Delphic oracle. The Pythian 
returned this answer . — 

Wide ruling Lydian, in thy wishes wild, 
Ask not to hear the accents of thy child ; 
Far better were his silence for thy peace, 
And sad will be the day when that shall cease. 
During the storm of the city, a Persian meet- 
ing Croesus, was, through ignorance of his per- 
son, about to kill him. The king overwhelmed 
by his calamity, took no care to avoid the blow 
or escape death ; but his dumb son, when he 
saw the violent designs of the Persian, over- 
come with astonishment and terror, exclaimed 
aloud, " Oh man, do not kill Croesus !" 8 
This was the first time he had ever articulated, 
but he retained the faculty of speech from this 
event as long as he lived. 

7 In this manner was Sardis stormed.] — Polyaenus re- 
lates the matter differently. According to him Cyrii3 
availed himself of a truce which he had concluded with 
Croesus, to advance his forces, and making his approach 
by night, took the city by surprise. Croesus still remain- 
ing in possession of the citadel, expected the arrival of 
his Grecian succours : but Cyrus putting in irons the 
relations and friends of those who defended the citadel, 
showed them in that state to the besieged ; at the same 
time he informed them by a herald, that if they would 
give up the place he would set their friends at liberty ; 
but that if they persevered in their defence, he would 
put them to death. The besieged chose rather to sur- 
render, than cause their relations to perish. — T. 

8 " Do not kill Croesus ! "] — Mr Hayley, in his Essay 
on History, reprobating the irreligious spirit of Mr Gib- 
bon, happily introduces this incident. 

My verse, says the Poet, 

—Breathes an honest sigh of deep concern, 
And pities genius, when his wild career 
Gives faith a wound, and innocence a fear. 
Humility herself, divinely mild, 
Sublime Religion's meek and modest child, 
Like the dumb son of Croesus, in the strife 
Where force assail'd his father's sacred life, 
Breaks silence, and with filial duty warm, 
Bids thee revere her parent's hallowed form. 



28 



HERODOTUS. 



L XX XVI. The Persians thus obtained 
possession of Sardis, and made Croesus captive, 
when he had reigned fourteen years, and after 
a siege of fourteen days ; a mighty empire, 
agreeably to the prediction which had deluded 
him, being then destroyed. The Persians 
brought him to the presence of Cyrus, who 
ordered him to be placed in chains upon the 
summit of a huge wooden pile, 1 and fourteen 
Lydiari youths 2 around him. He did this, 
either desirous of offering to some deity the 
first fruits of his victory, in compliance with 
some vow which he had made ; or, perhaps, 
anxious to know whether any deity would 
liberate Croesus, of whose piety he had heard, 
from the danger of being consumed by fire. 
When Croesus stood erect upon the pile, al- 
though in this extremity of misery, he did not 
forget the saying of Solon, which now appeared 
of divine inspiration, that no living mortal could 
be accounted happy. When the memory of 
this saying occurred to Croesus, it is said, that 
rousing himself from the profoundest silence 
of affliction, he thrice pronounced aloud the 
name of Solon. 3 Cyrus hearing this, desired 

1 A huge wooden pile.]— The cruelty of this conduct 
of Cyrus is aggravated from the consideration that Croe- 
sus was his relation. See chap. 73. — T. 

2 Fourteen Lydian youths.'] — Achilles, in the Iliad, 
sacrifices twelve Trojan youths at the funeral pile of 
Patroclus : 

And twelve sad victims of the Trojan line 
Sacred to vengeance, instant shall expire, 
Their lives effus'd around thy funeral pyxc. 
Again, 

Then last of all, and horrible to tell, 
Sad sacrifice, twelve Trojan captives fell. 

The reader will, doubtless, agree with me, that the 
word sad is in both these places very ill and feebly ap- 
plied by Mr Pope in his version. The expression of 
Homer is a-yXoc.cc tikvo,, — illustrious youths or sons. — T. 

3 The name of Solon.]— It seems in this place not im- 
proper to introduce from Plutarch the following parti- 
culars, with respect to Croesus and Solon. That Solon, 
says Plutarch, should converse with Croesus, seems to 
some not consistent with chronology ; but I cannot for 
this reason reject a relation so credible in itself, and so 
well attested. Plutarch, after this remark, proceeds to 
give an account of the conversation betwixt Crcesus and 
Solon, nearly in the same words with Herodotus : " The 
felicity of that man," concludes the philosopher, to the 
king, " who still lives, is like the glory of a wrestler still 
within the ring, precarious and uncertain." He was 
then dismissed, having vexed but not instructed Crcesus. 
But when Crcesus was conquered by Cyrus, his city taken, 
and himself a prisoner, he was bound, and about to be 
burned on a pile ; then he remembered the words of So- 
lon, and three times pronounced Ms name. The explana- 
tion given at the request of Cyrus, preserved the life of 
Crcesus, and obtained him respect and honour with his 
conqueror. Thus Solon had the glory, by the same say- 
ing, to instruct one prince and preserve another. — Plu- 
tarch's life of Solon. 



by his interpreters to know who it was that he 
invoked. They approached, and asked him, 
but he continued silent. At length, being 
compelled to explain himself, he said, " I nam- 
ed a man with whom I had rather that all kings 
should converse, than be master of the greatest 
riches." Not being sufficiently understood, he 
was solicited to be more explicit ; to their re- 
peated and importunate inquiries, he replied to 
this effect : That Solon, an Athenian, had for- 
merly visited him, a man who, when he had 
seen all his immense riches, treated them with 
disdain : whose sayings were at that moment 
verified in his fate ; sayings which he had ap- 
plied not to him in particular, but to all man- 
kind, and especially to those who were in their 
own estimation happy. While Crcesus was 
thus speaking the pile was lighted, and the flame 
began to ascend. Cyrus being informed of 
what had passed, felt compunction for what he 
had done. His heart reproached him, that be- 
ing himself a mortal, he had condemned to a 
cruel death by fire a man formerly not inferior 
to himself. He feared the anger of the gods, 
and reflecting that all human affairs are preca- 
rious and uncertain, he commanded the fire to 
be instantly extinguished, and Crcesus to be 
saved with his companions. The flames, how- 
ever, repelled the efforts of the ministers of 
Cyrus. 

LXXXVIL In this extremity the Lydians 
affirm, that Croesus, informed of the change of 
the king's sentiments in his favour, by seeing 
the officious efforts of the multitude to extin- 
guish the flames, which seemed likely to be in- 
effectual, implored the assistance of Apollo, 
entreating, that if he had ever made him any ac- 
ceptable offering, 4 he would now interpose, and 
deliver him from the impending danger. When 
Croesus, with tears, had thus invoked the god, 
the sky, which before was serene and tranquil, 
suddenly became dark and gloomy, a violent 
storm of rain succeeded, and the fire of the pile 
was extinguished. This event satisfied Cyrus 
that Croesus was both a good man in himself, 
and a favourite of heaven : causing him to be 
taken down from the pile, " Croesus," said he, 
addressing him, " what could induce you to in- 



4 Ever made him any acceptable offering.]— Marcher 
is of opinion, that in this passage Herodotus must have 
had in his eye the following lines of Homer : 

Thou source of light, whom Tenedos adores, 

And whose bright presence gilds thy Chrysa's shores ; 

If e'er with wreaths I hung thy sacred fane, 

Or fed the flames with fat of oxen slain, 

God of the silver bow, &r — 

Iliad, Book i. v. ■ r >5. of Pole's Translation. 



CLIO. 



29 



vade my territories, and become my enemy 
rather than my friend?" " Oh king," replied 
Croesus, " it was the prevalence of your good 
and of my evil fortune which prompted my at- 
tempt. I attacked your dominions, impelled 
and deluded by the deity of the Greeks. No 
one can be so infatuated as not to prefer tran- 
quillity to war. In peace children inter their 
parents ; war violates the order of nature, and 
causes parents to inter their children. It must 
have pleased the gods that these things should 
so happen." 

LXXXVIII. Cyrus immediately ordered 
him to be unbound, placed him near his person, 
and treated him with great respect ; indeed he 
excited the admiration of all who were present. 
After an interval of silent meditation, Croesus 
observed the Persians engaged in the plunder 
of the city. " Does it become me, Cyrus," 
said he, " to continue silent on this occasion, or 
to speak the sentiments of my heart ?" Cyrus 
entreated him to speak without apprehension or 
reserve. " About what," he returned, " is that 
multitude so eagerly employed ?" " They are 
plundering your city," replied Cyrus, " and pos- 
sessing themselves of your wealth." " No," 
answered Croesus, " they do not plunder my 
city, nor possess themselves of my wealth, I 
have no concern with either ; it is your pro- 
perty which they are thus destroying." 

L XX XIX. These words disturbed Cyrus ; 
desiring therefore those who were present to 
withdraw, he asked Crcesus what measures he 
would recommend in the present emergence. 
" The gods," answered Croesus, " have made 
me your captive, and you are therefore justly 
entitled to the benefit of my reflections. Na- 
ture has made the Persians haughty but poor. 
If you permit them to indulge without restraint 
this spirit of devastation, by which they may 
become rich, it is probable that your acquies- 
cence may thus foster a spirit of rebellion 
against yourself. I would recommend the fol- 
lowing mode to be adopted, if agreeable to your 
wisdom : station some of your guards at each 
of the gates, let it be their business to stop the 
plunderers with their booty, and bid them as- 
sign as a reason, that one tenth part must be 
consecrated to Jupiter. Thus you will not 
incur their enmity by any seeming violence of 
conduct ; they will even accede without reluc- 
tance to your views, under the impression of 
your being actuated by a sense of duty. " 

XC. Cyrus was delighted with the advice, 
and immediately adopted it ; he stationed guards 



in the manner recommended by Croesus, whom 
he soon after thus addressed : " Croesus, your 
conduct and your words mark a princely char- 
acter, I desire you, therefore, to request of me 
whatever you please, and your wish shall be in- 
stantly gratified." " Sir," replied Croesus, "you 
Mall materially oblige me, by your permission 
to send these fetters to the god of Greece, 5 
whom, above all others, I have honoured ; and 
to inquire of him. whether it be his rule to de- 
lude those who have claims upon his kindness." 
When Cyrus expressed a wish to know the 
occasion of this implied reproach, Croesus inge- 
nuously explained each particular of his conduct, 
the oracles he had received, and the gifts he 
had presented; declaring, that these induced 
him to make war upon the Persians. He 
finished his narrative with again soliciting per- 
mission to send and reproach the divinity which 
had deceived him. Cyrus smiled : " I will not 
only grant this," said he, " but whatever else 
you shall require." Croesus accordingly des- 
patched some Lydians to Delphi, who were 
commissioned to place his fetters on the thres- 
hold of the temple, and to ask if the deity were 
not ashamed at having, by his oracles, induced 
Croesus to make war on Persia, with the expec- 
tation of overturning the empire of Cyrus, of 
which war these chains were the first fruits : 
and they were farther to inquire, if the gods of 
Greece were usually ungrateful. 

XCI. The Lydians proceeded on their jour- 
ney, and executed their commission; they are 
said to have received the following reply from 
the Pythian priestess : " That to avoid the de- 
termination of destiny 6 was impossible even for 



5 God of Greece.] — The heathens in general believed 
that there was but one God, but they believed or rather 
talked of a multitude of ministers, deputies, or inferior 
gods, as acting under this supreme. The first may be 
called the philosophical belief, and the second the vulgar 
belief of the heathens. — Spence. 

6 Determination of destiny. ~\ — There were two fates, 
the greater and the less : the determinations of the first 
were immutable ; those of the latter might be set aside. 
The expression in Virgil, of " Si qua fata aspera rumpas," 
is certainly equivocal, and must be understood as applying 
to the less fates. Tins subject is fully discussedby Bentley, 
in his notes to Horace, Epist. book 2. who, for " ingentia 
facta," proposes to read "ingentia fata. "—See Spenser, 
book iv. canto ii. stanza 51 : 

For what the fates do once decrte, 
Not all the gods can change, nor Jove himself can free. 
Several writers suppose, that Herodotus in these words 
has declared his own sentiments, and quote them as a 
saying of the historian. See Jortin's Remarks on 
Spenser. 

It was a common notion among the heathens. See 
JEsch. -Pronieth. 516. Ovid. Met ix. 429.— T. 



30 



HERODOTUS. 



a divinity ; that Croesus, in his person, expiated 
the crimes of his ancestor, in the fifth descent; 1 
who being a guardsman of the Heraclidae, was 
seduced by the artifice of a woman to assassi- 
nate his master, and without the remotest pre- 
tensions succeeded to his dignities : that Apollo 
was desirous to have this destruction of Sardis 
fall on the descendants of Croesus, but was 
unable to counteract the decrees of fate ; that 
he had really obviated them as far as was 
possible ; and, to show his partiality to Croesus, s 
had caused the ruin of Sardis to be deferred for 
the space of three years : that of this Croesus 
might be assured, that if the will of the fates 
had been punctually fulfilled, he would have 
been three years sooner a captive : neither ought 
he to forget, that when in danger of being con- 
sumed by fire, Apollo had afforded him his 
succour : that with respect to the declaration of 
the oracle, Croesus was not justified in his com- 
plaints; for Apollo had declared, that if he 
made war against the Persians, a mighty empire 
would be overthrown ; the real purport of which 
communication, if he had been anxious to un 
derstand,it became him to have inquired whether 
the god alluded to his empire, or the empire of 
Cyrus ; but that not understanding the reply 
which had been made, nor condescending to 
make a second inquiry, he had been himself the 
cause of his own misfortune : that he had not 



1 In the fifth descent.] — "Such, you say, is the power 
of the gods, that if death shall deliver an individual from 
the punishment due to his crimes, vengeance shall still 
be satisfied on his children, his grandchildren, or some 
of his posterity. Wonderful as may be the equity of 
Providence, will any city suffer a law to be introduced, 
which shall punish a son or a grandson for the crimes of 
his father or his grandfather?" Cicero de Natura Deorum. 
Upon the above Larcher remarks, that Cicero speaks like 
a wise, Herodotus like a superstitious man. It is true 
that it is the Divinity who speaks; but it is the historian 
who makes him, and who approves of what he says. 

Croesixs was the fifth descendant of Gyges. The gene- 
alogy was this : Gyges, Ardys, Saddyattes, Alyattes, 
Crcesus.— T. 

2 Partiality to Croesus.'] — In the remoter ages of igno- 
rance and superstition, the divinities, or their symbols, 
did not always experience from their worshippers the 
same uniform veneration. When things succeeded con- 
trary to their wishes or their prayers, they sometimes 
changed their gods, sometimes beat them, and often re- 
proached them. So that it seems difficult to account for 
those qualities of the human mind, which acknowledging 
the inclination to hear petitions, with the power to grant 
them, at one time expressed themselves in the most ab- 
ject and unmanly superstition, at another indulged 
resentments equally preposterous and unnatural. To a 
mind but the least enlightened, the very circumstance of 
a deity's apologizing to a fallen mortal for his predictions 
and their effects, seems to have but little tendency to ex- 
cite in future an awe of his power, a reverence for his 
wisdom, or a confidence in his justice. — T. 



at all comprehended the last answer of the 
oracle, which related to the mule ; for that this 
mule was Cyrus, who was born of two parents 
of two different nations, of whom the mother 
was as noble as the father was mean ; his mo- 
ther was a Mede, daughter of Astyages, king 
of the Medes : his father was a Persian and 
tributary to the Medes, who, although a man of 
the very meanest rank, had married a princess, 
who was his mistress." — This answer of the 
Pythian the Lydians, on their return, commu- 
nicated to Croesus. Croesus having heard it, 
exculpated the deity, and acknowledged himself 
to be reprehensible. Such, however, was the 
termination of the empire of Crcesus, and this 
the recital of the first conquest of Ionia. 

XCII. Besides the sacred offerings of 
Crcesus, which we have before enumerated, 
many others are extant in Greece. In the 
Boeotian Thebes there is a golden tripod, 3 con- 
secrated by him to the Ismenian Apollo : 4 there 
are also at Ephesus 5 some golden heifers, and a 
number of columns. He gave also to the 
Pronean Minerva e a large golden shield, which 
is still to be seen at Delphi. All the above 
remained within my remembrance ; many others 
have been lost. He presented also, as it ap- 
pears, to the Milesian Branchidse, gifts equal in 
weight and value to what he sent to Delphi. 
The presents which he made to Delphi, as well 
as those which he sent to Amphiaraus, were 
given for sacred purposes from his own private 
or hereditary possessions. His other donations 
were formerly the property of an adversary, who 

3 Tripod.]— We must not confound the tripods of 
the ancients with the utensils known by us at present 
under a similar name (in French trepieds corresponding 
with the kitchen utensil called in English footman. ) The 
tripod was a vessel standing upon three feet, of which 
there were two kinds : the one was appropriated to fes- 
tivals, and contained wine mixed with water ; the others 
were placed upon the fire, in which water was made 
warm . — Larcher. 

4 Ismenian Apollo.] — Ismenus was a river in Bceotia, 
not far from Aulis. Ismenius was synonymous with 
Thebanus, and therefore the Ismenian Apollo is the same 
with the Theban Apollo.— T. 

5 Ephesus.]— Pococke says, that the place now called 
Aiesalouk is ancient Ephesus. Chandler says otherwise. 

The two cities of Ephesus and Symrna have been 
termed the eyes of Asia Minor : they were distant from 
each other three hundred and twenty stadia, or forty 
miles, in a strait line. — T. 

6 Pronean Minerva.] — This means the Minerva whoso 
shrine or temple was opposite to that of Apollo at Del- 
phi : but Herodotus, in his eighth book, makes mention 
of the shrine of Minerva Pronoia, or of Minerva the 
goddess of providence. So that, at Delphi, there were 
two different shrines or temples consecrated to Minerva, 
the Pronean, and the Pronoian.— T. 



CLIO. 



31 



bad shown himself hostile to Croesus before he 
succeeded to the throne, attaching himself to 
Pantaleon, 7 and favouring his views on the im- 
perial dignity. Pantaleon was also the son of 
Alyattes, and brother of Croesus, but not by 
the same mother : Alyattes had Croesus by a 
Carian and Pantaleon by an Ionian wife. 
But when, agreeably to the will of his father, 
Croesus took possession of the throne, he de- 
stroyed, in a fuller's mill, 8 this man who had 
opposed him : his wealth he distributed in the 
manner we have before related, in compliance 
with a vow which he had formerly made. Such 
is the history of the offerings of Croesus. 

XCIII. If we except the gold dust which 
descends from mount Tmolus, 9 Lydia can 
exhibit no curiosity which may vie with those 
of other countries. It boasts, however, of one 
monument of art, second to none but those of 
the Egyptians and Babylonians. It is the 
sepulchre of Alyattes, 10 father of Croesus. 
The ground-work is composed of immense 
stones ; the rest of the structure is a huge 
mound of earth. The edifice was raised by 

7 Pantaleon.] — When Croesus mounted the Lydian 
throne, he divided the kingdom with his brother. A 
Lydian remarked to him, that the sun obtains to man- 
kind all the comforts which the earth produces, and that, 
deprived of its influence, it would cease to be fruitful. 
But if there were two suns, it were to be feared that 
every tiling would be scorched and perish. For this 
reason the Lydians have but one king ; him they regard 
as their protector, but they will not allow of two. — Sto- 
bceus. 

8 A full's mill.'] — The expression in the editions of 
Herodotus, which precede Wesseling, has been hastily 
copied. The true reading is not vet zvot,$viiov i\xw, but 
vrt xvotQov eXxMv, torturing him so as to tear away his 
flesh piecemeal upon a fuller's zvoupos, that is, an instru- 
ment set round with sharp points. This reading is sup- 
ported by the glossary to Herodotus, by Timseus, whose 
Platonic lexicon is frequently interpolated from Hero- 
dotus, and by Suidas. Plutarch, in the treatise which 
professes to show the malignity of Herodotus, quotes this 
passage, and reads in the common editions ixt ra.<pov : 
but in Aldus, im voupov, which only wants a letter of the 
genuine reading. It is curious to observe M. Larcher's 
mistake upon this place : he says, that Aldus' edition 
reads tn votipov, interpreting of Herodotus whatWesseling 
says of Plutarch, for Aldus' edition, which is now 
before me, plainly reads wtt xvoup-iiiou tXxan. 

9 Mount Tmolus.] — The country about mount Tmolus, 
which comprehended the plain watered by the Hermus, 
was always remarkable for its fertility and beauty ; and 
whoever will be at the pains to consult Chandler's Tra- 
vels, will find that it has lost but little of its ancient 
claims to admiration. — T. 

10 Sepulchre of Alyattes.] — The remains of this bar- 
row are still conspicuous within five miles of Sardes, 
now called Sart. The industrious Dr Chandler informs 
us, that the mould which has been washed down conceals 
the basement ; but that and a considerable treasure might 
be discovered, if the barrow were opened. — See Chan- 
diet's Travels. 



men of mean and mercenary occupations, as- 
sisted by young women, who prostituted them- 
selves for hire. On the summit of this monu- 
ment there remained, within my remembrance, 
five termini, upon which were inscriptions to 
ascertain the performance of each, and to inti- 
mate that the women accomplished the greater 
part of the work. All the young women of Lydia 
prostitute themselves, by which they procure 
their marriage -portion ; this with their persons, 
they afterwards dispose of as they think proper. 
The circumference of the tomb is six furlongs 
and two plethra, the breadth thirteen plethra, 
it is terminated by a large piece of water, 
which the Lydians affirm to be inexhaustible, 
and is called the Gygean lake. 11 

XCIV. The manners and customs of the 
Lydians do not essentially vary from those of 
Greece, except in this prostitution of the young 
women. They are the first people on record 
who coined gold and silver 12 into money, and 
traded in retail. They claim also the inven- 
tion of certain games, which have since been 
piactised among the Grecians, and which, as 
they say, were first discovered at the time of 
their sending a colony into Tyrrhenia. The 
particulars are thus related : — In the reign of 
Atys, the son of Menes, all Lydia was reduced 
to the severest extremity by a scarcity of corn. 
Against this they contended for a considerable 
time, by patient and unremitted industry. This 
not proving effectual, they sought other re- 
sources, each one exerting his own genius. 
Upon this occasion they invented bowls and 
dice, with many other games : of chess, how- 
ever, the Lydians do not claim the discovery. 
These they applied as an alternative against the 
effects of the famine. 13 One day they gave 
themselves so totally to their diversions, as to 
abstain entirely from food : on the next they 
refrained from their games, and took their ne- 
cessary repasts. They lived thus for the space 
of eighteen years. But when their calamity 
remitted nothing of its violence, but rather 

11 Gygean lake.] — still remains. — T. 

12 Who coined gold and silver.] — Who were really the 
first people that coined gold money, is a question not to 
be decided. According to some, it was Phidon, king of 
Argos ; according to others, Demodice, the wife of Midas. 
— Larcher. 

13 Against the effects of the famine.] — That the Ly- 
dians may have been the inventors of games, is very 
probable ; that under the pressure of famine, they might 
detach half their nation to seek their fortune elsewhere, 
is not unlikely : but that to soften their miserable situa- 
tion, and to get rid of the sensations of hunger, they 
should eat only every other day, and that for the space 
of eighteen years, appears perfectly absurd.— J.urvher. 



32 



HERODOTUS. 



increased, the king divided the whole nation by 
lot into two parts, one of which was to continue 
at home, the other to migrate elsewhere. They 
who staid behind retained their ancient king ; 
the emigrants placed themselves under the 
conduct of his son, whose name was Tyrrhenus. 
These leaving their country, as had been de- 
termined, w r ent to Smyrna, where building 
themselves vessels for the purpose of trans- 
planting their property and their goods, they 
removed in search of another residence. After 
visiting different nations, they arrived at length 
in Umbria. Here they constructed cities, and 
have continued to the present period, changing 
their ancient appellation of Lydians, for that 
of Tyrrhenians, 1 after the son of their former 
sovereign. 

XCV. We have before related how these 
Lydians were reduced under the dominion of 
Persia. It now becomes necessary for us to 
explain who this Cyrus, the conqueror of Croe- 
sus, was, and by what means the Persians ob- 
tained the empire of Asia. I shall follow the 
authority of those Persians who seem more 
influenced by a regard to truth, than any par- 
tiality to Cyrus ; not ignorant, however, that 
there are three other narratives 2 of this 
monarch. — The Assyrians had been in posses- 
sion of Upper Asia for a period of five hun- 
dred and twenty years. The Medes first of 
all revolted from their authority, and contended 
with such obstinate bravery against their 
masters, that they were ultimately successful, 
and exchanged servitude for freedom. Other 
nations soon followed their example, which, 
after living for a time under the protection of 
their own laws, were again deprived of their 
freedom, upon the following occasion. 

XCVI. There was a man among the Medes, 
of the name of Deioces, of great reputation 
for his wisdom, whose ambitious views were 
thus disguised and exercised : — The Medes 

1 Tyrrhenians.] — It was these Tyrrhenians, or Etrus- 
cans, who taught the Romans their games and combats, 
in which they excelled, especially in racing with chariots. 
For the same reason, most of the great number of 
Etruscan monuments found in Italy relate to sport and 
games; which confirms what authors say of the Ly- 
dians, and of the Etruscans who are sprung from them. 
— Montfaucon. 

2 Three other narratives. ] — Ctesias, in the fragments 
of his Persian history, preserved by Photius, differs from 
Herodotus in his account of the origin and exploits of 
Cyrus. What Xenophon relates in his Cyropsedia, is 
familiar to every one. iEschylus, an author of great 
antiquity, who fought at Marathon against the troops of 
Darius, and who was also in the battles of Salamis and 
Platea, has, in his tragedy, entitled The Persians, follow- 
ed a different tradition from them all.— Larcher. 



were divided into different districts, and Deioces 
was distinguished in his own by his vigilant 
and impartial distribution of justice. This he 
practised in opposition to the general depravity 
and weakness of the government of his coun- 
try, and not unconscious that the profligate and 
the just must ever be at war with each other. 
The Medes who lived nearest him, to signify 
their approbation of his integrity, made him 
their judge. In this situation, having one 
more elevated in view, he conducted himsell 
with the most rigid equity. His behaviour 
obtained the highest applause of his country- 
men ; and his fame extending to the neigh- 
bouring districts, the people contrasted his just 
and equitable decisions with the irregularity of 
their own corrupt rulers, and unanimously re- 
sorted to his tribunal, not suffering any one else 
to determine their litigations. 

XCVII. The increasing fame of his inte- 
grity and wisdom constantly augmented the 
number of those who came to consult him. 
But when Deioces saw the pre-eminence which 
he was so universally allowed, he appear- 
ed no more on his accustomed tribunal, and de- 
clared that he shoidd sit as a judge no 
longer ; intimating, that it was inconsistent for 
him to regulate the affairs of others, to 
the entire neglect and injury of his own. 
After this, as violence and rapine prevailed 
more than ever in the different districts of the 
Medes, they called a public assembly to de- 
liberate on national affairs. As far as I have 
been able to collect, they who were attached 
to Deioces delivered sentiments to this effect ; 
— " Our present situation is really intolerable, 
let us therefore elect a king, that we may have 
the advantage of a regular government, and 
continue our usual occupations, without any 
fear or danger of molestation. " In conformity 
to these sentiments, the Medes determined to 
have a king. 

XCVI II. After some consultation about 
what person they should choose, Deioces was 
proposed and elected with universal praise. 
Upon his elevation he required a palace to be 
erected for him suitable to his dignity, and to 
have guards appointed for the security of his 
person. The Medes, in compliance with his 
request, built him a strong and magnificent 
edifice 3 in a situation which he himself chose, 



3 Magnificent edifice.]— This palace was at the foot of 
the citadel, and about seven furlongs in circumference. 
The wood work was of cedar or cypress- wood : the 
beams, the ceilings, the columns of the porticos, and the 
peristyles, were plated with either gold or silver; the 



CLIO. 



33 



and suffered him to appoint his guards from 
among the whole nation. Deioces, as soon as 
he possessed the supreme authority, obliged the 
Medes to build a city, which, with respect to 
its ornament and strength, was to have a pre- 
eminence above all the rest. They obeyed him in 
this also, and constructed what we now call Ec- 
batana. 4 Its walls were strong and ample, built in 
circles one within another, rising each above each 
by the height of their respective battlements. 
This mode of building was favoured by the 
situation of the place, which was a gently rising 
ground. They did yet more : the city being 
thus formed of seven circles, within the last 
stood the king's palace and the royal treasury. 
The largest of these walls is nearly equal in 
extent to the circumference of Athens ; this 
is of a white colour, the next to it is black, the 
next purple, the fourth blue, the fifth orange : 
thus the battlements of each were distinguished 
by a different colour. The two innermost walls 
are differently ornamented, one having its bat- 
tlements plated with silver the other with gold. 
XCIX. Such were the fortifications and the 
palace which were erected under the direction 
of Deioces, who commanded the body of the 
people to fix their habitations beyond the walls 
which protected his residence. After which 
he was the first who instituted that kind of 
pomp which forbids access to the royal person, 
and only admits communication with him by 
intermediate agents, the king himself being 
never publicly seen. His edict also signified, 
that to smile or to spit in the king's presence, 
or in the presence of each other, was an act of 
indecency. 5 His motive for this conduct was 

roofs were covered with silver tiles. The whole was 
plundered about the time of Alexander. — Larcher. 

4 Ecbatana.] — Mr Gibbon, whose geographical know- 
ledge is superior to that of all Ms cotemporaries, thinks, 
that Ecbatana was probably in the same situation with 
the modern Tauris. 

Diodorus Siculus is of opinion, that Ecbatana was built 
on a plain. 

Dutens, in his learned and ingenious inquiry into the 
origin of the discoveries attributed to the moderns, brings 
tliis among other instances to prove, that the ancients, in 
magnificence, have never been surpassed, and seldom 
equalled. — T. 

5 An act of indecency."] — The modern manners of the 
orientals bear in many instances a minute conformity to 
the most ancient accounts of them which are come down 
to us. The difficulty of approach to the princes and great 
men of the east, is a circumstance remarked by all mo- 
dern travellers. The act of spitting, in the east, is much 
more detestable than we have any conception of. The 
Arabs never spit before their superiors; and Sir John 
Chardin tells us, that spitting before any one, or spitting 
uponthoground in speaking of any one's actions,is through 
the east, an expression of extreme detestation. — T. 



the security of his power ; thinking, that if he 
were seen familiarly by those who were edu- 
cated with him, born with equal pretensions, 
and not his inferiors in virtue, it might excite 
their regret, and provoke them to sedition. On 
the contrary, by his withdrawing himself from 
observation, he thought their respect for him 
would be increased. 

C. When Deioces had taken these measures 
to increase the splendour of his situation and 
the security of his power, he became extremely 
rigorous in his administration of justice. They 
who had causes to determine, sent them to him 
in writing, by his official servants, which, with 
the decisions upon each, he regularly returned. 
This was the form which he observed in judi- 
ciary matters. His proceeding with regard to 
penal offences was thus : — Whenever he heard 
of any injury being perpetrated, and for this 
purpose he appointed spies and informers in 
different parts of his dominions, the offender 
was first brought to his presence, and then 
punished according to his offence. 

CI. Deioces thus collected the Medes into 
one nation, over which he ruled : they consisted 
of the Busae, the Paretaceni, the Struchates, 
the Arizanti, the Budii, and the Magi. 

CII. Deioces reigned fifty-three years, and 
at his decease his son Phraortes succeeded to 
the throne. Not satisfied with his hereditary 
dominions, he singled out the Persians as the 
objects of his ambitious views, and reduced 
them first of all under the dominion of the 
Medes. Supreme of these two great and 
powerful nations, he overran Asia, alternately 
subduing the people of whom it was composed. 
He came at length to the Assyrians, and pro- 
ceeded to attack that part of them which inha- 
bited Nineveh. 6 These were formerly the first 
power in Asia : their allies at this period had 
separated from them ; but they were still, with 
regard to their internal strength, respectable. 
In the twenty-second year of his reign, Phraor- 
tes, 7 in an excursion against this people, per- 
ished, with the greater part of his army. 



Larcher remarks, that the use of tobacco has rendered 
the orientals less punctilious with respect to the circum- 
stance of spitting. Niebuhr informs us, in his description 
of Arabia, that he has frequently seen the master of a 
family sitting with a china spitting-pot near him. He at 
the same time observes, that they do not often spit, 
although they continue smoking for many hours at a timo. 

6 Nineveh.'],— Is supposed to be the modern Mousul. — 
Pococke. 

7 Phraortes.] — According to Herodotus, the reign of 
Deioces was 53 years, of Phraortes 22, of Cyaxares 12, 
of the Scythians 28, of Astyages 35 ;— total, 150 years.— T. 



34 



HERODOTUS. 



CIII. He was succeeded by his son Cyax- 
ares, grandson of Deioces. He is reported to 
have been superior to his ancestors in valour, 
and was the first who regularly trained the 
Asiatics to military service, dividing them, who 
had before been promiscuously confounded, into 
companies of spearmen, cavalry, and archers. 
He it was who was carrying on war with the 
Lydians, when the engagement which happened 
in the day was suddenly interrupted by nocturnal 
darkness. Having formed an amicable con- 
nection with the different nations of Asia 
beyond the Halys, he proceeded with all his 
forces to the attack of Nineveh, being equally 
desirous of avenging his father, and becoming 
master of the city. He vanquished the Assy- 
rians in battle ; but when he was engaged in the 
siege of Nineveh, he was surprised by an army 
of Scythians, commanded by Madyas, son of 
Protothyas. Having expelled the Cimmerians ' 
from Europe, the Scythians had found their 
way into Asia, and, continuing to pursue the 
fugitives, had arrived at the territories of the 
Medes. 

CIV. From the lake Moeotis an expeditious 
traveller may pass to the river Phasis 2 amongst 
the Colchians, in the space of thirty days : it 
requires less time to pass from Colchis into 
Media, which are only separated by the nation 
of the Saspirians. The Scythians, however, 
did not come by this way, but leaving mount 
Caucasus on their right, passed through the high 
country by a much longer rout. Here they 
met with the Medes, who, in a fixed battle, 
lost not only the victory, but the empire of 
Asia. 

CV. The Scythians having obtained the 
entire possession of Asia, advanced towards 
Egypt. Psammitichus, king of Egypt, met 
them in Palestine of Syria, and by presents and 
importunity united, prevailed on them to return. 
The Scythians, on their march homewards, 



1 Cimmerians.]— The history of the Scythians is re- 
markably obscure. Justin, speaking of the incursions of 
this people into Asia , sometimes coincides with Hero- 
dotus, at others materially contradicts him. Strabo makes 
a slight mention of this expedition of Madyas : but I am 
ignorant by what authority he makes him king of the 
Cimmerians ; I should rather think a mistake has been 
here made by some copyist. — Larcher. 

2 P7iasis.'] — This country has been at all times a nur- 
sery for slaves : it furnished the Greeks, Romans, and 
ancient Asia, with them. But is it not extraordinary 
to read in Herodotus, that formerly Colchis, now called 
Georgia, received black inhabitants from Egypt, and to 
see the same country at this day make so different a re- 
turn?— Volney. 



came to Ascalon, a Syrian city : the greater 
part of their body passed through without mo- 
lesting it ; but some of them remaining behind 
plundered the temple of the celestial Venus, 
Of all the sacred buildings erected to this god- 
dess, this, according to my authorities, was far 
the most ancient. 3 The Cyprians themselves 
acknowledge, that their temple was built after 
the model of this, and that of Cythera was 
constructed by certain Phoenicians, who came 
from this part of Syria. Upon the Scythians 
who plundered this temple, and indeed upon all 
their posterity, the deity entailed a fatal pun- 
ishment : they were afflicted with the female 
disease.* The Scythians themselves confess, 

3 Far the most ancient. ]— Pausanias says, that the 
Assyrians were the first who worshipped Venus Urania. 
He adds, that the inhabitants of Paphos in Cyprus, and 
the Phoenicians of Palestine, received this worship from 
them, and afterwards communicated it to the people of 
Cythera.— Wesseling. 

4 Female disease.] — No passage of Herodotus has been 
the occasion of more doubt and dispute than this. The 
president Bouhier (Dissertat. sur l'Histoire d'Herodote, 
c. 20.) enumerates these six different opinions, and de- 
cides in favour of the last. — Some suppose the female 
disease to be languor, weakness, and impotence ; others, 
a delicate and effeminate way of living; others the 
hemorrhoids ; others, the disease now known by the 
name of venereal ; others, the catamenia, ra. ywatxriia, ; 
and others, the vice against nature. Larcher refutes 
Bouhier, but without seeming to have established any 
opinion of his own. It is probable that he never saw a 
dissertation of professor Chr. Gott. Heyne, in the Com- 
mentationes Societatis Reg. Gotting. anni M.DCC.L. xx. 
& T. II. p. 28 — 44. who proposes another explanation of 
our author, which has perhaps a fairer chance of success 
than any of the rest. He takes it for granted, after 
Mercurialis and Wesseling, that Herodotus and Hippo- 
crates speak of the same thing. He then separates the 
facts which these authors state, from the superstition of 
the one, and the ill-founded science or systematic preju- 
dices of the other. From these facts, illustrated by a 
comparison with the narrations of modern travellers lie 
draws this conclusion : That the disease called by Hero- 
dotus the female disease, was of that kind which proceeds 
from a melancholic, hysteric, or other nervous affection ; 
in consequence of which a perturbation of the intellect 
takes place. Among barbarous nations, ignorant of the 
powers and operations of nature, those disorders whose 
cause and cure were unknown, it was natural to attri- 
bute to divine influence ; and the patients finding them- 
selves suddenly and unaccountably bereft of strength, of 
vigour, and of spirits, might be easily persuaded, by these 
symptoms, that the displeasure of a deity had inflicted this 
punishment, and, for some crime or other, had changed 
them into women. A similar effect of a distempered 
mind has been common in all ages. Many persons believe 
themselves transformed into animals or other substances ; 
and while they are subject to this allusion, talk, reason, 
and act conformably to such belief. If, therefore, this 
disease appeared chiefly amongst those Scythians who 
plundered the temple of Venus, it might be sufficient 
ground for the Scythians themselves to refer such a 
calamity to the displeasure of a deity ; and the nature of 
the punishment, as well as the consciousness of their 



CLIO. 



35 



that their countrymen suffer this malady in 
consequence of the above crime : their condi- 
tion also may be seen by those who visit Scy- 
thia, where they are called Enareae. 

CVL After possessing the dominion of 
Asia for a space of twenty-eight years, the 
Scythians lost all they had obtained, by their 
licentiousness and neglect. The extravagance 
of their public extortions could only be equalled 
by the rapacity with which they plundered 
individuals. At a feast, to which they were 
invited by Cyaxares and the Medes, the greater 
Dart of them were cut off when in a state of 
intoxication. The Medes thus recovered their 
possessions, and all their ancient importance ; 
after which they took Nineveh ; the particulars 
of which incident I shall hereafter relate. 5 
They moreover subdued the Assyrians, those 
only excepted which inhabited the Babylonian 
district. Cyaxares reigned forty years, and 
then died ; but in this period is to be included 
the time in which the Scythians possessed the 
empire. 

CVII. His son Astyages succeeded to the 
throne : he had a daughter whom he called 
Mandane : she, in a dream, appeared to make 
so great a quantity of urine, 6 that not only his 
principal city, but all Asia was overflowed. 
The purport of this vision, when explained in 
each particular by the magi, the usual interpret- 
ers, terrified him exceedingly. Under this 



crime, would readily point out Venus for the offended 
power. If the disease appeared soon after the plunder 
of the temple, it might be sufficient ground for an author 
not qmte free from superstition and credulity, to set it 
down as a judgment from heaven upon the offenders. 
Whether the expression in Hippocrates, of m ■yui/ot.ixy l ix 
i%yaZ,o\ira.i, ought to be understood in a good or in a bad 
sense, may perhaps admit of a doubt ; however, either 
sense will equally suit the foregoing explanation. It is 
perfectly natural, and indeed almost necessary, that 
males who fancy themselves women, should take the 
dress, adopt the language and manners, and perform the 
offices of the other sex : nor would it be at all inconsis- 
tent with their supposed transformation, that they should 
tliink it their duty to be the passive instruments of what 
-would to them seem natural desire.— T. 

5 Hereafter relate.]— This is one of the passages cited 
to prove that Herodotus wrote other works which are not 
come down to us. The investigation of this matter has 
greatly perplexed and divided the literary world. It is 
discussed at considerable length by Bouhier and by Lar- 
cher, to whose several works we beg leave to refer those 
who wish to know more of a question which can involve 
no great interest to an English reader. — T. 

6 Quantity of, §-c.]— Voltaire has started some objec- 
tions to this passage of Herodotus ; to which my answer 
may be seen in the Supplement to the Philosophy of His- 
tory, page 79, &c. of the first edition ; page 104, &c. of 
the second. — Lurcher. 



impression, he refused to marry his daughter, 
when she arrived at a suitable age, to any Mede 
whose rank justified pretensions to her. He 
chose rather to give her to Cambyses, a Per- 
sian, whom he selected as being of a respecta- 
ble family, but of a very pacific disposition, 
though inferior in his estimation to the lowest 
of the Medes. 

C VIII. The first year after the marriage of 
his daughter. Astyages saw another vision. A 
vine appeared to spring from the womb of his 
daughter, which overspread all Asia. Upon 
this occasion also he consulted his interpreters : 
the result was, that he sent for his daughter 
from Persia, when the time of her delivery ap- 
proached. On her arrival, he kept a strict 
watch over her, intending to destroy her child. 
The magi had declared the vision to intimate, 
that the child of his daughter should supplant 
him on his throne. Astyages, to guard against 
this, as soon as Cyrus was born, sent for Har- 
pagus, a person whose intimacy he used, upon 
whose confidence he depended, and who indeed 
had the management of all his affairs. He 
addressed him as follows : " Harpagus, I am 
about to use you in a business, in which if you 
either abuse my confidence, or employ others 
to do what I am anxious you should do your- 
self, you will infallibly lament the consequence. 
You must take the boy of whom Mandane has 
been delivered, remove him to your own house, 
and put him to death : you will afterwards bury 
him as you shall think proper." " Sir," he re- 
plied, " you have hitherto never had occasion 
to censure my conduct ; neither shall my future 
behaviour give you cause of offence : if the ac- 
complishment of this matter be essential to your 
peace, it becomes me to be faithful and obedi- 
ent." 

CIX. On this reply of Harpagus the infant 
was delivered to his arms in rich apparel, and 
consigned to destruction. Returning home, 
he sought with tears the presence of his wife, 
to whom he related his conference with Asty- 
ages. When she inquired what it was his in- 
tention to do ; " By no means," he answered, 
" the deed which Astyages enjoins. If he be- 
come still more infatuated, more mad than he 
at present appears, I will not comply with his 
desires, nor be accessary to this murder. The 
child is my relation : Astyages is old, and has 
no male offspring : if at his decease, the sov- 
ereign authority shall descend to this daughter, 
whose child he orders me to destroy, what ex- 
treme danger shall I not incur ? It is expedient 



HERODOTUS. 



nevertheless, for my security, that the child 
should die, not however by the hands of any 
of my family, but by some other of his servants." 

CX. He instantly sent for a herdsman be- 
longing to Astyages, who, as he knew, pursued 
his occupation in a place adapted to the purpose, 
amongst mountains frequented by savage beasts. 
His name was Mitridates ; his wife and fellow- 
servant was, in the Greek tongue, called Cyno, 
by the Medes Spaco ;' and Spaca is the name 
by which the Medes call a bitch. The place 
which he frequented with his herds was the foot 
of those mountains which lie to the north of 
Ecbatane, near the Euxine. This part of 
Media, towards the Saspires, is high and moun- 
tainous, and abounding with forests ; the rest 
of the country is a spacious plain. As soon as 
he arrived in his presence, Harpagus thus ad- 
dressed him : " Astyages commands you to take 
this infant, 3 and expose him a in the most un- 
frequented part of the mountains, that his death 
may be speedy and unavoidable. I am farther 
ordered to assure you, that if you evade this 
injunction, and are by any means accessaiy to 
his preservation, you must expect torture and 
death. I am myself commanded to see the 
child exposed. " 

CXI. When the herdsman had received his 
orders, he took the child, and returned to his 
cottage. His wife, who had been in labour all 
the preceding part of the day, was providenti- 
ally delivered in his absence. Both had been 
in a state of solicitude : the situation of his 
wife gave alarm to the husband ; and the wo- 

1 Spaco.~\ — It is not certain whether the dialect of the 
Medes and Persians was the same. In such remains as 
we have of the Persian language, Burton and Reland 
have not been able to discover any term like this. Nev- 
ertheless Lefevre assures us, that the Hyrcanians, a 
people in subjection to the Persians, call, even at the 
present time, a dog by the word Spac. — Larcher. 

2 Take this infant, &;c.~\ — Various passages in this part 
of our work will necessarily bring to the mind of our 
reader the Winter's Tale of Shakspeare. The speech of 
the king to Antigonus minutely resembles this : 

Take it up straight. 
Within this hour bring me word 'tis done, 
And by good testimony, or I'll seize thy life, &c. 7'. 

3 And expose him. ,] — Virgil has placed in the infernal 
regions, the souls of infants weeping and wailing : 

Continuo auditae voces, vagitus et ingens, 
Infantumque animae flentes in limine primo, 
Quos dulcis vitae exortes et ab ubere raptos 
Abstulit atra dies, et funere mersit acerbo. 

It is an ingenious conjecture, proposed in the Divine 
Legation, that the poet might design to discountenance 
the cursed practice of exposing and murdering infants. 
See Jortin's 6th Dissertation. Consult also the Letter on 
the Delicacy of Friendship, republished in the Tracts, 
by a Warourtonian, page 227. 



man on her part, feared for him, from the un- 
usual circumstance of his being sent for to 
Harpagus. His return was sudden and unex- 
pected, and his wife discovered much anxiety to 
know why Harpagus had sent for him in such 
haste. " As soon," says he, "as I got into 
the city, I both saw and heard what I could 
wish had never befallen the families of our 
masters; I found the house of Harpagus in 
extreme affliction ; entering which with the 
greatest terror, I saw an infant panting and 
screaming on the ground, dressed in rich and 
splendid clothing. Harpagus, the moment he 
saw me, commanded me to take the child, and 
without any hesitation, expose it on such a part 
of our mountains as is most frequented by wild 
beastsj telling me, moreover, that Astyages him- 
self had assigned this office to me, and threat- 
ening the severest punishment in case of dis- 
obedience. I took the child, conceiving it to 
belong to one of the domestics, never supposing 
who it really was. The richness, however, of 
its dress excited my astonishment, which was 
increased by the sorrow that prevailed in the 
family of Harpagus. But, on my return, the 
servant who, conducting me out of the city, 
gave the infant to my hand, explained each par- 
ticular circumstance. He informed me, that 
it is the offspring of Mandane, the daughter of 
Astyages, and of Cambyses, son of Cyrus. 
This is the infant whose death Astyages com- 
mands." 

CXII. The herdsman finished, and produc- 
ed the child to his wife. Struck with his ap- 
pearance of beauty and strength, she embraced 
the knees of her husband, and conjured him not 
to expose the child. He observed, that it was 
impossible to comply with her request, as Har- 
pagus would send to see that his orders were 
executed, and had menaced him with a most 
cruel death if he failed in his obedience. The 
woman not succeeding by this, took another 
method : " Since," she replied, " you are deter- 
mined in your purpose, and there will be wit- 
nesses to see that the child is in reality exposed, 
attend to what I propose ; I have been deliver- 
ed of a dead child ; let this be exposed, and let 
us preserve and bring up the grandchild of 
Astyages as our own. You will thus appear 
faithful to your superiors, without any injury to 
ourselves ; the child which is dead will be hon- 
oured with a sumptuous funeral, and that which 
survives will be preserved." 

CXIII. The man approved of the pertinent 
proposal of his wife, with which he immedi- 



CLIO 



37 



ately complied. The infant, whom he was to 
have destroyed, he gave to the care of his wife ; 
his own child, which was dead, he placed in the 
cradle in which the other had been brought, 
dressed it in the other's costly clothing, and 
exposed it on a desert mountain. After three 
days, he left one of his domestics to guard the 
body, and went again to the house of Harpagus 
in the city, signifying himself ready to show 
that the child was dead. Harpagus sent some 
upon whose fidelity he could depend, to exam- 
ine into the matter : they confirmed the report 
of the herdsman, and the child was buried. 
The herdsman's child was thus interred ; the 
other, who was afterwards called Cyrus, was 
brought up carefully by the wife of the herds- 
man, and called by some other name. 

CXIV. When he arrived at the age of ten 
years, the following accident discovered who he 
was : — He was playing in the village, where 
were the herds of his supposed father, with other 
boys of the same age with himself. Though 
reputed to be the son of the herdsman, his play- 
mates chose him for their king. He, in con- 
sequence, assigned them their different stations : 
some were to superintend buildings, others were 
to be guards ; one was to be his principal min- 
ister, another his master of ceremonies; and 
each had his particular office. Among these 
children happened to be the son of Artembaris, 
-vho was a Mede of considerable distinction. 
He, refusing to obey the commands of Cyrus, 
was, at his orders, seized by his playfellows, and 
severely beaten. The pride of the boy was 
vehemently offended ; and the moment he was 
at liberty, he hastened to the city to inform his 
father how much he had suffered from the in- 
solence of Cyrus. He did not indeed call him 
Cyrus, which was not then his name ; but he 
described him as the son of the herdsman of 
Astyages. Artembaris went immediately in 
great rage to Astyages, taking his son with him. 
He complained of the indignity which had been 
offered, and showed what marks of violence his 
son had received. " Thus, Sir," says he, 
" have we been insulted by the son of a herds- 
man, your slave." 

CXV. Astyages, on receiving this complaint, 
which he observed to be justly founded, was 
anxious to punish the insult which Artembaris 
had received ; he accordingly sent for the herds- 
man and his reputed child. On their appear- 
ance, Astyages, looking at Cyrus, " Do you," 
gays he, " meanly descended as you are, dare to 
inflict stripes on the son of one of my nobles ?" 
"My lord," says he, in reply, " what I have done 



I am able to justify ; the boys among whom I 
live, and this with the rest, did, in play, elect 
me their king, because, as I suppose, I seemed 
to them the most proper for this situation. 
Our other playfellows obeyed my commands; 
this boy refused, and was punished : if on this 
account you deem me worthy of chastisement, 
I am here to receive it." 4 

CXVI. As soon as the boy had spoken, 
Astyages conjectured who he was ; every thing 
concurred to confirm his suspicions ; his resem- 
blance of himself, his ingenuous countenance 
and manners, and the seeming correspondence 
of his age. Struck by the force of these inci- 
dents, Astyages was a long time silent. He 
recovered himself with difficulty, and wishing to 
dismiss Artembaris, for the purpose of examin- 
ing the herdsman without witnesses, " Artem- 
baris," said he, " I will take care that neither 
you nor your son shall have just reason of 
complaint." "When Artembaris retired, Cyrus 
was conducted by attendants into some inner 
room, and the herdsman being left alone with 
the king, was strictly interrogated whence and 
from whom he had the child. He replied, that 
he was his own child, and that his mother was 
yet alive ; Astyages told him, that his indiscre- 
tion would only involve him in greater dangers. 
Saying this, he ordered his guards to seize him. 
Reduced to this extremity, he explained every 
particular of the business ; and concluded with 
earnest entreaties for mercy and forgiveness. 

CX VII. Astyages, convinced that his herds- 
man had spoken the truth, felt but little with 
respect to him ; but he was violently incensed 
against Harpagus, whom he sent for to his 
presence. As soon as he appeared, " Harpa- 
gus," said he, " by what kind of death did you 
destroy the son of my daughter?" Harpagus 
saw the herdsman present, and was therefore 
conscious, that unless he spoke the truth he 
should be certainly detected. " Sir," he replied, 
" as soon as I received the infant, I revolved 
in my mind the best method of satisfying your 
wishes, and of preserving myself innocent of 
the crime of murder, both with respect to your 
daughter and yourself : I determined, therefore, 
to send for this herdsman, and delivering to him 
the child, I informed him that it was your com- 
mand that he should put him to death ; in this 
I used no falsehood, for such were your com- 
mands. I farther enjoined him to expose the 
infant on a desert mountain, and to be himself 

4 None of these particulars of the early life of Cyrus, 
previous to his being- sent to his parents in Persia, are 
related by Xenophon. — T. 



38 



HERODOTUS. 



the witness of his death, threatening him with 
the severest punishment in case of disobedience. 
When he had fulfilled his commission, and the 
child was dead, I sent some of my confidential 
eunuchs to witness the fact, and to bury the 
body. This, sir, is the real truth, and the child 
was thus destroyed." 

C X VIII. Harpagus related the fact without 
prevarication ; but Astyages, dissembling the 
anger which he really felt, informed him of the 
confession of the herdsman ; and finished his 
narration in these words ; " The child is alive, 
and all is well : I was much afflicted concerning 
the fate of the boy ; and but ill could bear the 
reproaches of my daughter. But as the matter 
has turned out well, you must send your son to 
our young stranger, and attend me yourself at 
supper. I have determined, in gratitude for the 
child's preservation, to celebrate a festival in hon- 
our of those deities who interposed to save him." 

CXIX. Harpagus, on hearing this, made 
his obeisance to the king, and returned cheer- 
fully to his house, happy in the reflection that 
he was not only not punished for his disobed- 
ience, but honoured by an invitation to the royal 
festival. As soon as he arrived at his house, 
he hastily called for his only son, a boy of 
about thirteen, ordering him to hasten to the 
palace of Astyages, and to comply with what- 
ever was commanded him. He then related to 
his wife, with much exultation, all that had 
happened. As soon as the boy arrived, Asty- 
ages commanded him to be cut in pieces, and 
some part of his flesh to be roasted, another 
part boiled, and the whole made ready to be 
served at table. At the hour of supper, among 
other guests, Harpagus also attended. Before 
the rest, as well as before Astyages himself, 
dishes of mutton were placed, but to Harpagus 
all the body of his son was served, except the 
head and the extremities, which were kept apart 
in a covered basket. After he seemed well 
satisfied with what he had eaten, Astyages asked 
him how he liked his fare : Harpagus express- 
ing himself greatly delighted, the attendants 
brought him the basket which contained the 
head and extremities of his child, and desired 
him to help himself to what he thought proper. 
Harpagus complied, uncovered the vessel, and 
beheld the remains of his son. 1 He continued, 

1 The remains of his son.] — A similar example of re- 
venge occurs in Titus Andronicus. 

Titus. Why, there they are, both baked in that pie, 
Whereof their mo ther daintily hath fed ; 
Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred — T. 

For other instances of similar barbarity, see H. Stevens' 



however, master of himself, and discovered no 
unusual emotions. When Astyages inquired 
if he knew of what flesh and of what wild beast 
he had eaten, he acknowledged that he did, and 
that the king's will was always pleasing to him. g 
Saying this, he took the remnants of the body, 
and returned to his house, meaning, as I should 
suppose, to bury them together. 

C X X. Astyages thus revenged himself upon 
Harpagus ; but deliberating about the destiny 
of Cyrus, he sent for the magi who had before 
interpreted his dreams. On their appearance, 
he requested to know their sentiments of the 
vision he had formerly explained to them. 
They persevered in their former declaration, 
that if the boy survived he would infallibly be 
king. " The boy is alive and well," returned 
Astyages : " the children of the village where 
he lived elected him their king, and he has 
actually performed all the essential duties of the 
regal office. He appointed his guards, his mes- 
sengers, and different attendants, and in all 
respects exercised kingly authority : concerning 
this, what do you determine ?" " If," answered 
the magi, "the boy really survives, and has 
reigned as a monarch, in the accidental manner 
you describe, rely upon this and dissipate your 
fears ; depend upon it he will reign no more : 
things of trifling moment frequently accomplish 
what we seriously foretel, and dreams in particu- 
lar mil often prove of little or no importance." 
" I confess," replied Astyages, " that I am of 
the same opinion ; the boy having been nomin- 
ally a king, has fulfilled the purport of my dream, 
and I need alarm myself no more about him. 
Do not you, however, remit your assiduity, but 
consult both for my security and your own." 
" Sir," answered the magi, " it is of particular 
importance to us, that your authority should 
continue, it might otherwise descend to this boy 
who is a Persian; in that case we, who are 
Medes, shall be reduced to servitude ; the Per- 
sians would despise us as foreigners ; but whilst 
you, who are our countryman, reign over us, 
we enjoy some degree of authority ourselves, 

Apology for Herodotus, chap. 19, de la Cruaute de nostre 
Siecle.— T. 

2 Pleasing to him.']— This reply of Harpagus, worthy 
of a servile courtier, brings to mind one of an English 
nobleman no less despicable. Edgar, king of England, 
having killed Ethel wold, in the forest of Harevvood, the 
son of that nobleman arrived soon afterwards on the spot ; 
the king, showing him the body of his father, asked him, 
how he found the game ? The young man replied with 
perfect indifference, " That whatever was agreeable to 
the prince, could not possibly displease him. " The above 
anecdote is related by Larcher from William of Malms- 
bury. 



CLIO. 



39 



independent of the honours we receive from you. 
For these reasons we are particularly bound to 
consult for your safety, and the permanence of 
your power. If any thing excited our appre- 
hension of the future, we would certainly dis- 
close it : but as your dream has had this trifling 
termination, we feel great confidence ourselves, 
and recommend you to send the child from your 
presence to his parents in Persia. 

CXXL On hearing this Astyages was re- 
joiced; and sending for Cyrus, "My child," 
said he, " I was formerly induced, by the cruel 
representation of a dream, to treat you injuri- 
ously, but your better genius preserved you. 
Go, therefore, in peace to Persia, whither I 
shall send proper persons to conduct you ; there 
you will see your parents, who are of a very 
different rank from the herdsman Mitridates 
and his wife. " 

CXXII. Astyages having thus spoken, sent 
Cyrus away ; on his being restored to the house 
of his parents, they who had long since thought 
him dead, received him with tenderness and 
transport. They inquired by what means he 
had been preserved ; he told them in reply, that 
he was entirely ignorant of his birth, and had 
been involved in much perplexity, but that every 
thing had been explained to him on his journey 
to them. He had really believed himself the 
son of the herdsman of Astyages, before his 
conductors explained to him the particulars of 
his fortune. He related with what tenderness 
he had been brought up by the wife of the 
herdsman, whose name, Cyno, he often repeat- 
ed with the warmest praise. The circumstance 
of her name his parents laid hold of to persuade 
the Persians that Providence had, in a particu- 
lar manner, interposed to save Cyrus, who, 
when exposed, had been preserved and nourish- 
ed by a bitch 3 — which opinion afterwards pre- 
vailed. 

CXXIII. As Cyrus grew up, he excelled 
all the young men in strength and gracefulness 
of person. 4 Harpagus, who was anxious to be 
revenged on Astyages, was constantly endea- 
vouring to gain an interest with him, by making 
him presents. In his own private situation, he 
could have but little hope of obtaining the 
vengeance he desired ; but seeing Cyrus a man, 
and one whose fortunes bore some resemblance 
to his own, he much attached himself to him. 

3 By a Bitch, Sfc.~] — The story of Romulus, Remus, and 
the wolf, involves many circumstances similar to these 
related of Cyrus. — T. 

4 Gracefulness of person.] — The beauty and graceful- 
ness of Cyrus, is particularly, and with much energy, 
represented by Xenophon. — T. 



He had, some time before, taken the following 
measure : — Astyages having treated the Medes 
with great asperity, Harpagus took care to com- 
municate with the men of the greatest conse- 
quence among them, endeavouring, by his insi- 
nuations, to promote the elevation of Cyrus, 
and the deposition of his master. Having thus 
prepared the way, he contrived the following 
method of acquainting Cyrus in Persia with his 
own private sentiments, and the state of affairs. 
The communication betwixt the two countries 
being strictly guarded, he took a hare, opened 
its paunch, in which he inserted a letter, con- 
taining the information he wished to give, and 
then dexterously sewed it up again. The hare, 
with some hunting nets, he intrusted to one of 
his servants of the chase, upon whom he could 
depend. The man was sent into Persia, and 
ordered to deliver the hare to Cyrus himself, 
who was entreated to open it with his own 
hands, and without witnesses. 

CXXIV. The man executed his commis- 
sion ; Cyrus received the hare, which having 
opened as directed, he found a letter to the fol- 
lowing purport, " Son of Cambyses, heaven 
evidently favours you, or you never could have 
risen thus superior to fortune. Astyages me- 
ditated your death, and is a just object of your 
vengeance; he certainly determined that you 
should perish ; the gods and my humanity pre- 
served you. With the incidents of your life I 
believe you are acquainted, as well as with the 
injuries I have received from Astyages, for 
delivering you to the herdsman, instead of put- 
ting you to death. Listen but to me, and the 
authority and dominions of Astyages shall be 
yours : having prevailed on the Persians to re- 
volt, undertake an expedition against the Medes. 
If I shall be appointed by Astyages, the leader 
of the forces which oppose you, our object will 
be instantly accomplished, which I may also 
venture to affirm of each of our first nobility ; 
they are already favourable to your cause, and 
wait but the opportunity of revolting from 
Astyages. All things being thus prepared, 
execute what I advise without delay." 

CXXV. Cyrus, on receiving this intelli- 
gence, revolved in his mind what would be the 
most effectual means of prevailing on the Per- 
sians to revolt. After much deliberation, he 
determined on the following stratagem : He 
dictated the terms of a public letter, and called 
an assembly of his countrymen. Here it was 
produced and read, and it appeared to contain 
his appointment by Astyages to be general of 
the Persians : " And now, O Persians," he 



40 



HERODOTUS. 



exclaimed, " I must expect each of you to at- 
tend me with an hatchet." This command he 
issued aloud to the Persians, of whom there are 
various tribes. Of those whom Cyrus assem- 
bled, and persuaded to revolt from the Medes, 
the following are the principal : The Arteatee, 
the Persae, Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Mas- 
pians : Of these the Pasargadae are the most 
considerable ; the Achaemenidae are those from 
whom the Persian monarchs are descended. 
The Panthialnei, Derusiaei, and Germanians, 1 
follow laborious employments ; the Dai, Mardi, 
Dropici, and Sargartians, are feeders of cattle. 

CXXVI. They all assembled in the man- 
ner they were commanded, and Cyrus directed 
them to clear, in the space of a day, a certain 
woody inclosure, which was eighteen or twenty 
furlongs in extent. When they had executed 
their task, they were desired to attend the fol- 
lowing day to feast and make merry. For this 
purpose Cyrus collected and slew all the goats, 
sheep, and oxen, which were the property of 
his father ; and further to promote the enter- 
tainment of the Persians he added rich wines 
and abundance of delicacies. The next day, 
when they were met, he desired them to recline 
on the grass and enjoy themselves. When they 
were satisfied, he inquired of them which day's 
fare delighted them the most : They replied, 
the contrast betwixt the two was strong indeed, 
as on the first day they had nothing but what was 
bad, on the second every thing that was good. 
On receiving this answer, Cyrus no longer 
hesitated to explain the purpose which he had 
in view : " Men of Persia," he exclaimed, 
" you are the arbiters of your own fortune ; if 
you obey me, you will enjoy these and greater 
advantages, without any servile toils : if you 
are hostile to my projects, you must prepare to 
encounter worse hardships than those of yester- 
day. My voice is the voice of freedom ; Pro- 
vidence appears to have reserved me to be the 
instrument of your prosperity ; you are, doubt- 
less, equal to the Medes in every thing, and 
most assuredly are as brave ; this being the 
case, decline all future obedience to Astyages." 

CXXVII. The Persians, who had long 
spurned at the yoke imposed on them by the 
Medes, were glad of such a leader, and ardently 



1 Germanians.] — The Germanians are the same as the 
Caramanians. Some authors affirm the ancient Germans 
to have been descended from this people. Cluvier has 
with much politeness explained their mistake. " But," 
adds M. Wesseling, " there are some individuals of such 
wayward tempers, who, since the discovery of corn, 
still prefer the feeding upon acorns." — Larcher. \ 



obeyed the call of liberty. Astyages was soon 
informed of the proceedings of Cyrus, and com- 
manded his attendance. He returned for 
answer that he should probably anticipate the 
wish of Astyages to see him. Astyages upon 
this collected his Medes, and urged by some 
fatal impulse, appointed Harpagus to command 
his forces, not remembering the injury he for- 
merly had done him. His army was embodied, 
the Medes met and engaged the Persians ; they 
who were not privy to the plot fought with 
valour, the rest went over to the Persians ; the 
greater part discovered no inclination to continue 
the combat, and hastily retreated. 

CXXVIII. Astyages hearing of the igno- 
minious defeat of his army, continued to menace 
Cyrus ; and exclaimed, that he should still have 
no reason to exult. The first thing he did was 
to crucify the magi, 2 the interpreters of dreams, 
who had prevailed upon him to send Cyrus 
away. He then armed all his citizens, young 
and old, without distinction. He led them 
against the Persians, and was vanquished : 3 he 
himself was taken prisoner, and the greater part 
of his army destroyed. 

CXXIX. In his captivity Harpagus was 
present to insult and reproach him. Among 
other things, he asked him what was his opinion 
of that supper, in which he had compelled a 
father to feed on the flesh of his child, a supper 
which had reduced him from a monarch to a 
slave. In, reply, Astyages requested to know 
if he imputed to himself the success of Cyrus. 
He confessed that he did, explained the means, 
and justified his conduct. Astyages told him, 
that he was then the most foolish and wicked 
of mankind ; — most foolish, in acquiring for 
another the authority he might have enjoyed 
himself: most wicked, for reducing his coun- 
trymen to servitude, to gratify his private 
revenge. If he thought a change in the govern- 
ment really necessary, and was still determined 
not to assume the supreme authority himself, 
justice should have induced him to have elevat- 
ed a Mede to that honour, rather than a Persian. 
The Medes, who w T ere certainly not accessary 
to the provocation given, had- exchanged situa- 

2 Crucify the Magi.] — It appears from the sacred writ- 
ings, that when the magi either were not able to inter- 
pret dreams or explain difficulties to the satisfaction of 
their tyrant masters, they were with little compunction 
condemned to die. See in particular the book of Daniel. 
The cruelty of Astyages is spoken of by Diodorus Siculus, 
in his book de virtutibus et vitiis. — T- 

3 Was vanquished.'] — Xenophon represents Cyrus as 
succeeding of course, and without any hostilities, to the 
throne of Astyages. — T. 



CLIO. 



41 



tions with their servants; the Persians, who 
were formerly the servants, were now the 
masters. 

CXXX. After a reign of thirty -five years, 
Astyages was thus deposed. To his asperity 
of temper the Medes owed the loss of their 
power, after possessing, for the space of one 
hundred and twenty-eight years, all that part of 
Asia which lies beyond the Halys, deducting 
from this period the short interval of the Scy- 
thian dominion. In succeeding times, from a 
disdain of their abased situation, they took up 
arms against Darius : their attempt proved un- 
successful, and they were a second time reduced 
to servitude. From this period the Persians, 
who, under the conduct of Cyrus, had shaken 
off the power of the Medes, remained in undis- 
turbed possession of Asia. Cyrus detained 
Astyages in captivity for the remainder of his 
life, but in no other instance 4 treated him with 
severity. — Such is the history of the birth, edu- 
cation, and success of Cyrus. He afterwards, 
as we have before related, subdued Croesus, who 
had attacked him unprovoked : from which time 
he remained without competition sovereign of 
Asia. 

CXXXI. My attention to the subject has 
enabled me to make the following observations 
on the manners and customs of the Persians. 
They have among them neither statues, temples'* 

4 But in no other instance, §c.} — Isocrates, in his 
funeral oration upon Evagoras, king of Salamis, in 
Cyprus, says, that Cyrus put Astyages to death. I do 
not find that this fact has been asserted by any other 
author. — Lurcher. 

5 Neither statues.'} — It is proper to remark here, that 
the more ancient nations were not worshippers of images. 
Lucian tells us, that the ancient Egyptians had no statues 
in their temples. According to Eusebius, the Greeks 
were not worshippers of images before the time of 
Cecrops, who first of all erected a statue to Minerva. 
And Plutarch tells us, that Numa forbade the Romans to 
represent the deity under the form of a man or an ani- 
mal ; and for seventy years this people had not in their 
temples any statue or painting of the deity. — Lurcher. 

The symbols used by the ancients of their respective 
deities, were stones of different shapes. A round stone 
represented the sun, thence styled Alagabalus Deus ro- 
tundus : Bochart and Selden. A little polished stone was 
the earth.thence Cybele was called Agdites and Agdistes. 
A square rude stone was Bacchus ; the Caaba of the 
Arabs. 

Arnobins says, that Cybele was represented by a small 
stone of a dark and black colour. See also Prudentius 

Lapis nigcllus evehendus essedo 
IMuliebris oris clausus argento sedet, Sec. 

6 Temples.} — I am not of opinion with the Persian 
magi, at whose instigation Xerxes burned the temples 
of the Greeks, because they confined their deities by 
walls, who ought to be free from every kind of restraint, 



nor altars ; 7 the use of which they censure as 
impious, and a gross violation of reason, 
probably, because, in opposition to the Greeks, 
they do not believe that the gods partake of 
our human nature. 8 Their custom is, to offer, 
from the summits of the highest mountains,-' 
sacrifices to Jove, distinguishing by that appel- 
lation all the expanse of the firmament. They 
also adore the sun, 10 the moon, earth, fire, 11 
water, and the winds ; which may be termed 
their original deities. In after-times, from the 
examples of the Assyrians and Arabians, they 
added Urania *? to this number. The name of 
the Assyrian Venus is Mylitta, whom the 
Arabians call Alitta, and the Persians Mithra. 
CXXXII. Their mode of paying their 
devotions to the above-mentioned deities, con- 
firmed by undeviating custom, is to sacrifice to 
them without altars or fire, libations or in- 
strumental music, garlands or consecrated 
cakes ; but every individual, as he wishes to 
sacrifice to any particular divinity, conducts his 
victim to a place made clean for the purpose, 
and makes his invocation or his prayers with a 

and whose temple and residence was the universe itself. 
— Cicero. 

7 Nor altars.} — The theology of Zoroaster was darkly 
comprehended by foreigners, and even by the far greater 
number of his disciples : but the most careless observers 
were struck with the philosophic simplicity of the Per- 
sian worship. — Gibbon. 

8 Human nature} — That the gods often appeared in 
a human shape, is taken for granted by Pausanias, in 
Arcad. and Plutarch de Musica. The same opinion was 
firmly maintained by Julian, an orthodox pagan in a 
later age. — Gillies. 

9 Summits of the highest mountains.} — Van Dale re- 
marks, that the oracular temples were, for the most part, 
situated in mountainous places. The scriptures also in- 
timate, that mountains and high places were chosen as the 
properest theatres for the display of religious enthusiasm. 
See Deuteronomy, chap. xii. ver. 2. 3. Ye shall utterly 
destroy the places wherein the nations served their gods, 
upon the high mountains, and upon the lulls, and under 
every green tree, &c. &C.—T. 

10 Sun— -fire.}— The worship of the ancient Persians 
had unquestionably been very early corrupted. The 
reverence paid to the sun and to fire, which Zoroaster 
appears to have considered merely as representatives of 
omnipotence, the fountain of light, seems to have been an 
idea too refined for the gross capacities of the vulgar, who, 
without regard to the great invisible prototype, turned 
all their thoughts to the adoration of those ostensible 
deities. — Richardson. 

11 Fire.} — The ancient Persians durst not, by their re 
ligion, extinguish fire with water ; but endeavoured to 
smother it with earth, stones, or any thing familiar. 
This method would not soon, extinguish a blazing forest 
The Parsis of Guzeratare still guided by the same hurt- 
ful superstition. — The same. 

12 Urania.}— That is, the Uranian or celestial Venus, 
not the muse Urania. — T. 



42 



HERODOTUS. 



tiara encircled generally with myrtle. The 
supplicant is not permitted to implore blessings 
on himself alone, 1 his whole nation, and par- 
ticularly his sovereign, have a claim to his 
prayers, himself being necessarily comprehend- 
ed with the rest. He proceeds to divide his 
victim 2 into several minute parts, which, when 
boiled, he places upon the most delicate verdure 
he can find, giving the preference to trefoil. 
When things are thus prepared, one of the 
magi, without whose presence no sacrifice is 
deemed lawful, stands up and chants the pri- 
meval origin of the gods, which they suppose 
to have a sacred and mysterious influence. The 
worshipper after this takes with him, for his 
own use, such parts of the flesh as he thinks 
proper. 

CXXXIII. Among all their festivals each 
individual pays particular regard to his birth- 
day, when they indulge themselves with better 
fare than usual. The more rich among them 
prepare on this day an ox, a horse, a camel, or 
an ass, which is roasted whole ; the poorer sort 
are satisfied with a lamb or a sheep : they eat 
but sparingly of meat, but are fond of the after 
dishes, which are separately introduced. From 
hence the Persians take occasion to say, that 
the Grecians do not leave their tables satisfied, 
having nothing good to induce them to continue 
there — if they had they would eat more. Of 
wine 3 they drink profusely : they may neither 
vomit nor make water before any one ; which 
customs they still observe. They are accus- 
tomed to deliberate on matters of the highest 
moment when warm with wine ; but whatever 
they in this situation may determine is again 
proposed to them on the morrow, in their cooler 

1 Not permitted to implore blessings on himself alone.] 
— This noble sentiment is thus beautifully expressed by 
Pope: 

God loves from whole to parts, but human soul 
Must rise from individuals to the whole : 
Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, 
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake ; 
The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds, 
Another still, and still another spreads ; 
Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace; 
His country next, and next all human race. 

Pope's Essays. 

2 Divide Ms victim.] — The ceremony of the Persian 
sacrifice is related at length, but with some trifling varia- 
tions, by Strabo. — T. 

3 Ofivine, 4*c.]— In every age the Persians have been 
addicted to intemperance ; and the wines of Shiraz have 
triumphed over the law of Mahomet. — Gibbon. In con- 
tradiction to the above observation, it appears from 
Xenophon, that the Persians, in the earlier period of 
their history, were a temperate and sober people. But 
that, in the time of Herodotus, they drank profusely, is 
confirmed by Plato. — T. 



moments, by the person in whose house they 
had before assembled. If at this time also it 
meet their approbation, it is executed, otherwise 
it is rejected. Whatever, also, they discuss 
when sober, is always a second time examined 
after they have been drinking. 

CXXXIV. If they meet at any time by 
accident, the rank of each party is easily discov- 
ered ; if they are of equal dignity, they salute 
each other on the mouth ; if one is an inferior 
they only kiss the cheek ; if there be a great 
difference in situation, the inferior falls pros- 
trate on the ground. 4 They treat with most 
respect those who live nearest to them ; as they 
become more and more remote, their esteem of 
each other diminishes ; for those who live very 
distant from them they entertain not the small- 
est regard : esteeming themselves the most 
excellent of mankind, they think that the value 
of others must diminish in proportion to their 
distance. During the empire of the Medes, 
there was a regular gradation of authority ; the 
Medes governed all as well as their neighbours, 
but these also were superior to those contigu- 
ous to them, who again held the next nation in 
subjection ; which example the Persians fol- 
lowed when their dominions became extended, 
and their authority increased. 

CXXXV. The Persians are of all men 
most inclined to adopt foreign manners : think- 
ing the dress of the Medes more becoming than 
their own, they wear it in preference. They 
use also, in their armies, the Egyptian breast- 
plate ; they discover an ardour for all pleasures 
of which they have heard ; a passion for boys 5 



4 Falls prostrate on the ground.] — Our countryman 
Sandys observes, that the modern mode of salutation be- 
twixt equals in the east, is by laying the right hand on 
the bosom, and gently declining the body ; but when a 
person of great rank is saluted, they bow to the ground, 
and kiss the hem of his garment. Upon this subject con- 
sult also Pocock and Shaw. The Syro-Phcenician woman 
fell at the feet of Jesus. Quintus Curtius relates of Alex - 
ander the Great, that when he returned from the con- 
quest of Asia, he disdained the manners of his country, 
and suffered those who approached his person to lie pros- 
trate on the ground before him. — T. 

5 Passion for boys.] — How, says Plutarch, in Ms dis- 
course on the malignity of Herodotus, could the Persians 
possibly have learned this vice of the Greeks? It is 
universally acknowledged that the custom of castrating 
young men was common amongst the Persians, long 
before they visited the coasts of Greece. 

Mr Harcner, in Ms Observations on Passages of Scrip- 
ture, has been at some pains to prove, that in all proba- 
bility the plain upon which the cities of Sodom and Go- 
morrah stood, was somewhere in the south of Persia. 

That tMs vice was of very great antiquity in Greece, 
appears from a passage of Phanoeles, preserved in Sto- 
baeus, which informs us, That the Thracian women put 



CLIO. 



43 



they learned from the Greeks, and each man 
lias many wives, but many more concubines. 

CXXXVI. Next to valour in the field, a 
man is esteemed in proportion to the number 
of his offspring ; 6 to him who has the greater 
number of children, the king every year sends 
presents ; their national strength depending, 
as they suppose, on their numbers. From their 
fifth 7 to their twentieth year they instruct their 
children in three things only, the art of the 
bow, horsemanship, 8 and a strict regard to 
truth. Till his fifth year a boy is kept in the 
female apartments, and not permitted to see 
his father : the motive of which is, that if the 
child die before this period, his death may give 
no uneasiness to the father. 

CXXXVII. This custom appears com- 
mendable : I cannot but think highly of that 
custom also, which does not allow even the 
sovereign to put any one to death for a single 
offence ; neither from any one provocation is a 
Persian permitted to exercise extreme severity 
in his family. Severity is there only lawful, 
when, after careful examination, the offences 
are found to exceed the merits. They will not 



Orpheus to death, on account of his unnatural passion 
for a young man of the name of Calais. 

Hie etiam Thracum populis fuit auctor, amorem 
In teneros transferre mares, citiaque juventam 
/Etatis breve ver, et primos carpere flores. 

Ovid. Met. x. 83. 

But the total silence of Homer may perhaps furnish a 
reasonable presumption against the antiquity of this de- 
testable vice. — T. 

6 Nu?nber of his offspring. ~\ — A numerous posterity is, 
at the present day, the most fervent wish of the female 
inhabitants of Egypt. Public respect is annexed to fruit- 
rulness. This is even the prayer of the poor, who earns 
his bread by the sweat of his brow. — Savary. 

Without any exaggeration, all the women of my ac- 
quaintance have twelve or thirteen children ; and the 
old ones boast of having had five-and-twenty or thirty a- 
piece, and are respected according to the number they 
have produced. — Letters of Lady M. W. Montague 
from Constantinople. 

Sterility is a reproach among the orientals, and they 
still retain for fecundity all the esteem of ancient times. 
— Volney. 

The same commendation of fertility seems to be im- 
plied in scripture, Judges, xii. 14, by the enumeration of 
Abdon's sons and grandsons. — T. 

7 From their fifth, S$c.~\— This account of Persian edu- 
cation diners from that given by Xenophon. 

8 Horsemanship. 1— This, in the time of Cyrus, did not 
constitute a part of Persian education. The Persians, 
at that period, inhabiting a country mountainous, and 
without pasturage, could not breed horses ; but as soon 
as they had conquered a country suitable to this purpose, 
they learned the art of horsemanship ; and Cyrus made 
it to be considered as a disgraceful thing, that any per- 
son lo whom he had presented a horse should go any 
where on foot, even to the smallest distance.— Larchcr. 



believe that any one ever killed his parent ; 
when such accidents have apparently happened, 
they assert their belief, that the child would, 
on inquiry, be found either to have been the 
produce of adultery, or spurious ; conceiving it 
altogether impossible, that any real parent can 
be killed by his own offspring. 

CXXXVIII. Whatever they may not act 
with impunity, they cannot mention without 
guilt. They hold falsehood in the greatest ab- 
horrence ; 9 next to which they esteem it dis- 
graceful to be in debt, as well for other reasons, 
as for the temptations to falsehood, 10 which they 
think it necessarily introduces. A leprous ' ' 
Persian must neither enter the city, nor have 
communication with any of his countrymen ; 
this disease they always think occasioned by 
some offence committed against the sun. 12 If a 
foreigner is afflicted with it, he is tumultuously 
expelled the country. They have also, for the 
same reason, an aversion to white pigeons. To 
all rivers 13 they pay extreme veneration ; they 
will neither spit, wash their hands, nor evacuate 
in any of them ; and a violation of this custom 
may not happen with impunity. 

CXXXJX. They have one peculiarity, 
which, though they are not aware of it them- 
selves, is notorious to us ; all those words which 
are expressive of personal or of any other dis- 
tinction, terminate in the Doric san, which is 
the same with the Ionian sigma : and attentive 



9 Falsehood in the greatest abhor rence.] — The Persians 
were not always so scrupulous about falsehood; see 
Herodotus, book iii. and lxxii. — Larcher. 

10 Temptations to falsehood.] — Plutarch, in his treatise 
concerning the contraction of debts, represents this dif- 
ferently. The Persians, says he, esteem falsehood as a 
secondary crime, the first is running in debt. — T. 

11 A leprous, fyc] — Persons afflicted with leprosy are 
still kept secluded in many places of the east. See 
Niebuhr's description of Arabia. 

See the Mosaical prohibition concerning lepers, Num- 
bers, chap. v. ver. 4. — T. 

12 Against the sun.2-- When iEschines touched at Dclos, 
on his way to Rhodes, the inhabitants of that island were 
greatly incommoded by a species of leprosy, called the 
white leprosy. They imputed it to the anger of Apollo, 
because, in contradiction to the custom of the place, they 
had interred there the body of a man of rank.— Larcher. 

13 To all rivers.]— The ancient Cuthites, and the Per- 
sians after them, had a great veneration for fountain i 
and streams, which also prevailed among other nations, 
so as to have been at one time almost universal If these 
rivers were attended with any nitrous or saline quality, 
or with any fiery eruption, they were adjudged to be still 
more sacred. — Bryant. 

What boots you now Scamander's worshipp'd stream, 
His earthly honours, and immortal name ? 
In vain your immolated bulls are slain, 
Your living coursers glut his gulfs in vain. 

Pxpe, II. xxi. 



u 



HERODOTUS. 



observation will farther discover, that all the 
names of Persians ' end without exception 
alike. 

CXL. The above remarks are delivered 
without hesitation, as being the result of my 
own positive knowledge. They have other 
customs, concerning which, as they are of a 
secret nature, I will not pretend to express my- 
self decisively : as to what relates to their dead, 
I will not affirm it to be true, that these never 
are interred till some bird or dog has discovered 
a propensity to prey on them. This, however, 
is unquestionably certain of the magi, who pub- 
licly observe this custom. The Persians first 
inclose the dead body in wax, 2 and afterwards 
place it in the ground. Their magi are a dis- 
tinct body of men, having many peculiarities, 
which distinguish them from others, and from 
the Egyptian priests in particular. These last 
think it essential to their sanctity, to destroy no 
animals but the victims of sacrifice. The magi 
except a man and a dog, but put other animals 
without compunction to death. They even 
think it an action highly meritorious to destroy 
serpents, ants, 3 and the different species of rep- 



1 Names of Persians.] —The language spoken anciently 
in Persia, opens a wild field for unsatisfactory inquiry. 
Dr Hyde derives it from that of Media; which is much 
the same as deducing one jargon of the Saxon heptarchy 
from another. The union of those people named by 
Europeans the Modes and Persians, is of such high an- 
tiquity, that it is lo.it in darkness, and long precedes every 
glimmering we can discover of the origin of their speech. 
— Richardson on Eastern Nations. 

2 In wax.] — Bodies thus inclosed continue perfect for 
ages. Some gentlemen of the society of antiquaries be- 
ing desirous to see how far the actual state of Edward 
the First's body answered to the methods taken to pre- 
serve it, by writs issued from time to time, in the reigns 
of Edward the Third and Henry the Fourth, to the trea- 
sury, to renew the wax about it, obtained permission to 
inspect it. It was found entire, May 2d, 1774. The body 
must have been preserved about three centuries and a 
half, in the state in which it was then found.— Annual 
Register, 1774 

The magi, for a long time, retained the exclusive pri- 
vilege of having their bodies left as a prey to carnivorous 
animals. In succeeding times, the Persians abandoned 
all corpses indiscriminately to birds and beasts, of prey. 

This custom still in part continues ; the place of burial 
of the Guebres, at the distance of half a league from Is- 
pahan, is a round toAver made of free-stone : it is thirty- 
five feet in height, and ninety in diameter, without gate 
or any kind of entrance ; they ascend it by a ladder. In 
the midst of the tower is a kind of trench, into winch 
the bones are tin-own. The bodies are ranged along the 
wall in their proper clothes, upon a small couch, with 
bottles of wine, &c. The ravens, which fill the cemetery, 
devour them. — Chardin. 

3 Serpents, ants, $c.]— This, says Larcher, is a precept 
of the Sadder. The learned Dr Hyde considers the Sad- 
dor as fragments of the works of Zoroaster, the great 
Persian legislator. Upon this subject it may not be amiss 



tiles. After this digression, I return to my 
former subject. 

CXLI. The Ionians and iEolians, after the 
conquest of Lydia by the Persians, immediately 
despatched ambassadors to Sardis, requesting 
Cyrus to receive them under his allegiance, upon 
the terms which Croesus formerly had granted 
them. Cyrus gave them audience, and made 
the following reply -. " A certain piper, observ- 
ing some fishes sporting in the sea, began to 
play to them, in hopes that they would volun- 
tarily throw themselves on shore ; disappointed 
in his expectations, he threw r his nets, inclosed 
a great number, and brought them to land ; see • 
ing them leap about, ' You may be quiet now,' 
says he, ' as you refused to come out to me 
when I played to you.' " — Cyrus was induced to 
return this answer to the Ionians and iEolians, 
because the Ionians had formerly disregarded 
his solicitations to withdraw their assistance 
from Croesus, refusing all submission to Cyrus, 
till they were compelled by necessity to make 
it. This reply, therefore, of Cyrus, was evi- 
dently dictated by resentment ; which, as soon 
as the Ionians had received, they fortified their 
towns, and assembled all of them at Panionium, 
except the Milesians : Cyrus had received these 
into his alliance, upon the conditions which they 
had formerly enjoyed from Croesus. The gen- 
eral determination of the Ionians was to send 
ambassadors to Sparta, who were in their com- 
mon name to supplicate assistance. 

CXLII. These Ionians, who are members 
of the Panionium, enjoy beyond all whom I 
have known purity of air 4 and beauty of situa- 
tion ; the country above and below them, as 
well as those parts which lie to the east and 
west, being in every respect less agreeable. 
Some of them are both cold and moist ; others 
parched by the extremity of the heat. Their 
language possesses four several distinctions. 
Miletus 5 is their first city towards the south, 



to introduce the opinion of Mr Richardson. The Sadder, 
says he, are the wretched rhymes of a modern Parsi 
destour (priest) who lived about three centuries ago. 
From this work, therefore, we cannot have even the 
glimpse of an original tongue, nor any thing authentic 
of the genius of the lawgiver. 

Chardin informs us, that the Guebres, or ancient fire- 
worshippers of Persia, deem it meritorious to put insects 
of all kinds to death.— T. 

4 Purity of air.] — These advantages of situation, and 
of climate, which the Ionians enjoyed, are enumerated 
by many ancient writers. This people, unable to defend 
themselves (says the Abbe Barthelemy) against the Per- 
sians, consoled themselves for the loss of their liberties 
in the bosom of voluptuousness and the cultivation of the 
arts.^T*. <■ . 

5 Miletus, S(c,]— For a particular account of the modern 



CLIO. 



45 



next to which are Myus and Priene ; all these 
are situate in Caria, and use the same language. 
In Lydia are the cities of Ephesus, Colophon, 
Lebedos, Teos, Clazomense, Phocsea 3 whichhave 
a dialect peculiar to themselves. There are 
three other cities properly called Ionian ; two 
of these, Samos and Chios, are situated in is- 
lands : the other, Erythrae, is on the continent. 
The Chians and Erythraeans speak alike ; the 
Samian tongue is materially different. These 
are the four discriminations of language to 
which we alluded. 

CXLIII. Of these lonians, the Milesians 
were induced to court the friendship of Cyrus, 
from apprehensions of his power. The island- 
ers had but little cause of fear, for tha Persians 
had not yet subdued the Phoenicians, and were 
themselves ignorant of maritime affairs. The 
general imbecility of Greece, and the small im- 
portance of the lonians in particular, was their 
motive for separating themselves from the body 
of that nation of which they constituted a part ; 
Athens, of all the Grecian cities, being the only 
one of any distinction. The appellation of 
lonians, was for this reason disdained by the 
Athenians, and some other lonians, which pre- 
judice does not yet appear to be obliterated. In 
opposition to this, the above twelve cities are 
proud of the name, and have in consequence 
erected a sacred edifice, which they call the 
Panionium. They determined to admit no 
other of the Ionian cities to this temple, and 
the privilege was desired by those of Smyrna 
alone. 

CXLIV. The Dorians now inhabiting Pen- 
tapclis, which was formerly called Hexapolis, 
instituted a similar exemption • not admitting 
the neighbouring Dorians, nor indeed some of 
their own people, who had violated a sacred 
and established custom, to the temple of 



names and circumstances of these Ionian cities, consult 
Chandler and Pococke. 

Miletus was the birth-place of Thales, Clazomense of 
Anaxagoras, Ephesus of Parrhasius, Colophon of Xeno- 
phanes, Teos of Anacreon. — T. 

d Panionium ] — About sixteen miles to the south of 
Scala Nuova there is a Christian village called Changlee. 
It is supposed to be the ancient Panionium, where the 
meeting of the twelve cities of Ionia Avas held, and a 
solemn sacrifice performed to Neptune Heleconius, in 
which the people of Priene presided. — Pococke. 

The victim sacrificed in this temple was a bull ; and it 
was deemed an auspicious omen if he lowed whilst they 
were conducting him to the place of sacrifice. 

This is alluded to in Homer : 

Not louder roars 
At Neptune's shrine on Hi. lice's high shores, 
The victim bull — Iliad, xx. T. 



Triope. 7 The prize of these games, which were 
celebrated in honour of the Triopean Apollo, 
was formerly a tripod of brass, which the victor 
was not expected to carry away, 8 but to leave 
as a votive offering in the temple of the deity. 
A man of Halicarnassus, 9 whose name was 
Agasicles, having obtained the victory, in viola- 
tion of this custom carried the tripod to his 
own house, where it was openly suspended. 
In punishment of this offence, Halicarnassus 
was excluded from the participation of their 
religious ceremonies, by the five cities of Lin- 
dus, Jalyssus, Camirus, Cos, 10 and Cnidus. 11 

CXLV. It appears to me, that the lonians 
divided themselves into twelve states, and were 
unwilling to connect themselves with more, 
simply because in Peloponnesus they were 
originally so circumstanced as are the Achaeans 
at present, by whom the lonians were expelled. 
The first of these is Pellene near Sicyen, then 
iEgira and iEgae, through which the Crathis 
flows with a never-failing stream, giving its 
name to a well-known river of Italy. Next to 
these is Bura, then Helice, to which place the 



7 Temple of Triope.~\ — Triopium was a city of Caria, 
founded by Triopas, son of Erysicthon. Hence the Trio- 
pean promontory took its name, where was a temple 
known under the name of the Triopean temple, consecra- 
ted to Apollo. The Dorians here celebrated games in hon- 
our of that god, but without joining with him Neptune 
and the nymphs. 

In this temple was held a general assembly of the 
Dorians of Asia, upon the model of that of Thermopylae. 
— Larcher. 

8 Was not expected to carry away.} — In the games in 
honour of Apollo and Bacchus, the victor was not per- 
mitted to carry the prize away with him. It remained 
in the temple of the deity, with an inscription signifying 
the names of the persons at whose cost the games were 
celebrated, Avith that of the victorious tribe. — Larcher. 

9 Halicarnassus.'} — The sincerity of Herodotus is em- 
inently conspicuous from the faithful manner in which 
he relates circumstances but little honourable either for 
Halicarnassus, his country, or even for the Athenians, 
Avho had expressed themselves anxious to receive liim 
into the number of their citizens, and before Avhom he 
had publicly recited his history. See also chap, clxvi. 
of this book ; as also different passages in the 3d, 5th, and 
7th books. — Bouhier. 

10 Co?.]— Cos was the birth-place of Hippocrates.— T. 

11 Cnidus.} — Cnidus Avas celebrated for being the birth- 
place of the historian Ctesias, and of the astronomer 
Eudoxus, and no less so from being possessed of the 
beautiful Venus of Praxiteles.— T. 

The medals struck at Cnidus in the times of the Roman 
emperors, represent, as may be presumed, the Venus of 
Praxiteles. The goddess Avith her right hand conceals 
her sex, Avith her left she holds some linen over a vessel 
of perfumes. — Voyage dujeune Anacharsis. 

It is perhaps not unworthy of remark, that the cele- 
brated Venus de Medicis conceals with her left hand the 
distinction of her sex, whilst her right is elevated to her 
bosom. — T. 



46 



HERODOTUS. 



Ionians fled after being vanquished in battle by 
the Achaeans. Next follow iEgium,' Rhypse, 
Patrae, Pharae, and Olenus, which is watered 
by Pirus, a considerable river. The last are 
Dyme t and Tritsea, the only inland city. 

CXL VI. These are the twelve states of the 
Achaeans, to which the Ionians formerly belong- 
ed, who, for this reason, constructed an equal 
number of cities in the country which they after - 
wards inhabited. That these are more pro- 
perly Ionians than the rest, it would be absurd 
to assert or to imagine. It is certain that the 
Abantes 2 of Euboea, who have neither name 
nor any thing else in common with Ionia, form 
a considerable part of them. They are, more- 
over, mixed with the Minyan- Orchomenians, i 
the Cadmeans, Dryopians, Phocidians, Molos- j 
sians, the Pelasgians of Arcadia, the Dorians j 
of Epidaums, and various other nations. Even 
those, who migrating from the Prytaneum 3 of j 
Athens esteem themselves the most noble of 
all the Ionians, on their first settling in the 
country, brought no wives, but married a num- 
ber of Carian women, whose parents they put 
to death. In consequence of this violence, the 
women made a compact amongst themselves, 
which they delivered to their daughters, never 
to sit at meals with their husbands, nor to call 
them by their appropriate names ; which resolu- 



1 TEgium.]— The inhabitants of this place having van- 
quished the JEtolians in a naval fight, and taken from 
them a vessel of fifty oars, they made an offering of the 
tenth part to the temple of Delphi, at the same time they 
demanded of the god, who were the bravest of the 
Greeks? The Pythian answered thus : "The best cav- 
alry are those of Thessaly; the loveliest women are 
those of Sparta; they who drink the water of the fair 
fountain of Arethusa are valiant; but the Argives, who 
inhabit betwixt Terinthus and Arcadia, abounding in 
flocks, are more so. — As for you, O JEgians! you are 
neither the third, nor the fourth, nor even the twelfth ; 
you inspire no respect, nor are of the smallest importance. " 
— Larcher.. 

2 Abantes.']— This people cut off their hair before, and 
suffered it to grow behind; being a valiant race, they 
did this to prevent the enemy, whom they always boldly 
fronted, seizing them by the hair. For the same reason 
Alexander the Great ordered his general, to make the 
troops ctit off their hair. — Larcher. 

3 Prytaneum.] — The Prytaneum was the senate-hoose 
of Athens. After the senators were elected, presiding 
officers were appointed, who were called Prytanes. 
There were fifty of these, and they resided constantly in 
the Prytaneum, that they might be ready, says Potter, 
to give audience to whoever had any thing to propose 
concerning the commonwealth. In the same place also 
resided other citizens who had rendered important ser- 
vices to their country. The Prytaneum was sacred to 
Vesta; it was not appropriate to Athens: mention is 
made of the Prytaneum of Siphros, of Cyzicum, of Syra- 
cuse, and of many other places. — T. 



tion was provoked by the murder of their par- 
ents, their husbands, and their children, and by 
their being afterwards compelled to marry the 
assassins. — The above happened at Miletus. 

CXL VII. Of those chosen by these Ioni- 
ans for their kings, some were Lydians, de- 
scended of Glaucus, 4 the son of Hippolochus, 
and others, Caucon-Pylians, of the race of 
Codrus, son of Melanthus. Of their Ionian 
name these were more tenacious than the rest 
of their countrymen ; they are without question 
true and genuine Ionians ; but this name may, 
in fact, be applied to all those of Athenian 
origin, who celebrate the Apaturian festival, 5 
from which it is to be observed that the Ephe- 
sians and Colophonians are alone excluded, 
who had been guilty of the crime of murder. 

CXL VIII. Panionium is a sacred place G 
on Mycale, situate towards the north, which by 
the universal consent of the Ionians is conse- 
crated to the Heliconian Neptune. 7 Mycale is 

4 Glaucus.] — This is the Glaucus who relates Ids 
genealogy to Diomed in the sixth book of the Iliad. 

Hippolochus survived ; from him I came, 

The honour'd author of my birth and name ; 

By his decree I sought the Trojan town, &c. — Pope. 

Invidious as it may appear, we cannot help remarking, 
that the whole version of tliis episode is comparatively 
defective in spirit and in melody. — T. 

5 Apaturian festival ]— This was first instituted at 
Athens, and thence derived to the rest of the Ionians, 
Colophon and Ephesus alone excepted. It continued 
three days : the first was called Dorpia, from Dorpos, a 
supper; on the evening of this day each tribe had a 
separate meeting, at which a sumptuous entertainment 
was prepared. The second day was named Anarrusis. 
Victims were offered to Jupiter and to Minerva, in whose 
sacrifices, as in all that were offered to the celestial gods 
it was usual to turn the head of the victims upwards 
towards heaven. The third day was called Koureotis, 
from Kouros, a youth, or Koura, shaving. The young 
men who presented themselves to be inrolled amongst 
the citizens had then their hair cut off. At this time 
their fathers were obliged to swear, that both themselves 
and the mothers of the young men were freeborn Athe- 
nians. For farther particulars on this subject, consult 
Archbishop Potter's Antiquities of Greece. — T. 

6 Sacred place.] — Ampelus and Omphalus were the 
same term originally, however varied afterwards, and 
differently appropriated. They are each a compound 
from Omphe, and relate to the oracular deity. Ampelus, 
at Mycale, in Ionia, was confessedly so denominated, 
from its being a sacred place, and abounding with waters, 
by w Inch people who drank them were supposed to be 
inspired. — Bryant. 

7 Heliconian Neptune.] — The. Ionians had a great 
veneration for Neptune ; they had erected to him a tem- 
ple at Hehce, a city of Achaia, when that country be- 
longed to them. From this place the deity took Ms name 
of Heliconius. Homer calls him Heliconian king. The 
Ionians giving place to the Achaians, carried with them 
to Athens, where they took refuge, the worship of Nep- 
tune : afterwards fixing in Asia, they constructed, in 
honour of this divinity, a temple, on the model of that 



CLIO. 



47 



a promontory, projecting itself westward to- 
wards Samos. Upon this mountain the Ionians 
assemble from their different cities, to celebrate 
the Panionia. Not only the proper names of 
these religious ceremonies, but those of all the 
other Greeks, terminate, like the Persian pro- 
per names, in the same letter. 

CXLIX. The above are the cities of Ionia. 
Those of iEolia are Cyme, sometimes called 
Phryconis, Larissae, Neontichus, Temnos, 
Cilia, Notium, iEgiroessa, Pitane, JEgaea, 
Myrina and Grynia ; these were original cities 
of iEolia. They were formerly twelve in num- 
ber on the continent ; but Smyrna, which was 
one of them, the Ionians divided from them. 
The country possessed by the JEolians is in 
itself more excellent than Ionia, though much 
inferior in the temperature of the air. 

CL. The loss of Symrna was occasioned by 
the following incident. Some inhabitants of 
Colophon, who had raised a sedition, and had 
been driven from their country, were received 
into Smyrna. They watched their opportunity, 
and whilst the citizens were engaged in celebra- 
ting the rites of Bacchus without the town, 
they secured the gates, and took possession of 
the place. All the iEolians assembled for its 
relief: they afterwards came to terms, and it 
was agreed that the ]onians should retain the 
city, restoring to the former inhabitants their 
household goods. The Smyrneans were in 
consequence divided among the other cities, 
with enjoyment of the different privileges an- 
nexed to each. 

CLI. The above are the iEolian cities s 
on the continent, among which we have not 
enumerated those of mount Ida, which can 
hardly be said to make a part of their body. 
They have also in Lesbos 9 five towns ; there 



at Helice. This temple was in the territories of Priene, 
to which place he who presided at the sacrifices was 
obliged to belong, its inhabitants giving out that they 
came from Helice. — Larcher. 

8 JEolian cities.]— The Cohans of Lesbos affirmed, 
that they were present at the siege of Troy, under the 
command of Pylaeus, whom Homer makes the general 
of the Pelasgi. A plain confession^ that they were then 
called Pelasgi as well as others. 

9 Lesbos.]— The names of Arion and Terpander, of 
Pittacus, of Alcaeus, and of Sappho, and, in after times, 
of Theophanes the historian, concm- inmakingthe island 
of Lesbos a just object of classical curiosity. Arion and 
Terpander excelled all their contemporaries in the 
science and practice of music ; Pittacus was eminent for 
his wisdom , and of Alcaeus and Sappho little more need 
be said, than that they have ever been considered as the 
founders of lyric poetry. A proper opportunity seems 
here to present itself, of informing the English reader, 



is a sixth, named Arisba, but this was subdued 
by the Methymnaeans, although allied to them 
by blood. They moreover possess a city in 
Tenedos, 10 and another in the Hundred Islands. 
The inhabitants of Lesbos and Tenedos, as well 
as those of the Ionian islands, were, from their 
situation, secure from danger; the others in- 
discriminately agreed to follow the direction and 
example of the Ionians. 

CLII. The Ionians and iEolians made no 
delay in despatching ambassadors to Sparta, 
who, when there, selected for their common 
orator a man of Phoczea, whose name was Py- 
thermus. Habited in purple, 11 as a means of 
getting a greater number of Spartans together, 
he stood forth in the midst of them, and ex- 
erted all his powers to prevail on them to 
communicate their assistance. The Lacedae- 
monians paid no attention to him, and publicly 
resolved not to assist the Ionians. On the 
departure of the ambassadors they nevertheless 
despatched a vessel of fifty oars, to watch the 
proceedings of Cyrus, as well as of the Ionians. 
Arriving at Phocaea, they sent forward to 
Sardis one Lacrines, the principal man of the 
party, who was commissioned to inform Cyrus 
that the Lacedaemonians would resent what- 
ever injury might be offered to any of the Gre- 
cian cities. 

CLIII. Cyrus gave audience to Lacrines ; 
after which he inquired of the Grecians around 
him, who these Lacedaemonians were, and 
what effective power they possessed, to justify 
this lofty language ? When he was satisfied in 
these particulars, he told the Spartan, " That 
men who had a large void space in their city, 
where they assembled for the purpose of de- 
frauding each other, could never be to him 
objects of terror : he further observed, that if he 
continued but in health, he would take care that 
their concern for the Ionian troubles should 
be superseded by the greatness of their own." 
Cyrus made this reflection upon the Greeks, 
from the circumstance of their having large 

that what has been said of the dissolute manners of 
Sappho is only to be found in the works of those who 
lived a long time after her. The wines of Lesbos were 
esteemed the finest in Greece : it is now called Mity- 
lene, winch was the name of the ancient capital of the 
island.— T. 

10 Tenedos.]— The Grecian fleet which proceeded against 
Troy lay here. It retains its name, is inhabited by Greeks 
and Turks, and, according to Pococke, exports good wiue 
and brandy. — T. 

11 Habited in purple.'] — This dress was the most like- 
ly to make him conspicuous, as being particularly affected 
by women — Larcher. 



48 



HERODOTUS. 



public squares 1 for the convenience of trade ; 
the Persians have nothing of the kind. The 
care of Sardis Cyrus afterwards intrusted to 
Tabalus, a Persian ; the disposition of the Ly- 
dian treasures he intrusted to Pactyas, a Lydi- 
an : Cyrus himself proceeded to Ecbatane, 
taking Croesus with him. The Ionians he 
held in trifling estimation, compared with what 
he expected in his views upon Babylon and the 
Bactrians. He was prepared also for more se- 
rious resistance from the Sacians and Egyp- 
tians : he therefore resolved to take the com- 
mand in these expeditions himself, and to 
intrust one of his officers with the conduct of 
the Ionian war. 

CLIV. As soon as Cyrus had left Sardis, 
Pactyas excited the Lydians to revolt. He 
proceeded towards the sea, and having all the 
wealth of Sardis at command, he procured a 
band of mercenaries, and prevailed on the in- 
habitants of the coast to enlist under his ban- 
ners - 3 he then encamped before Sardis, and 
besieged Tabalus in the citadel. 

CLV. Intelligence of this was brought to 
Cyrus on his march ; who thus addressed Croe- 
sus on the subject : " What will, in your opi- 
nion, Croesus, be the event of these disturban- 
ces ?- The Lydians seem inclined to provide 
sufficient employment for me and trouble for 
themselves : I am in doubt, whether it will not 
be better to reduce them altogether to servitude: 
I appear to myself in the situation of a man, 
who, destroying the parent, has spared the child 
— You, who were in every sense the parent of 
the Lydians, remain in captivity ; and yet I 
am surprised that they, to whom I have re- 
stored their city, rebel against my power." 
Croesus, on hearing these sentiments of Cyrus, 
was alarmed for the safety of Sardis. " Sir," he 
replied, "your remarks are certainly reasonable ; 
but do not, in your anger, destroy an ancient ' 
city, which cannot justly be accused of the for- 
mer or present commotions. Of its preceding 
troubles I was the occasion, the penalty of which 
I suffer in my own person ; Pactyas, who has 
abused your confidence, is the author of the 
present ; let him, therefore, be the object of 
your resentment ; but let the Lydians be for- 
given, who may easily be prevented from giving 



1 Large public squares.] — I have my doubts whether 
Herodotus was not misinformed in this particular. Xeno- 
phon properly distinguishes the public square which was 
occupied by the houses of the magistrates, and those ap- 
propriated to the education of youth, from those places in 
which provisions and merchandise were sold — Larcher 



you trouble or alarm hereafter. Let their ar.ns 
be taken from them ; let them be commanded 
to wear tunics under their cloaks, and buskins 
about their legs ; suffer them to instruct their 
children in dancing, music, and other feminine 
accomplishments ; you will soon see them lose 
the dignity of manhood,* and be effectually 
delivered from all future apprehensions of their 
revolt. 

CLVI. These suggestions Croesus was in- 
duced to make, because he thought that even 
this situation would be better for his country 
than a state of actual servitude. He was well 
assured, that unless what he had urged was 
forcible, Cyrus would not be prevailed on to 
alter his determination. . He reflected also on 
the probability of the Lydians revolting in fu- 
ture, if they escaped the present danger, and 
their consequent and unavoidable destruction. 
Cyrus took in good part the remonstrance of 
Croesus, with which, forgetting his resentment, 
he promised to comply. He, in consequence, 
despatched Mazares the Mede, who was com- 
missioned to enforce these observances among 
the Lydians, which Croesus had recommended. 
He farther ordered all those to be sold as slaves 
who had been active in the Lydian revolt, ex- 
cepting Pactyas, whom he desired to be brought 
a prisoner to his presence. 

CLVII. These commands he issued in his 
progress, and he marched without delay to 
Persia. As soon as Pactyas was informed 
that an army was advancing to oppose him, he 
fled in affright to Cyme. Mazares proceeded 
instantly to Sardis, with a small division of the 
army of Cyrus. When he heard of the flight 
of Pactyas, his first step was to compel the 
Lydians to the observance of what Cyrus had 
commanded. This proved so effectual that it 
produced a total change in the manners of the 
Lydians. Mazares then despatched messengers 
to Cyme, demanding the person of Pactyas : 
with this the Cymeans hesitated to comply, and 
first of all sent persons to consult the oracle of 
Branchidse, for directions how to act. This 



2 Lose the dignity of manhood '.] — These people be- 
came so effeminate, that the word ludizein signified to 
dance : the Romans also called dances and pantomimes 
ludiones and ludii, which words are derived, not from 
ludus, hut from the Lydians ; for the Latins used Ludus, 
Surus, Suri, for Lydus, Syrus, and Syria. 

Xerxes compelled the Babylonians, who had revolted 
from him, to adopt a similar conduct. He forbade their 
carrying arms, and obliged them to learn the practice of 
music, to have in their cities places of debauch, and to 
wear long tunics. — Larcher. 



CLIO. 



49 



oracle was of the greatest antiquity, and con- 
sulted both by the Ionians and iEolians : it is 
in the territories of Miletus, beyond the port 
of Panormus. 3 

CLVIII. Their messengers were directed 
to inquire what conduct, with respect to Pac- 
tyas, would be most conformable to the will of 
the gods •. they were in answer commanded to 
deliver him up to the Persians ; which step, 
on their return, was about to be followed. In 
contradiction to the general inclination, Aris- 
todicus, son of Heraclides, a man exceedingly 
popular, distrusted the interpretation of the 
oracle, and the fidelity of the messengers. He 
proposed, therefore, that a second message of 
inquiry should be sent to the oracle, and he 
himself was among the persons appointed for 
this purpose. 

CLIX. On their arrival at Branchidse, 
Aristodicus was the person who addressed the 
oracle, which he did thus : — " To avoid a cruel 
death from the Persians, Pactyas, a Lydian, 
fled to us for refuge ; the Persians required us 
to deliver him into their hands ; much as we 
are afraid of their power, we fear still more to 
withdraw our protection from a suppliant ; till 
we know your immutable opinion of such con- 
duct." He nevertheless received the same 
answer ; and they were ordered to deliver up 
Pactyas. To give greater force to what he had 
said, Aristodicus made a circle round the tem- 
ple, and from such nests as were built on the 
outside he took the young. In consequence of 
his doing this, a voice is said to have exclaimed 
from the innermost recesses of the temple, 
" Impious man ! how darest thou to injure 
those who have sought my protection ?" In 
answer to this, Aristodicus replied with perfect 
composure, " Are you attentive to those who 
have sought your protection, and do you com- 
mand us to abandon those who have sought 
ours ?" " Yes," returned the oracle, " I do 
command it, that such impious men as you 4 

3 Port of Panormus. ~\ — It will be proper to remember 
here, that there were two places of this name ; and that 
this must not be confounded with the port of Panormus, 
in the vicinity of Ephesus. — T. 

4 Such impious men as you.~\ — Dr Jortin remarks, that 
justice, charity, piety, and faith, were not with those of 
the middle ages, who cultivated logical or philosophical 
divinity, what our. Saviour and his apostles meant by 
these virtues. Those doctors called that man pious and 
holy who stripped himself to enrich the priests, who 
built churches and monasteries, who neither rejected nor 
neglected any thing which the pope required to be believ- 
ed and performed. The remark applies, with peculiar 
force and truth, to the times and circumstances discuss- 
ed in the chapter before us. — T. 



may perish the sooner, and that you may never 
more trouble me about delivering up sup- 
pliants." 

CLX. The Cymeans deliberating on this 
answer, resolved to take a middle step, that 
they might neither offend heaven, by abandon- 
ing one who had sought their protection, nor 
expose themselves to the indignation of Cyrus, 
by refusing his request. Pactyas, therefore, 
was privately despatched to Mitylene. From 
hence also Mazares demanded him, and for a 
certain compensation the inhabitants of Mity- 
lene agreed to deliver him. This, however, as 
the matter was never brought to an issue, I 
pretend not positively to assert. The Cymeans, 
hearing the danger of Pactyas, sent a vessel to 
Lesbos, in which he was conveyed to Chios. 
He here took refuge in the temple of Minerva. 5 
The Chians were prevailed on by the offer of 
Aterneus, a place in Mysia opposite to Les- 
bos, to take him forcibly from hence, and sur- 
render him G to his enemies. The Persians 
thus obtained the means of complying with the 
wish of Cyrus, to have Pactyas delivered alive 
into his hands. Long, however, after this event, 
the Chians refused to use any part of the pro- 
duce of Atarneus in any of their sacred cere- 
monies j they appeared to hold it in particular 
detestation, and it was not in any form intro- 
duced in their temples. 

CLXI. After Pactyas had been given up by 
the Chians, Mazares proceeded to reduce those 
to obedience who had opposed Tabalus. The 
Prienians were subdued and sold for slaves ; 
the plains of the Meander, and the city of Mag- 
nesia, were given up for plunder to the soldiers : 
after these events Mazares fell a victim to a 
sudden disease. 

CLXII. Harpagus the Mede was appointed 
to succeed him : this was the man whom As- 
tyages had entertained with so unnatural a feast, 
and who had assisted Cyrus in obtaining the 
kingdom : him Cyrus appointed to the com- 



5 Minerva."] — Minerva Poliouchos, the protectress of 
the citadel. All citadels were supposed to be nnder the 
protection of this goddess, where also she had usually a 
temple. 

Soon as to Ilion's topmost tower they come, 

And awful reach the high Palladian dome. — Pope, II. vi. 

6 Surrender him.~\ — Charon the Lampsacenian, says 
Plutarch, a more ancient writer than Herodotus, relat- 
ing this matter concerning Pactyas, charges neither the 
Mitylenians nor Chians with any such action. These 
are his words: — "Pactyas, on hearing of the approach 
of the Persian army, fled first to Mitylene, then to Chios, 
and fell into the hands of Cyrus.— Plutarch on the tna. 
lignity of Herodotus. 

G 



50 



HERODOTUS. 



mand of his army. On his arrival in Ionia, he 
blockaded the different towns, by throwing up 
entrenchments before them ; Phocaea was the 
first city of Ionia which thus fell into his hands. 

CLXIII. The Phocaeans were the first of 
the Greeks who made long voyages. The Ad- 
riatic and the Tyrrhene seas, Iberia and Tar- 
tessus, were first of all explored by them. Their 
vessels were not round but of fifty oars. On 
their touching at Tartessus, 1 they conciliated 
the favour of Arganthonius, 8 sovereign of the 
place ; he had then governed the Tartessians 
for the space of eighty years, and he lived to 
the age of one hundred and twenty. Upon that 
occasion he formed such a regard for the Pho- 
caeans, that, soliciting them to leave Ionia, he 
gave them permission to choose within his ter- 
ritories whatever situation they might prefer. 
On their refusal of his offer, and when he heard 
from them that the power of the Mede was 
continually increasing, he supplied them with 
money to build walls to their city. The extent 
of the walls, which were of many furlongs, the 
size of the stones, with the skill of the work- 
manship,sufnciently attest the donor's liberality. 

CLXIV. The Phocaeans being thus pro- 
vided with walls, Harpagus advanced and at- 
tacked their city. He offered them terms, and 
engaged to leave them unmolested, if they 
would suffer one of their towers to be demo- 
lished, and give up some one edifice 3 for a sa- 



1 Tartessus.]— Tartessus stood between the two bran- 
ches of the river Baetis, which it formed in its passage 
through the lake Libystinus, and most commodious, in 
consequence, it was for the purposes of navigation and 
trade. This people gave their name not only to the island 
and river on which their city was built, but also to the 
whole country, which was called Tartessus. Bochart 
informs us, that Gades and Carteia were anciently 
called Tartessus, and thinks that the former was built 
by the Tarshish of scripture, immediately after the dis- 
persion, and the two latter, long afterwards, by the 
Phoenicians. 

2 Arganthonius.'] — That Herodotus may not, in this 
instance, be accused of falsehood, be it known that in 
these our times, an Englishman, of the name of Thomas 
Parr, lived to the age of one hundred and fifty-three. 
He was invited from his residence in the country to Lon- 
don, by king Charles, as a miracle of longevity, where he 
died, the change of air and of diet not agreeing with him. 
In all probability if he had staid at home, he might have 
lived longer. What is more remarkable, at the age of 
one hundred, he was tried for his life; ob vim illatam 
virgini. — Palmerius. 

3 Some one edifice.]— This passage is involved in some 
obscurity. The commentators understand a temple, M. 
Reiske wishes to make an addition of the word mithre. 
But the Persians did not confine the deity within walls. 
Perhaps, says Wesseling, Harpagus was satisfied with 
their consecrating one single building, in token of sub- 
jection. For my own part, 1 think that the king, having 



credpurpose. From their aversion to servitude, 
the inhabitants requested a day to deliberate on 
his proposal ; desiring him in that interval to 
withdraw his forces. Harpagus avowed him- 
self conscious of their intentions, but granted 
their request. Immediately on liis retiring 
from their walls, the Phocaeans prepared their 
fifty-oared galleys, in which they placed their 
families and effects. They collected also the 
statues and votive offerings from their temples, 
leaving only paintings, and such works of iron 
or of stone as could not easily be removed. 
With these they embarked, and directed their 
course to Chios. Thus deserted by its inha- 
bitants, the Persians took possession of Phocaea. 

CLXV. On their arrival at Chios, they 
made propositions for the purchase of the 
iEnussae islands ; not succeeding in their ob- 
ject, as the Chians were afraid of being by these 
means injured in their commerce, the Phocae- 
ans proceeded to Cyrnus. 4 In this place, twenty 
years before, they had, under some oracular di- 
rection, built a town, to which they gave the 
name of Alalia. Arganthonius in the mean 
while had died, and the Phocaeans in their way 
to Cyrnus touched at Phocaea, where they put 
to death every one of the garrison, which had 
been left by Harpagus for the defence of the 
place. After this they bound themselves under 
solemn curses never to desert each other. 
They farther agreed by an oath never to return 
to Phocaea, till a red-hot ball, which they threw 
into the sea, should rise again. Notwithstand- 
ing these engagements, the greater part" of 
them were, during the vogage, seized with so 
tender and such affectionate regret for their 
ancient residence, that they returned to Pho- - 
caea. Such of them as adhered to their former 
solemn resolutions, proceeded in their course 
from iEnussae to Cyrnus. 

CLXVI. Here they settled, lived in peace 
with the ancient inhabitants for the space of 
five years, and erected some temples. In con- 
sequence, however, of their committing depre- 
dations on all their neighbours, the Tyrrheni- 
ans and Carthaginians collected a fleet of sixty 
vessels to oppose them. The Phocaeans on 
their part were not inactive ; they also fitted 
out sixty vessels, and advanced to meet their 
adversaries on the Sardinian sea. The fleets 

a palace in every large town of his dominions, the build- 
ing which Harpagus demanded, was probably intended 
for lus residence, whenever he might happen to visit 
Phocaea ; or it might perhaps be intended for the gover- 
nor, his representative. — Lurcher. 
4 Tins is Corsica.— T. 



CLIO. 



51 



engaged, the Phocaeans conquered, but obtain- 
ed what might be termed a Cadmean victory. 5 
They lost forty of their vessels, and the twenty 
which remained were unfit for all service. Re- 
turning, therefore, to Alalia, they got together 
their families and effects, loaded their ships 
with all that they could cany, and, abandoning 
C-yrnus, directed their course to Rhegium. 

CLXVII. On board the vessels which were 
taken by the enemy were a number of prisoners, 
most of whom were carried on shore, and stoned 
to death. After which enormity it happened 
that all the men, cattle, and different animals 
belonging to Agylla, which approached this 
spot, were seized with convulsions, and defor- 
mity of one kind or other. This circumstance, 
and a wish to atone for their crime, induced the 
people of Agylla to consult the Delphic oracle. 
The Pythian directed them to perform, what 
is still observed as a custom among them : they 
instituted magnificent funeral rites in honour 
of those who had been slain, and they introduc- 
ed in their honour gymnastic and equestrian 
exercises. Such was the fate of this portion 
of the Phocasans. They who retired to Rhe- 
gium took possession of a part of ^Enotria, and 
built a city called Hyela. To this they were 
persuaded by a man of Posidonia, who instruct- 
ed them that the oracle really intended them to 
build a mausoleum to the hero Cyrnus, and not 
a city in the island of that name — Such is the 
history of the Phocaeans of Ionia. 

CLXVI II. The fortune of the Teians was 
nearly similar ; Harpagus having taken their 
city by blockade they embarked, and passed 
over into Thrace ; here they built Abdera, 7 the 
foundations of which were originally laid by 
Timesius 8 of Clazomenae. He enjoyed no ad- 

5 Cadmean victory.^— The origin of this proverb is 
variously related. Suidas says, amongst other things, 
that it became a proverb, because Cadmus having de- 
stroyed the dragon, which guarded a fountain sacred to 
Mars, lived afterwards for the space of eight years in 
servitude to Mars. It was applied universally to those 
whose ostensible superiority was accompanied with real 
disadvantage . — T. 

6 This was Caere in Etruria. 

7 Abdera.] — Of this place many singularities are related 
by Lucian and Pliny. The grass of the country was so 
strong, that such horses as eat of it ran mad. The inha- 
bitants were afflicted with a fever, which so disturbed 
their imaginations, that they fancied themselves actors, 
and were, during the delirium, eternally repeating some 
verses from the Andromeda of Euripides. It produced 
however, many famous men. It was the birth-place of 
Democritus, of Protagoras, Anaxarchus, Hecataeus, and 
others.— T. 

8 Timesius.]— Larch er, on the authority of Plutarch 
and iElian, reads Timesias. The reading in all the manu- 
scripts and editions of Herodotus, is Timesius. 



vantage from his labours, but was banished by 
the Thracians, though now venerated by the 
Teians of Abdera as a hero. 

CLXIX. These Ionians alone, through a 
warm attachment to liberty, thus abandoned 
their native country. The rest of these people, 
excepting the Milesians, met Harpagus in the 
field, and like their friends who had sought 
another residence, fought like men and patriots. 
Upon being conquered, they continued in their 
several cities, and submitted to the wills of their 
new masters. The Milesians, who, as I have 
before mentioned, had formed a league of amity 
with Cyrus, lived in undisturbed tranquillity. 
Thus was Ionia reduced a second time to ser- 
vitude. Awed by the fate of their countrymen 
on the continent, the Ionians of the islands, 
without any resistance, submitted themselves to 
Harpagus and Cyrus. 

CXXX. The Ionians, though thus depress- 
ed, did not omit assembling at Panionium, 
where, as I have been informed, Bias of Priene 
gave them advice so full of wisdom, that their 
compliance with it would have rendered them 
the happiest of the Greeks. He recommended 
them to form one general fleet, to proceed with 
this to Sardinia, and there erect one city capa- 
ble of receiving all the Ionians. Thus they 
might have lived in enjoyment of their liberties, 
and, possessing the greatest of all the islands, 
might have been secure of the dependence of 
the rest. On the contrary, their continuance 
in Ionia rendered every expectation of their re- 
covering their independence altogether impossi- 
ble. This, in their fallen condition, was the 
advice of Bias ; but before their calamities, 
Thales the Milesian, who was in fact of Phoe- 
nician origin, had wisely counselled them to 
have one general representation of the Ionians 
at Teos, this being a central situation ; of which 
the other cities, still using their own customs 
and laws, might be considered as so many dif- 
ferent tribes. Such were the different sugges- 
tions of these two persons. 

CLXXI. On the reduction of Ionia, Har- 



Timesias was governor of Clazomenae, and a man of 
great integrity. Envy, which always persecutes such 
characters, ultimately effected his disgrace. He was for 
a time regardless of its consequences : but it at length 
banished him from his country. He was passing by a 
school, before which the boys, dismissed by their master, 
were playing. Two of them were quarrelling about a 
piece of string. " I wish," says one of them, " I might 
so dash out the brains of Timesias." Hearing this, he 
concluded that if he was thus hated by boys, as well as 
men, the dislike of his person must be universal indeed ; 
.1 he therefore voluntarily banished himself. — Mlian. 



52 



HERODOTUS. 



pagus incorporated the Ionians and iEolians 
with his forces, and proceeded against the Ca- 
rians, Caunians, and Lycians. The Carians 
formerly were islanders, in subjection to Mi- 
nos, and called Leleges.' But I do not, after 
the strictest examination, find that they ever 
paid tribute. They supplied Minos, as often 
as he requested, with a number of vessels, and 
at the period of his great prosperity and various 
victories, were distinguished above their neigh- 
bours by their ingenuity. Three improve- 
ments now in use among the Greeks are im- 
puted to them. The Carians were the first 
who added crests to their helmets, and orna- 
ments to their shields. They were also the 
iirst who gave the shield its handle. 2 Before 
their time, such as bore shields had no other 
means of using them, but by a piece of leather 
suspended from the neck over the left shoulder. 
At a long interval of time, the Dorians and 
Ionians expelled the Carians, who thus driven 
from the islands settled on the continent. The 
above information concerning the Carians we 
receive from Crete; they themselves contra- 
dict it altogether, and affirm that they are ori- 
ginal natives of the continent, and had never 
but one name. In confirmation of this they 
show at Mylassa, a a very ancient structure, built 
in honour of the Carian Jove, to the privileges 
of which the Lydians and Mysians are also ad- 
mitted, as being of the same origin. According 
to their account, Lydus, Misus, and Cares, 
were brothers ; the use of the above temple is 



1 Called Leleges.] — They are distinguished from the 
Leleges by Homer, who makes them two distinct peo- 
ple. See book 10th of the Iliad : 

The Carians, Caucons, the Pelasgian host, 
And Leleges, encamp along the coast. 

And here again I must censure Mr Pope. Homer 
calls the Pelasgi, Siot, which strong epithet is totally 
omitted in the translation. Strabo in Ms 12th book, calls 
the Leleges, n\a.v/ira.s, wanderers. 

2 Its handle.] — It appears from Homer, that in the 
time of the Trojan war the buckler had two handles of 
wood, one through which the arm was passed ; the other 
was grasped by the hand, to regulate its movement. See 
Iliad 8, 193. This particularity is omitted by Mr Pope, who 
contents himself with saying, shield of gold. The origi- 
nal is, the shield is entirely of gold, handles and all. — 

XavOVUS T£ JSflM CtVT'/IV.—T. 

Sophocles, therefore, .has been guilty of an anachro- 
nism, in giving the shield of Ajax a handle of leather. 
— Larcher. 

3 Mylassa.]—Now called Melasso. Besides the tem, 
pie here mentioned there was another of great antiquity, 
in honour of Jupiter Osogus. In aftertimes a beautiful 
temple was constructed here, sacred to Augustus and 
to Rome. It is at the present day remarkable for pro- 
ducing the best tobacco in Turkey.— T. 



therefore granted to their descendants, but to 
no other nation, though distinguished by the 
use of the same language. 

CLXXII. The Caunians are in my opinion 
the aborigines of the country, notwithstanding 
they assert themselves to have come from 
Crete. I am not able to speak with decision on 
the subject; but it is certain, that either they 
adopted the Carian language, or the Carians 
accommodated themselves to theirs. Their 
laws and customs differ essentially from those 
of other nations, and no less so from the Ca- 
rians. Among them it is esteemed highly meri- 
torious to make drinking parties, to which 
they resort in crowds, both men, women, and 
children, according to their different ages and 
attachments. In earlier times they adopted the 
religious ceremonies of foreign nations ; but 
determining afterwards to have no deities but 
those of their own country, they assembled of 
all ages in arms, and rushing forwards, bran- 
dishing their spears as in the act of pursuit, 
they stopped not until they came to the moun- 
tains of Calynda, crying aloud that they were 
expelling their foreign gods. 4 

CLXXIII. The Lycians certainly derive 
their origin from Crete. 5 The whole of this 
island was formerly possessed by barbarians ; 
but a contest for the supreme power arising 
between Sarpedon and Minos, the sons of 
Europa, 6 Minos prevailed, and expelled Sar- 
pedon and his adherents. These, in leav- 
ing their country, came to that part of 
Asia which is called Milyas. The country of 



4 Foreign gods.]— The gods of all polytheists, observes 
Mr Hume, are no better than the elves or fairies of our 
ancestors. These pretended religionists acknowledge na 
being which corresponds to our idea of a deity. The 
Chinese, when their prayers are not answered, beat 
their idols. The deities of the Laplanders are any large 
stone which they meet with of an extraordinary shape. 
The Egyptian mythologists, in order to account for ani- 
mal worship, said, that the gods, pursued by the violence 
of earth-born men, who were their enemies, had former- 
ly been obliged to disguise themselves under the sem- 
blance of beasts. Not even the immortal gods, said some 
German nations to Caesar, are a match for the Suevi. — 
Essay on the Natural History of Religion. 

5 Crete.] — Now called Candia. For an account of its 
precise circumstances consult Pococke. — T. 

6 Europa.] — The popular story of Jupiter and Europa, 
is too well known to require or to justify any elaborate 
discussion. This name, however, may be introduced 
amongst a thousand others to prove how little it becomes 
any person to speak peremptorily, and with decision, 
upon any of these more ancient personages. According 
to Lucian, Europa and Astarte were the same, and wor- 
shipped with divine honours in Syria. She is also esteem- 
ed the same with Rhea, the mother of the gods. — T. 



CLIO. 



53 



the Lycians was formerly called Milyas, and 
the Milyans were anciently known by the name 
of Solymi. Here Sarpedon governed; his sub- 
jects retained the names they brought, and in- 
deed they are now by their neighbours called 
Termilians. 7 Lycus, the son of Pandion, being 
also driven from Athens by his brother iEgeus, 
went to Sarpedon, at Termilse ; in process of 
time the nation was after him called Lycians. 
Their laws are partly Cretan 8 and partly Ca- 
rian. They have one distinction from which 
they never deviate, which is peculiar to them- 
selves ; they take their names from their mo- 
thers, 9 and not from their fathers. If any one 
is asked concerning his family, he proceeds 
immediately to give an account of his descent, 



7 Termilians.'} — They are sometimes called Telmissi. 
I believe they both mean the same thing, both names 
relating to the kind of armour in use among them : the 
first denoting the short sword, or poniard, the last the 
quiver and arrows, for which the Cretans were famous, 
and both which Herodotus appropriates to the Lycians, 
in book the seventh. 

8 Partly Cretan.] — The following singular circum- 
stance is related by iElian. "The Cretans," says he, 
" are skilful archers. With their darts they wound the 
wild goats which feed upon the mountains. The goats, 
on perceiving themselves struck, immediately eat the 
herb dictamus ; as soon as they have tasted it, the darts 
fall from the wound.— T. 

9 From their mothers.] — They also called themselves 
sons of Thetis, this probably they did in consequence of 
the strange custom here mentioned, and to confront the 
like ridiculous fictions of other nations. 

Moreover, over the different companies (ju, trvtro-irtx, 
or oiv^^uoc.) into which the Cretans were divided, a wo- 
man presided, had the care and management of the 
whole family, provided for them, and at table distribut- 
ed the choicest pieces to those who had distinguished 
themselves, either at home or abroad. This female 
government arose from the foregoing plea, their pretend- 
ed descent from Thetis : but the youth under seventeen 
were under the care of a master, who was called their 
father. See Meursius, c. 16, 17. Creta. 

Bellerophon slew a wild boar, which destroyed all the 
oattle and fruits of the Xanthians, but for his services he 
received no compensation. He therefore prayed to 
Neptune, and obtained from him, that all the fields of 
the Xanthians should exhale a salt dew, and be univer- 
sally corrupted. This continued till, regarding the sup- 
plications of the women, he prayed a second time to 
Neptune, to remove this effect of his indignation from 
them. Hence a law was instituted amongst the Xan- 
thians, that they should derive their names from their 
mothers, and not from their fathers. — Plutarch on the 
Virtues of Women. 

The country of the Xanthians was in Lycia. If this 
custom commenced with the Xanthians, the Lycians 
doubtless adopted it. Amongst these people the inheri- 
tance descended to the daughters, the sons were exclud- 
ed. — Larcher. 

No less singular is the custom which prevails in some 
parts of this kingdom, called Borough English, which 
ordains that the youngest son shall inherit the estate, in 
preference to all his elder brothers. — T. 



mentioning the female branches only. If any 
free woman marries a slave, the children of 
such marriage are reputed free ; but if a man 
who is a citizen, and of authority among them, 
marry a concubine, or a foreigner, his children 
can never attain any dignity in the state. 

CLXXIV. Upon this occasion the Carians 
made no remarkable exertions, but afforded an 
easy victory to Harpagus. The Carians, in- 
deed, were not less pusillanimous than all the 
Greeks inhabiting this district ; among whom 
are the Cnidians, a Lacedaemonian colony, whose 
territories, called Triopium, extended to the 
sea. The whole of this country, except the 
Bybassian peninsula, is surrounded with water : 
on the north by the bay of Ceramus ; and on 
the west by that sea which flows near Syme 
and Rhodes. Through this peninsula, which 
was only five furlongs in extent, the Cnidians 
endeavoured to make a passage, whilst the for- 
ces of Harpagus were employed against Ionia. 
The whole of this country lying beyond the 
isthmus being their own, they meant thus to 
reduce it into the form of an island* Whilst 
they were engaged in this employment, the 
labourers were wounded in different parts of the 
body, and particularly in the eyes, by small 
pieces of flint, which seemed to fly about in so 
wonderful a manner as to justify their appre- 
hensions that some supernatural power had in- 
terfered. They sent therefore to make inqui- 
ries at Delphi what power it was which thus 
opposed their efforts? The Pythian, JO accord- 
ing to their own tradition, answered them thus : 
Nor build, nor dig ; for \\ iser Heaven 
Had, were it best, an island given. 
Upon this the Cnidians desisted from their 
purpose, and, on the approach of the enemy, 
surrendered themselves, without resistance, to 
Harpagus. 



10 The Pythian.] — Tins answer of the oracle brings to 
mind an historical anecdote, which we may properly in- 
troduce here : — The Dutch offered Charles the Second of 
Spain to make the Tagus navigable as far as Lisbon, at 
their own expense, provided he would suffer them to 
exact, for a certain number of years, a stipulated duty 
on merchandise which should pass that way. It was 
their intention to make the Mansanazer navigable from 
Madrid to the place where it joins the Tagus. After a 
sage deliberation, the council of Castile returned this 
remarkable answer : " If it had pleased God to make 
these rivers navigable, the intervention of human indus- 
try would not have been necessary : as they are not so 
already, it does not appear that Providence intended them 
to be so. Such an undertaking would be seemingly to 
violate the decrees of Heaven, and to attempt the am- 
endment of these apparent imperfections visible in its 
works." — Translated by Larcher, from Clarke's Letters 
on the Spanish Nation. 



54 



HERODOTUS 



CL XXV. The inland country beyond Hali- 
carnassus was inhabited by the Pedasians. Of 
them it is affirmed, that whenever they or their 
neighbours are menaced by any calamity, a pro- 
digious beard grows from the chin of the priest- 
ess of Minerva :' this, they say, has happened 
three several times. They having fortified 
mount Lida, were the only people of Caria who 
discovered any resolution in opposing Harpagus. 
After many exertions of bravery, they were at 
length subdued. 

CLXXVI. When Harpagus led his army to- 
wards Xanthus, the Lycians boldly advanced to 
meet him, and,though inferior i n number,behaved 
with the greatest bravery. Being defeated, and 
pursued into their city, they collected their wives, 
children, and valuable effects, into the citadel, 
and there consumed the whole in one immense 
fire. 2 They afterwards uniting themselves un- 
der the most solemn curses, made a private sally 
upon the enemy, and were every man put to 
death. Of those who now inhabit Lycia, call- 
ing themselves Xanthians, the whole are foreign- 
ers, eighty families excepted : these survived 
the calamity of their country, being at that time 
absent on some foreign expedition. Thus Xan- 
thus fell into the hands of Harpagus ; as also 
did Caunus, whose people imitated, almost in 
every respect, the example of the Lycians. 

CLXXVIL Whilst Harpagus was thus 
engaged in the conquest of the Lower Asia, 
Cyrus himself conducted an army against the 



1 The priestess of Minerva."} — We express ourselves 
surprised at the blind credulity of the ancients ; posterity, 
in its turn, will be astonished at ours, without being on 
this account perhaps at all more wise. — Larcher. 

The liquef ying of the blood of St Januarius at Naples, 
which by the majority of the people there it would at this 
day be thought impiety to doubt, is recited in a very 
lively and entertaining manner by Dr Moore, and is an 
instance of credulity no less striking than the one recorded 
by Herodotus of the Carian priestesses. — T. 

2 One immense fire.} — The following anecdote from 
Plutarch, describes a similar emotion of despair. — The 
Xanthians made a sally in the night, and seizing many of 
the enemy's battering engines, set them on fire. Being 
soon perceived by the Romans, they were beaten back. 
A violent wind forced the flames against the battlements 
of the city with such violence, that the adjoining hoiises 
took fire. Brutus on this, commanded his soldiers to 
assist the citizens in quenching the fire : but they were 
seized with so sudden a frenzy and despair, that women 
and children, bond and free, all ages and conditions, 
strove to repel those who came to their assistance, and, 
gathering whatever combustible matter they could, spread 
the fire over the whole city. Not only men and women, 
but even boys and little children, leaped into the fire ; 
others threw themselves from the walls ; others fell upon 
their parents' swords, opening their breasts, and desiring 
to be slain.-- T. 



upper regions, of every part of which he became 
master. The particulars of his victories I shall 
omit ; expatiating only upon those which are 
more memorable in themselves, and which Cyrus 
found the most difficult to accomplish. When 
he had reduced the whole of the continent, he 
commenced his march against the Assyrians. 

CL XX VIII. The Assyrians are masters of 
many capital towns ; but their place of greatest 
strength and fame is Babylon, 3 where, after the 
destruction of Nineveh, was the royal residence. 
It is situated on a large plain, and is a perfect 
square : each side by every approach is, in length, 
one hundred and twenty furlongs; the space, 
therefore, occupied by the whole is four hundred 
and eighty furlongs. So extensive is the ground 
which Babylon occupies ; its internal beauty and 
magnificence exceed whatever has come within 
my knowledge. It is surrounded by a trench 
very wide, deep, and full of water : the wall 
beyond this is two hundred royal cubits 1 high, 
and fifty wide : the royal exceeds the common 
cubit by three digits. 

CLXXIX. It will not be foreign to my pur- 
pose to describe the use to which the earth dug 
out of the trench was converted, as well as the 
particular manner in which they constructed the 
wall. The earth of the trench was first of all 
laid in heaps, and, when a sufficient quantity 
was obtained, made into square bricks, and baked 
in a furnace. They used as cement, a compo- 
sition of heated bitumen, which, mixed with 
the tops of reeds, was placed betwixt every 
thirtieth course of bricks. Having thus lined 
the sides of the trench, they proceeded to build 
the wall in the same manner ; on the summit 
of which, and fronting each other, they erected 
small watch-towers of one story, leaving a space 
betwixt them through which a chariot and four 
horses might pass and turn. In the circumfer- 
ence of the wall, at different distances, were an 



3 Babylon.}— The greatest cities of Europe give but a 
faint idea of that grandeur which all historians unani- 
mously ascribe to the famous city of Babylon. — Dutens. 

Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the 
Chaldees' excellency. — Isaiah. 

4 Cubits.} — It must be confessed, indeed, that in the 
comparison of ancient and modern measures, nothing 
certain has been concluded. According to vulgar com- 
putation, a cubit is a foot and a half; and thus the an- 
cients also reckoned it: but then we are not certainly 
agreed about the length of their foot. — Montfaucon. 

The doubt expressed by Montfaucon appears unneces- 
sary : these meas\ires, being taken from the proportions 
of the human body, are more permanent than any other. 
The foot of a moderate-sized man, and the cubit, that is 
the space from the end of the fingers to the elbow, have 
always been near twelve and eighteen inches respec- 
tively.— T. 



CLIO. 



hundred massy gates of brass, 5 whose hinges 
and frames were of the same metal. Within 
an eight days' journey from Babylon is a city 
called Is ; near which flows a river of the same 
name, which empties itself into the Euphrates. 
With the current of this river particles of bitu- 
men descend towards Babylon, by the means 
of which its walls were constructed. 

CLXXX. The great river Euphrates, 
which, with its deep and rapid streams, rises in 
the Armenian mountains, and pours itself into 
the Red Sea, 6 divides Babylon into two parts. 
The walls meet and form an angle with the 
river at each extremity of the town, where a 
breast-work of burnt bricks begins, and is con- 
tinued along each bank. The city, which 
abounds in houses from three to four stories in 
height, is regularly divided into streets. Through 
these, which are parallel, there are transverse 
avenues to the river opened through the wall 
and breast-work, and secured by an equal num- 
ber of little gates of brass. 

CLXXXI. The first wall is regularly for- 
tified ; the interior one, though less in substance, 
is of almost equal strength. Besides these, in 
the centre of each division of the city there is 
a circular space surrounded by a wall. In one 
of these stands the royal palace, which fills a 
large and strongly defended space. The temple 
of Jupiter Belus 7 occupies the other, whose 
huge gates of brass may still be seen. It is a 
square building, each side of which is of the 
length of two furlongs. In the midst a tower 
rises, of the solid depth and height of one fur- 
long ; upon which, resting as a base, seven 
other turrets are built in regular succession. 
The ascent is on the outside, which, winding 
from the ground, is continued to the highest 



5 Gates of brass.]— Thus saith the Lord to his anoint- 
ed, to Cyrus : I will go before thee ; I will break in 
pieces the gates of brass. — Isaiah. 

G Red Sea.]— The original Erythrean or Red Sea was 
that part of the Indiau ocean which forms the peninsula 
of Arabia; the Persian and Arabian gulfs being only 
branches of it. — T. 

7 Temple of Jupiter Belus.']— It is necessary to have 
in mind, that the temples of the ancients were essentially 
different from our churches. A large space was inclosed 
by walls, in which were courts, a grove, pieces of water, 
apartments sometimes for the priests: and lastly the 
temple, properly so called, and where most frequently it 
was permitted the priests alone to enter. The whole 
inclosure was named to h$ov -. the temple properly so 
called, or the residence of the deity, was called vac? 
(naos) or the cell. It is obvious, that this last is the place 
particularly alluded to. — Larch er. 

Bell or Belus was a title bestowed upon many persons. 
It was particularly given to Nimrod, who built the city 
of Babel or Babylon. — Bryant. 



tower ; and in the middle of the whole structure 
there is a convenient resting place. In the 
last tower is a large chapel, in which is placed 
a couch magnificently adorned, and near it a 
table of solid gold ; but there is no statue in 
the place. No man is suffered to sleep here ; 
but the apartment is occupied by a female, 
whom the Chaldsean priests 8 affirm that their 
deity selects from the whole nation as the object 
of his pleasures. 

CLXXXII. They themselves have a tradi- 
tion, which cannot easily obtain credit, that 
their deity enters this temple, and reposes by 
night on this couch. A similar assertion is also 
made by the Egyptians of Thebes ; for, in the 
interior part of the temple of the Thebean 
Jupiter, a woman in like manner sleeps. Of 
these two women, it is presumed that neither 
of them have any communication with the other 
sex. In which predicament the priestess of the 
temple of Patarse in Lycia is also placed. Here 
is no regular oracle ; 9 but whenever a divine 
communication is expected, the priestess is 
obliged to pass the preceding night in the 
temple. 

CL XX XIII. In this temple there is also 
a small chapel, lower in the building, which 
contains a figure of Jupiter in a sitting pos- 
ture, with a large table before him ; these, with 
the base of the table, and the seat of the throne, 
are all of the purest gold, and are estimated by 
the Chaldseans to be worth eight hundred talents. 
On the outside of this chapel there are two 
altars ; one is of gold, the other is of immense 
size, and appropriated to the sacrifice of full - 
grown animals : those only which have not left 
their dams may be offered on the altar of gold. 
Upon the larger altar, at the time of the anni- 
versary festival in honour of their god, the 
Chaldeeans regularly consume incense to the 
amount of a thousand talents. There was 
formerly in this temple a statue of solid gold, 
twelve cubits high ; this, however, I mention 
from the information of the Chaldarans, and 
not from my own knowledge. Darius the son 
of Hystaspes i0 endeavoured by sinister means 

8 Chaldcean priests.] — Belus came originally from 
Egypt. He went accompanied by other Egyptians, to 
Babylon : there he established priests ; these are the 
personages called by the Babylonians Chaldseans. The 
Chaldaeans carried to Babylon the science of astrology, 
which they learned from the Egyptian priests.— Lurcher. 

9 Regular oracle ]— Accordingto Servius, A polio com- 
municated Ms oracles at Patarae during the six winfe-r 
months, at Delos in the six months of summer. — 
Larcher. 

10 Darius the son of Hystaspes.] — The only Babylonish 
and Persian princes found in the Bible, are Nebuchad- 



56 



HERODOTUS. 



to get possession of this, not daring openly to 
take it, but his son Xerxes afterwards seized it, 
putting the priest to death who endeavoured to 
prevent its removal. The temple, besides those 
ornaments which I have described, contains 
many offerings of individuals. 

CLXXXIV. Among the various sovereigns 
of Babylon, who contributed to the strength of 
its walls, and the decoration of its temples, and 
of whom I shall make mention when I treat of 
the Assyrians, there were two females, the for- 
mer of these was named Semiramis, 1 who pre- 
ceded the other by an interval of five generations. 
This queen raised certain mounds, which are in- 
deed admirable works ; till then the whole plain 
was subject to violent inundations from the river. 

CLXXXV. The other queen was called 
Nitocris ; she being a woman of superior un- 
derstanding, not only left many permanent 
works, which I shall hereafter describe, but 
also having observed the increasing power and 
the restless spirit of the Medes, and that 
Nineveh, with other cities, had fallen a prey to 
their ambition, put her dominions in the strong- 
est posture of defence. To effect this, she 
sunk a number of canals above Babylon, which 
by their disposition rendered the Euphrates, 
which before flowed to the sea in an almost 
even line, so complicated by its windings, that 
in its passage to Babylon it arrives three times 
at Ardericca, an Assyrian village : and to this 
hour they who wish to go from the sea up the 
Euphrates to Babylon, are compelled to touch 
at Ardericca three times on three different days. 
The banks also, which she raised to restrain 
the river on each side, are really wonderful, 
from their enormous height and substance. At 

nezzar, Evil Merodach, Belshazzar, Ahasuerus, Darius 
the Mede, Coresh, and Darius the Persian ; Artaxerxes 
also is mentioned in Nehemiah. Ahasuerus has been 
the subject of much etymological investigation. Sir Isaac 
Newton, by inadvertency, makes Mm in one place to be 
Cyaxares, in another Xerxes. Archbishop Usher sup- 
poses him to be Darius Hystaspesj Scaliger, Xerxes ; 
Josephus, the Septuagint, and Dr Hyde, Artaxerxes 
Longimanus. — Richardson. 

1 Semiramis] — It may be worth while to observe the 
different opinions of authors about the time when Semi- 
ramis is supposed to have lived. 

Years. 
According to Syncellus. she lived before Christ .2177 
Petavius makes the term . . . 2060 

Helvicus ..... 2248 

Eusebius . . . . . 1984 

Mr Jackson ..... 1964 

Archbishop Usher .... 1215 

Philo Biblius, from Sanchoniathon, about . 1200 

Herodotus about ..... 713 
What credit can be given to the liistory of a person, the 
time of whose life cannot be ascertained within 1535 
years ? — Bryant. 



a considerable distance above Babylon, turning 
aside a little from the stream, she ordered an 
immense lake to be dug, sinking it till they 
came to the water : its circumference was no 
less than four hundred and twenty furlongs. 
The earth of this was applied to the embank- 
ments of the river ; and the sides of the trench 
or lake were stengthened and lined with stones, 
brought thither for that purpose. She had in 
view by these works, first of all to break the 
violence of the current by the number of cir- 
cumfiexions, and also to render the navigation 
to Babylon as difficult and tedious as possible. 
These things were done in that part of her 
dominions which was most accessible to the 
Medes ; and with the farther view of keeping 
them in ignorance of her affairs, by giving them 
no commercial encouragement. 

CLXXX VI. Having rendered both of these 
works strong and secure, she proceeded to 
execute the following project. The city being 
divided by the river into two distinct parts, 
whoever wanted to go from one side to the 
other was obliged, in the time of the former 
kings, to pass the water in a boat. For this, 
which was a matter of general inconvenience, 
she provided this remedy, and the immense lake 
which she had before sunk became the farther 
means of extending her fame : — Having pro- 
cured a number of large stones, she changed 
the course of the river, directing it into the 
canal prepared for its reception. When this 
was full, the natural bed of the river became 
dry, and the embankments on each side, near 
those smaller gates which led to the water, 
were lined with bricks hardened by fire, similar 
to those which had been used in the construc- 
tion of the wall. She afterwards, nearly in 
the centre of the city with the stones above 
mentioned, strongly compacted with iron and 
with lead, erected a bridge ; a over this the in- 

2 A bridge.] — Diodorus Siculus represents this bridge 
as five furlongs in length ; but as Strabo assures us that 
the Euphrates was no more than one furlong wide,. 
Rollin is of opinion that the bridge could not be so long 
as Diodorus describes it. Although the Euphrates was, 
generally speaking, no more than one furlong in breadth, 
at the time of a flood it was probably more ; and, doubt- 
less, the length of the bridge was proportioned to the 
extremest possible width of the river. This circumstance 
M. Rollin does not seem to have considered. The Man- 
sanares, which washes one of the extremities of Madrid, 
is but a small stream : but as, in the time of a flood, it 
spreads itself over the neighbouring fields, Philip the 
Second built a bridge eleven hundred feet long. The 
bridge of Semiramis, its length alone excepted, must 
have been very inferior to these of ours. It consisted only 
of large masses of stone, piled upon each other at regular 
distances, without arches ; they were made to communi- 
cate by pieces of wood thrown over each pile.] — Larc.her. 



CLIO. 



57 



habitants passed in the day time by a square 
platform, which was removed in the evening to 
prevent acts of mutual depredation. When the 
above canal was thoroughly filled with water, 
and the bridge completely finished and adorned, 
the Euphrates was suffered to return to its 
original bed : thus both the canal and the bridge 
were confessedly of the greatest utility to the 
public. 

CLXXXVII. The above queen was also 
celebrated for another instance of ingenuity : 
she caused her tomb 3 to be erected over one of 
the principal gates of the city, and so situated 
as to be obvious to universal inspection : it was 
thus inscribed — " If any of the sovereigns, my 
successors, shall be in extreme want of money, 
let him open my tomb, and take what money 
he may think proper ; if his necessity be not 
great, let him forbear, the experiment will per- 
haps be dangerous." The tomb remained 
without injury till the time and reign of Darius. 
He was equally offended at the gate's being 
rendered useless, and that the invitation thus 
held out to become affluent, should have been so 
long neglected. The gate, it is to be observed, 
was of no use, from the general aversion to pass 
through a place over which a dead body was 
laid. Darius opened the tomb ; but instead of 
finding riches, he saw only the dead body, with 
a label of this import : "If your avarice had not 
been equally base and insatiable, you woidd not 
have intruded on the repose of the dead." — 
Such are the traditions concerning this queen. 

CLXXXVIH. Against her son Labynitus, 
who, with the name of his father, enjoyed the 
empire of Assyria, Cyrus conducted his army. 
The great king, 4 in his warlike expeditions, is 
provided from home with cattle, and all other 
necessaries for his table. There is also car- 



3 Her tomb.] — Nitocris, in this instance, deviated from 
the customs of her country. The Assyrians, to preserve 
the bodies of their dead the longer from putrefaction, 
covered them with honey : the Romans did the same. 
As to their funeral rites, the Assyrians in all respects 
imitated the Egyptians.— T. 

It appears from Plutarch, that the tomb of Cyrus, and 
of many of the princes of the east, were within the pre- 
cincts of their cities. — Bryant. 

4 Greatking.]— This was the title by which the Greeks 
always distinguished the monarchs of Persia. The em- 
peror of Constantinople is at the present day called the 
grand signior. — Larcher. 

Lofty titles have always been, and still continue to be 
conferred upon the oriental princes— Thus saith Cyrus, 
king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me 
all the kingdoms of the earth.— Ezra i. 2. 

For I never hurt any that was willing to serve Na- 
b nchodonosor, king of all the earth. — Judith xi. 1. 



ried with him water of the river Choaspes, 5 
which flows near Susa, for the king drinks of 
no other ; wherever he goes he is attended by a 
number of four-wheeled carriages, drawn by 
mules, in which the water of Choaspes, being 
first boiled, is disposed in vessels of silver. 

CLXXXIX. Cyrus, in his march to Baby- 
lon, arrived at the river Gyndes, which rising in 
the mountains of Matiene, and passing through 
the country of the Darneans, loses itself in the 
Tigris : and this, after flowing by Opis, is 
finally discharged into the Red Sea Whilst 
Cyrus was endeavouring to pass this river, 
which could not be performed without boats, 
one of the white consecrated horses boldly en- 
tering the stream, in his attempts to cross it 
was borne away by the rapidity of the current, 
and totally lost. Cyrus, exasperated G by the 



5 Choaspes.'] — 

There Susa by Choasyes' amber stream, 
The drink of none but kings. 

Milton's Paradise Regained, b. ii. 

Upon the above passage of Milton, Jortin remarks, 
" If we examine the assertion of Milton, as an historical 
problem, whether the kings of Persia alone drank of Cho- 
aspes, we shall find great reason to determine in the 
negative. Herodotus, Strabo, Tibullus, Ausonius, Maxi- 
mus Tyrius, Aristides, Plutarch, Pliny the elder, Athe- 
naeus, Dionysius Periegetes, and Eustathius, have men- 
tioned Choaspes or Eulaeus as the drink of the kings of 
Persia or Parthia, and have called it ^oanXixov vla>%, regia 
lympha ; but none have said they alone drank of it. I say 
Choaspes or Eulaeus, because some make them the same 
others make them different rivers. 

JElian relates, that Xerxes during his march came to a 
desert place, and was exceedingly tliirsty ; his attendants 
with his baggage were at some distance; proclamation 
was made, that whoever had any of the water of Choaspes 
should produce it for the use of the king. One person 
was found who possessed a small quantity, but it was 
quite putrid : Xerxes, however, drank it, and considered 
the person who supplied it as his friend and benefactor, 
as he must otherwise have perished with thirst. — T. 

Mention is made, continues Jortin, by Agathocles, of a 
certain water which none but Persian kings might drink , 
and if any other writers mention it, they take it from 
Agathocles. We find in Athenaeus, Agathocles says, 
that there is in Persia a water called Golden ; that it con- 
sists of seventy streams ; that none drink of it except the 
king and his eldest son 5 and that if any other person 
does, death is the punishment. 

It appears not that the golden water, and the water of 
Choaspes were the same. It may be granted, and it is 
not at all improbable, that the king alone drank of that 
water of Choaspes, which was boiled and barrelled up 
for his use in his military expeditions. 

Jortin concludes by saying, that Milton, by his calling 
it Amber Stream, seems to have had in view the golden 
water of Agathocles. To me this does not seem likely: 
I think Milton would not have scrupled to have called it 
at once Golden Stream, if he had thought of the passage 
from Athenaeus before quoted. 

6 Cyrus, exasperated.]— This portrait of Cyrus seems 
to me a little overcharged. The hatred which the Gieeks 

H 



58 



HERODOTUS. 



accident, made a vow, that he would render this 
stream so very insignificant, that women should 
hereafter be able to cross it without so much as 
wetting their knees. He accordingly suspended 
his designs upon Babylon, and divided his forces 
into two parts : he then marked out with a line, 
on each side the river, one hundred and eighty 
trenches ; these were dug according to his or- 
ders, and so great a number of men were em- 
ployed, that he accomplished his purpose, but 
he thus wasted the whole of that summer. 

CXC. Cyrus having thus satisfied his re- 
sentment with respect to the Gyndes, on the 
approach of spring prepared to march towards 
Babylon ; the Babylonians awaited him in arms : 
as he advanced they met him and gave him 
battle, but were defeated, and chased into the 
town. The inhabitants were well acquainted 
with the restless and ambitious temper of Cyrus, 
and had guarded against this event, by collect- 
ing provisions and other necessaries sufficient 
for many years' support, which induced them 
to regard a siege as a matter of but small im- 
portance ; and Cyrus, after much time lost, 
without having made the smallest progress, was 
reduced to great perplexity. 

CXCI. Whilst in this state of anxiety he 
adopted the following expedient, either from the 
suggestions of others, or from the deliberation of 
his own judgment: — He placed one detachment 
of his forces where the river first enters the 
city, and another where it leaves it, directing 
them to enter the channel, and attack the town 
whenever a passage could be effected. After 
this disposition of his men, he withdrew with 
the less effective of his troops to the marshy 
ground which we have before described. Here 
he pursued in every respect the example of the 
Babylonian princess ; he pierced the bank, and 
introduced the river into the lake, by which 
means the bed of the Euphrates became suf- 
ficiently shallow for the object in view. The 
Persians in their station watched the proper 
opportunity, and when the stream had so far re- 
tired as not to be higher than their thighs, they 
entered Babylon without difficulty. If the be- 
sieged had either been aware of the designs of 
Cyrus, or had discovered the project before its 
actual accomplishment, they might have effected 



bore the Persians is sufficiently known. The motive with 
Cyrus for thus treating the Gyndes could not be such as 
is here described. That which happened to the sacred 
horse might make him apprehend a similar fate for the 
rest of his army, and compel him to divert the river into 
a great number of canals to render it fordable. A similar 
example occurs in a preceding chapter. — Larcher, 



the total destruction of these troops. They 
had only to secure the little gates which led to 
the river, and to have manned the embankments 
on either side, and they might have inclosed the 
Persians in a net from which they could never 
have escaped : as it happened, they were taken 
by surprise ; and such is the extent of the city, 
that, as the inhabitants themselves affirm, they 
who lived in the extremities were made pri- 
soners, before any alarm was communicated ' 
to the centre of the place. It was a day of fes- 
tivity among them, and whilst the citizens were 
engaged in dance and merriment, Babylon was, 
for the first time, thus taken. 

CXCII. The following exists, amongst 
many other proofs which I shall hereafter pro- 
duce, of the power and greatness of Babylon. 
Independent of those subsidies which are paid 
monthly to the Persian monarch, the whole of 
his dominions are obliged throughout the year 
to provide subsistence for him and for his army. 
Babylon alone raises a supply for four months, 
eight being proportioned to all the rest of Asia, 
so that the resources of this region are consid- 
ered as adequate to a third part of Asia. The 
government also of this country, which the Per- 
sians call a satrapy, is deemed by much the no- 
blest in the empire. 2 When Tritantaechmes, 
son of Artabazus, was appointed to this princi- 
pality by the king, he received every day an 
artaby of silver. The artaby is a Persian mea- 
sure, which exceeds the Attic medimnus by 
about three chaenices. Besides his horses for 
military service, this province maintained for 
the sovereign's use a stud of eight hundred stal- 
lions, and sixteen thousand mares, one horse 
being allotted to twenty mares. He had more- 
over so immense a number of Indian dogs, 3 

1 Any alarm was communicated, .] — They who were in 
the citadel did not know of the capture of the place till 
the break of day, which is not at all improbable : but it 
exceeds belief, what Aristotle affirms, that even on the 
third day it was not known in some quarters of the town 
that Babylon was taken. — Larcher. 

2 The description of Assyria, says Mr Gibbon, is fur- 
nished by Herodotus, who sometimes writes for children 
and sometimes for philosophers. It is given also by 
Strabo and Ammianus. The most useful of the modern 
travellers are Tavernier, Otter, and Niebuhr: yet I 
must regret, adds the historian, that the Trak Arabi of 
Abulfeda has never been translated. 

3 Indian dogs.]— These were very celebrated. The 
ancients, in general, believed them to be produced from 
a bitch and a tiger. The Indians pretend, says Pliny, 
that the bitches are lined by tigers, and for this reason 
when they are at heat they confine them in some part of 
the forests. The first and second race they deem to be 
remarkably fierce ; they bring up also the third.— Lar- 
cher 



CLIO. 



59 



that four great towns in the vicinity of Babylon 
were exempted from all other tax but that of 
maintaining them. 

CXCIIL The Assyrians have but little 
rain ; the lands, however, are fertilized, and the 
fruits of the earth nourished by means of the 
river. This does not, 4 like the Egyptian Nile, 
enrich the country by overflowing its banks, 
but is dispersed by manual labour, or by hy- 
draulic engines. The Babylonian district, like 
Egypt, is intersected by a number of canals, 5 
the largest of which, continued with a south- 
east course from the Euphrates to that part of 
the Tigris where Nineveh stands, is capable of 
receiving vessels of burden. Of all countries 
which have come within my observation, this 
is far the most fruitful in corn. Fruit-trees, 
such as the vine, the olive, and the fig, they do 
not even attempt to cultivate ; but the soil is 
so particularly well adapted for corn, that it 
never produces less than two hundred fold ; in 
seasons which are remarkably favourable, it 
will sometimes rise to three hundred : the ear 
of their wheat as well as barley is four digits in 
size. The immense height to which millet and 
sesamum G will grow, although I have witnessed 
it myself, I know not how to mention. I am 
well aware that they who have not visited this 
country will deem whatever I may say on the 
subject a violation of probability. They have 
no oil but what they extract from the sesamum. 
The palm 7 is a very common plant in this 

4 This does not, 8fc] — The Euphrates occasionally 
overflows its banks, but its inundations do not, like 
those of the Nile, communicate fertility. The streams 
of the Euphrates and the Tigris do not, says Pliny, leave 
behind them the mud which the Nile does in Egypt. — 
Larcher. 

5 Number of canals.] — The uses of these artificial canals 
were various and important : they served to discharge 
the superfluous waters from one river into the other, at 
the season of their respective inundations ; subdividing 
themselves into smaller and smaller branches, they re- 
freshed the dry lands, and supplied the deficiency of rain. 
They facilitated the intercourse of peace and commerce ; 
and as the dams could be speedily broken down, they 
armed the despair of the Assyrians with the means of 
opposing a sudden deluge to- the progress of an invading 
army. — Gibbon. 

G Sesamum.] — Of this plant there are three species ; 
the Orientale, the Iudicum, and the Trifelictum : it is 
the first which is here meant. It is an annual herba- 
ceous plant ; its flowers are of a dirty white, and not 
unlike the fox-glove ; it is cultivated in the Levant as a 
pulse, and indeed in all the eastern countries ; it has of 
late years been introduced into Carolina, and with suc- 
cess; an oil is expressed from its seed; it is the seed 
which is eaten; they are first parched over the fire, and 
then stewed with other ingredients in water. — T. 

7 The palm.] — The learned Krvmpfer, as a botanist, 
an antiquary, and a traveller, has exhausted the whole 



country, and generally fruitful : this they culti- 
vate like fig-trees, and it produces them bread, 
wine, and honey. The process H observed is 
this : they fasten the fruit of that which the 
Greeks term the male tree to the one which 
produces the date, by this means the worm 
which is contained in the former entering the 
fruit, ripens and prevents it from dropping im- 
maturely. The male palms bear insects in 
their fruit, in the same manner as the wild fig- 
trees. 

CXCIV. Of all that I saw in this country, 
next to Babylon itself, what to me appeared 
the greatest curiosity, were the boats. These 
which are used by those who come to the city 
are of a circular form, and made of skins. 9 
They are constructed in Armenia, in the parts 
above Assyria, where the sides of the vessels 
being formed of willow, 10 are covered externally 
with skins, and having no distinction of head or 
stern, are modelled into the shape of a shield. 
Lining the bottoms of these boats with reeds, 
they take on board their merchandise, and thus 
commit themselves to the stream. The prin- 
cipal article of their commerce is palm wine, 
which they carry in casks. The boats have 
two oars, one man to each ; one pulls to him 
the other pushes from him. These boats are 

subject of palm-trees. The diligent natives, adds Mi- 
Gibbon, celebrated either in verse or prose the three 
hundred and sixty uses to which the trunk, the branches, 
the leaves, the juice, and the fruit were skilfully applied. 

8 The process.] — Upon this subject the learned and 
industrious Larcher has exhausted no less than ten 
pages. The ancients whom he cites are Aristotle, Theo- 
phrastus, and Pliny; the moderns are Pontedera, and 
Toirrnefort, which last he quotes at considerable length. 
The Amcenitates Exoticse of Ksempfer, to which I have 
before alluded, will fully satisfy whoever wishes to be 
more minutely informed on one of the most curious and 
interesting subjects which the science of natural history 
involves.— T. 

9 The boats — made of skins.] — See the scholiast to 
Apollonius Rhodius, book ii. verse 168, where we are 
told that anciently all the inhabitants of the sea coasts 
made their rafts and boats of passage from the skins of 
beasts. 

10 Formed of willows, $c] — 

The bending willow into barks they twine, 
Then line the work with skins of slaughter'd kine ; 
Such are the floats Veneiian fishers know, 
Where in dull marshes stands the settling Po. 
On such to neighbouring Gaul, allured by gain, 
The nobler Britons cross the swelling main. 
Like these, when fruitful Kgypt lies afloat, 
The Memphian artist builds his reedy boat. 

Rowr's Lucaii. 

The navigation of the Euphrates never ascended abovo 
Babylon. — Gibbon. 

I have been informed, that a kind of canoe marie in 
a similar form, and precisely of the same materials, is now 
in use in Monmouthshire, and other parts of Wal< -, ;.ud 
called a collide.— T. 



60 



HERODOTUS. 



of very different dimensions ; some of them are 
so large as to bear freights to the value of five 
thousand talents : the smaller of them has one 
ass on board : the larger, several. On their 
arrival at Babylon, they dispose of all their 
cargo, selling the ribs of their boats, the matting, 
and every thing but the skins which cover them ; 
these they lay upon their asses, and with them 
return to Armenia. The rapidity of the stream 
is too great to render their return by water prac- 
ticable. This is perhaps the reason which in- 
duces them to make their boats of skin, rather 
than of wood. On their return with their asses 
to Armenia, they make other vessels in the 
manner we have before described. 

CXCV. Their clothing is of this kind: 
they have two vests, one of linen which falls to 
the feet, another over this which is made of 
wool : a white sash covers the whole. The 
fashion of their shoes 1 is peculiar to themselves, 
though somewhat resembling those worn by the 
Thebans. Their hair a they wear long, and 
covered with a turban, and are lavish in their 
use of perfumes. 3 Each person has a seal ring, 
and a cane, or walking-stick, upon the top of 



1 Fashion of their /shoes. ]— The Boeotian shoes were 
made of wood, and came up part of the leg. The dresses 
for the feet and legs amongst the Greeks and Romans 
were nearly the same ; they had both shoes and sandals, 
the former covered the whole foot, the last consisted of 
one or more soles, and were fastened with thongs above 
the foot. In the simplicity of primitive manners, the 
feet were only protected by raw hides. It is said in 
Dion Cassius, that Julius Csesar gave offence at Rome, 
by wearing high-heeled shoes of a red colour. The shoes 
of the Roman senators were distinguished by a crescent. 
A particular form of shoe or sandal was appropriated to 
the army ; and a description of thirty different kinds, as 
used by the Romans and such nations as they deemed 
barbarous, may be found in Montfaucon. — T. 

2 Their hair. ] — It cannot be a matter of the smallest 
importance, to know whether the Babylonians wore their 
hair short, or suffered it to grow. But it is a little sin- 
gular, that in this instance Strabo formally contradicts 
Herodotus, although in others he barely copies him. — 
Larcher. 

3 Perfumes.] — The use of aromatics in the east may 
be dated from the remotest antiquity ; they are at the 
present period introduced, not only upon every religious 
and festive occasion, but as one essential instrument of 
private hospitality and friendship. " Ointment and per- 
fume," says Solomon, "rejoice the heart." At the pre- 
sent day, to sprinkle their guests with rose-water, and 
to perfume them with aloes wood, is an indispensable 
ceremony at the close of every visit in eastern countries. 
At the beginning of the present century they were con- 
sidered as a proof of great extravagance and unusual 
luxury; they have of late years been continually becom- 
ing more and more familiar, till they have at length 
ceased to be any distinction of elegance, of fortune, or of 
rank.— T 



which is carved an apple, 4 a rose, a lily, an 
eagle, or some figure^ or other ; for to have a 
stick without a device is unlawful. 

CXCVI. In my description of their laws, 
I have to mention one, the wisdom of which I 
must admire; and which, if I amnotmisin- 
formed, the Eneti, 5 who are of Blyrian origin, 
use also. In each of their several districts 
this custom was every year observed : such of 
their virgins as were marriageable were at an ap- 
pointed time and place assembled together. 
Here the men also came, and some public 
officer sold by auction u the young women one 



4 An apple."} — What, in common with Littlebury and 
Larcher, I have translated apple, Mr Bryant understands 
to be a pomegranate, which, he says, was worn by the 
ancient Persians on their walking-sticks and sceptres, 
on account of its being a sacred emblem.— T. 

5 Eneti.] — This people, from whom perhaps the Vene- 
tians of Italy are descended, Homer mentions as famous 
for their breed of mules : 

The Paphlagonians Pylaemenes rules, 
Where rich Henetia breeds her savage mules. 
Before I proceed, I must point out a singular error of 
Mr Pope : any reader would imagine that Pylaemenes, as 
it stands in his translation, had the penultimate long ; 
on the contrary it is short. There is nothing like rich 
Henetia in Homer ; he simply says, e| Evsrav. Upon 
the above lines of Homer, I have somewhere seen it re- 
marked, that probably the poet here intended to inform 
us, that the Eneti were the first people who pursued and 
cultivated the breed of mules. They were certainly so 
famous for this heterogeneous mixture, that Ev6t<? and 
EvBTOi denote that particular foal of the horse and the 
mule, which the Eneti bred. — See Hesychius. 

A remarkable verse occurs in Genesis, see chapter 
xxxvi. verse 24. " These are the children of Zibeon ; 
both Ajah and Anah : this was that Anah, who found 
the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon 
his father." Does not this mean than Anah was the first 
author and contriver of this unnatural breed ? 

This mixture was forbidden by the Levitical law. — 
See Leviticus, ch. xix. ver. 19. "Thou shall not let 
thy cattle gender with a diverse kind." 

Is it impossible that from Anah the Eneti might take 
their name ? Strabo informs us that the Eneti of Asia 
were called afterwards Cappadocians, which means 
breakers of horses ; and he adds, that they who marched 
to the assistance of Troy, were esteemed a part of the 
Leuco-Syri. 

6 Sold by auction.]— Herodotus here omits one circum- 
stance of consequence, in my opinion, to prove that this 
ceremony was conducted with decency. It passed un- 
der the inspection of the magistrates ; and the tribunal 
whose office it was to take cognizance of the crime of 
adultery, superintended the marriage of the young wo- 
men. Three men, respectable for their virtue, and who 
were at the head of their several tribes, conducted the 
young women that were marriageable to the place of 
assembly, and there sold them by the voice of the public 
crier. — Larcher. 

If the custom of disposing of the young women to the 
best bidder was peculiar to the Babylonians, that of pur- 
chasing the person intended for a wife, and of giving the 
father a sum to obtain her, was much more general. It 



CLIO. 



61 



by one, beginning with the most beautiful. 
When she was disposed of, and as may be sup- 
posed for a considerable sum, he proceeded to 
sell the one who was next in beauty, taking it 
for granted that each man married the maid he 
purchased. The more affluent of the Babylon- 
ian youths contended with much ardour and 
emulation to obtain the most beautiful ; those 
of the common people who were desirous of 
marrying, as if they had but little occasion for 
personal accomplishments, were content to re- 
ceive the more homely maidens, with a portion 
annexed to them. For the crier, when he had 
sold the fairest, selected also the most ugly, 
or one that was deformed ; she also was put up 
to sale, and assigned to whoever would take 
her with the least money. This money was 
what the sale of the beautiful maidens produced, 
who were thus obliged to portion out those who 
were deformed, or less lovely than themselves. 
No man was permitted to provide a match for 
his daughter, nor could any one take away the 
woman whom he had purchased, without first 
giving security to make her his wife. To this 
if he did not assent, his money was returned 
him. There were no restrictions with respect 
to residence ; those of another village might 
also become purchasers. This, although the 
most wise of all their institutions, has not been 
preserved to our time. One of their later or- 
dinances was made to punish violence offered 
to women, and to prevent their being carried 
away to other parts ; for after the city had been 
taken, and the inhabitants plundered, the lower 
people were reduced to such extremities, that 
they prostituted their daughters for hire. 

CXCVTI. They have also another institu- 
tion, the good tendency of which claims our 
applause. Such as are diseased 7 among them 
they cany into some public square ; they have 
no professors of medicine, but the passengers in 
general interrogate the sick person concerning his 
malady ; that if any person has either been afflict- 
ed with a similar disease himself, or seen its 



was practised amongst the Greeks, the Trojans, and their 
allies, and even amongst the deities. — Bellanger. 

Three daughters in my court are bred, 

And each well worthy of a royal bed : 

Laodice, and Iphigenia fair, 

And bright Chrysothcmis with golden hair. 

Her let him choose, whom most his eyes approve ; 

I ask no presents, no reward for love.— Poye's Iliad. 

7 Diseased.] — We may from hence observe the first 
rude commencement of the science of medicine. Syrian, 
us is of opinion, that this science originated in Egypt, 
from those persons who had been disordered in any part 
of their bodies writing down the remedies from which 
they received benefit.— Larcher. 



operation upon another, he may communicate 
the process by which his own recovery was 
effected, or by which, in any other instance, he 
knew the disease to be removed. No one may 
pass by the afflicted person in silence, or without 
inquiry into the nature of his complaint. 

CXCVIIL Previous to their interment, 
their dead are anointed with honey, and like the 
Egyptians, they are fond of funeral lamenta- 
tions. 8 Whenever a man has had communication 
with his wife, 9 he sits over a consecrated vessel, 
containing burning perfumes ; the woman does 
the same. In the morning both of them go into 
the bath ; till after which they will neither of 
them touch any domestic utensil. This custom 
is also observed in Arabia. 

CXCIX. The Babylonians have one cus- 
tom in the highest degree abominable. Every 
woman who is a native of the country is obliged 
once in her life to attend at the temple of Venus, 
and prostitute 10 herself to a stranger. Such 

8 Funeral lamentations. ,] — The custom of luring people 
to lament at funerals is of very great antiquity. Many 
passages in the Old Testament seem to allude to this. — 
Jeremiah xvi. 5. Baruch vi. 32. " They roar and cry 
before their gods, as men do at the feast when one is dead. " 

A similar custom prevails to this day in Ireland, where, 
as I have been informed, old women are hired to roar 
and cry at funerals. 

9 Communication with his wife.] — I much approve of 
the reply of Theano, wife of Pythagoras. A person in- 
quired of her, what time was required for a woman to 
become pure, after haviug had communication with a 
man. "She is pure immediately," answered Theano, 
"if the man be her husband; but if he be not her hus- 
band, no time will make her so." — Larcher, from Dio- 
genes Laertius 

10 Prostitute herself] — This, as an historical fact, is 
questioned by some, and by Voltaire in particular; but 
it is mentioned by Jeremiah, who lived almost two cen- 
turies before Herodotus, and by Strabo, who lived long 
after Mm. See Baruch vi. 42. 

" The women also with cords about them sitting in the 
ways, burn bran for perfume. But if any of them, drawn 
by some that passeth by, lie with him, she reproacheth 
her fellow, that she was not thought as worthy as her- 
self, nor her cord broken." 

Upon the above Mr Bryant remarks, that instead of 
women, it should probably be read virgins ; and that tlus 
custom was universally kept up wherever the Persian 
religion prevailed. Strabo is more particular : " Not 
only," says he, " the men and maid-servants prostitute 
themselves, but people of the first fashion devote in the 
same manner their oftvn daughters. Nor is any body at 
all scrupulous about cohabiting with a woman who has 
been thus abused." 

Upon the custom itself no comment can be required ; 
Herodotus calls it, what it must appear to every delicate 
mind, in the highest degree base. 

The prostitution of women, considered as a religious 
institution, was not only practised at Babylon, but at 
Heliopolis ; at Aphace, a place betwixt Heliopolis and 
Biblius ; at Sicca Veneria, in Africa, and also in the isle 
of Cyprus. It was at Aphace that Venus was supposed, 



62 



HERODOTUS. 



women as are of superior rank do not omit even 
this opportunity of separating themselves from 
their inferiors ; these go to the temple in splen- 
did chariots, accompanied by a numerous train 
of domestics, and place themselves near the en- 
trance. This is the practice with many ; whilst 
the greater part, crowned with garlands, seat 
themselves in the vestibule ; and there are al- 
ways numbers coming and going. The seats 
have all a rope or string annexed to them, by 
which the stranger may determine his choice. 
A woman having once taken this situation, is 
not allowed to return home, till some stranger 
throws her a piece of money ; and leading her 
to a distance from the temple, enjoys her person. 
It is usual for the man, when he gives the 
money, to say, " May the goddess Mylitta be 
auspicious to thee !" Mylitta being the Assyrian 
name of Venus. The money given is applied 
to sacred uses, and must not be refused, how- 
ever small it may be. The woman, not suffered 
to make any distinction, is obliged to accom- 
pany whoever offers her money. She afterwards 
makes some conciliatory oblations to the god- 
dess, and returns to her house, never afterwards 
to be obtained on similar, or on any terms. 
Such as are eminent for their elegance and 
beauty do not continue long, but those who are 
of less engaging appearance, have sometimes 
been known to remain from three to four years, 
unable to accomplish the terms of the law. It 
is to be remarked, that the inhabitants of Cyprus 
have a similar observance. 

C C. In addition to the foregoing account of 
Babylonian manners, we may observe, that 
there are three tribes of this people whose only 
food is fish. They prepare it thus : having 
dried it in the sun, they beat it very small in a 
mortar, and afterwards sift it through a piece of 
fine cloth, they then form it into cakes, or bake 
it as bread. 

CCI. After his conquest of this people, Cy- 
rus extended his ambitious views to the Massa- 
getse, a great and powerful nation, whose terri- 
tories extend beyond the river Araxes, ' to the 



according to the author of the Etyinologicum Magnum, 
to have first received the erohraces of Adonis.— T. 

1 Araxes.]— See Spenser's Fairy Queen, book iv. canto 
11, stanza 21 ; 

Oraxes feared for great Cyrus' sake. 
Instead of Oraxes, it ought to be Araxes.— See Jortin. 

Virgil alludes to the tempestuous violence of this river, 
JEn. viii. 728 : 

Pontem indignatus -Araxes. 
See also Chardin, torn. i. p. 181. 

"On a bati diverses fois des ponts dessus l'Araxe, 
mais quelquos forts ot massifs qu'ils fussent, comme il 



extreme parts of the east. They are opposite 
to the Issedonians, and are by some esteemed 
a Scythian nation. 

CCII. Concerning the magnitude of the 
Araxes, there are various representations ; some 
pronouncing it less, others greater, than the 
Danube. There are many islands scattered up 
and down in it, some of which are nearly equal 
to Lesbos in extent. The people who inhabit 
these subsist during the summer on such roots 
as they dig out of the earth, preserving for their 
winter's provision the ripe produce of their 
fruit-trees. They have amongst them a tree 
whose fruit has a most singular property. As- 
sembled round a fire, which they make for this 
purpose, they throw into the midst of it the 
above fruit, and the same inebriation is com- 
municated to them from the smell, as the 
Greeks experience from excess of wine. As 
they become more exhilarated, they throw on a 
greater quantity of fruit, and are at length so far 
transported as to leap up, dance, and sing — 
This is what I have heard of the customs of this 
people. The Araxes, like the Gyndes, which 
Cyrus divided into three hundred and sixty 
rivulets, rises among the Matienian hills. It 
separates itself into forty mouths, 2 all of which, 
except one, lose themselves in bogs and marshes, 
among which a people are said to dwell, who 
feed upon raw fish, and clothe themselves with 
the skins of sea-calves. The larger stream of 
the Araxes continues its even course to the 
Caspian. 

CCIII. The Caspian is an ocean by itself, 
and communicates with no other. The sea 
frequented by the Greeks, the Red Sea, and 
that beyond the Pillars, called the Atlantic, are 
all one ocean. The Caspian forms one uncon- 
nected sea: a swift-oared boat would in fifteen 
days measure its length, its extreme breadth in 
eight. It is bounded on the west by mount 
Caucasus, the largest and perhaps the highest 
mountain in the world. Caucasus is inhabited 
by various nations, a many of whom are said to 



paroit a des arches qui sont encore entiers, ils n'ont pu 
tenir contre l'eftbrt du fleuve. II est si furieux lorsque 
le degel le grossit des neiges fondues des monts voisins, 
qu'il n'y a ni digue ni autre batiment qu'il n' emporte." 

2 Forty mouths.] — What Herodotus says of the Araxes, 
is in a great measure true of the Volga, which empties 
itself into the Caspian by a number of channels, in which 
many considerable islands are scattered. But this ri ver 
does not, nor indeed can it come from the Matienian 
mountains. — Larcher. 

3 Various nations.] — Of these the principal were the 
Colchians, of tlie excellent produce and circumstances of 
whose country a minute and entertaining account is 
given by Strabo.— T. 



CLIO. 



63 



subsist on what the soil spontaneously produces. 
They have trees whose leaves possess a most 
singular property ; they beat them to powder, 
and then steep them in water : this forms a 
dye, 4 with which they paint on their garments 
figures of animals. The impression is so very 
strong, that it cannot be washed out ; it appears 
to be interwoven in the cloth, and wears as long 
as the garment. The sexes communicate pro- 
miscuously, and in public, like the brutes. 

CCIV. Caucasus terminates that part of the | 
Caspian which extends to the west; it is 
bounded on the east by a plain of prodigious j 
extent, a considerable part of which forms the 
country of Massagetae, against whom Cyrus 
meditated an attack. He was invited and 
urged by many strong incentives. When he 
considered the peculiar circumstances of his 
birth, he believed himself more than human. 
He reflected also on the prosperity of his arms, 
and that wherever he had extended his incur- 
sions, he had been followed by success and 
victory. 

CCV. The Massagetae were then governed 
by a queen ; she was a widow, and her name 
Tomyris. Cyrus sent ambassadors to her with 
overtures of marriage; the queen, concluding 
that his real object was the possession, not of 
her person, but her kingdom, forbade his ap- 
proach. Cyrus, on finding these measures in- 
effectual, advanced to the Araxes, openly dis- 
covering his hostile designs upon the Massagetae. 
He accordingly threw a bridge of boats over the 
river for the passage of his forces, which he also 
fortified with turrets. 

CCVI. Whilst he was engaged in this dif- 
ficult undertaking, Tomyris sent by her ambas- 
sadors this message : " Sovereign of the Medes, 
uncertain as you must be of the event, we 
advise you to desist from your present purpose. 
Be satisfied with the dominion of your own 
kingdom, and suffer us to retain what is cer- 
tainly our own. You will not, however, listen 
to this salutary counsel, loving any thing rather 
than peace s If, then, you are really impatient 
to encounter the Massagetae, give up your pre- 
sent labour of constructing a bridge ; we will 
retire three days' march into our country, and 
you shall pass over at your leisure ; or, if you 
had rather receive us in your own territories, 
do you as much for us." On hearing this, 



4 Forms a dye.~\ — By the discovery of cochineal, we far 
surpass the colours of antiquity. Their royal purple had 
a strong smell, and a dark cast, as deep as bull's blood. — 
Gibbon- 



Cyrus called a council of his principal officers, 
and, laying the matter before them, desired 
their advice how to act. They were unani- 
mously of opinion, that he should retire, and 
expect Tomyris in his own dominions. 

CCVII. Croesus the Lydian, who assisted 
at the meeting, was of a different sentiment, 
which he defended in this manner : " I have 
before remarked, O king! that since Provid- 
ence has rendered me your captive, it becomes 
me to exert all my abilities in obviating what- 
ever menaces you with misfortune. I have 
been instructed in the severe but useful school 
of adversity. If you were immortal yourself, 
and commanded an army of immortals, my ad- 
vice might be justly thought impertinent; but 
if you confess yourself a human leader, of forces 
that are human, it becomes you to remember 
that sublunary events have a circular motion, 
and that their revolution does not permit the 
same man always to be fortunate. Upon this 
present subject of debate I dissent from the 
majority. If you await the enemy in your own 
dominions, a defeat may chance to lose you all 
your empire ; the victorious Massagetae, instead 
of retreating to their own, will make farther 
inroad into your territories. If you shall con- 
quer, you will still be a loser by that interval of 
time and place which must be necessarily em- 
ployed in the pursuit. I will suppose that, 
after victory, you will instantly advance into the 
dominions of Tomyris ; yet can Cyrus the son 
of Cambyses, without disgrace and infamy, retire 
one foot of ground from a female adversary ? I 
would therefore recommend, that having passed 
over with our army, we proceed on our march 
till we meet the enemy; then let us contend for 
victory and honour. I have been informed the 
Massagetae lead a life of the meanest poverty, 
ignorant of Persian fare, of Persian delicacies. 
Let these therefore be left behind in our camp: 
let there be abundance of food prepared, costly 
viands, and flowing goblets of wine. With these 
let us leave the less effective of the troops, and 
with the rest again retire towards the river. If 
I err not, the foe will be allured by the sight of 
our luxurious preparations, and afford us a noble 
occasion of victory and glory. " 

CCVIII. The result of the debate was, that 
Cyrus preferred the sentiments of Croesus : he 
therefore returned for answer to Tomyris, that 
he would advance the space into her dominions 
which she had proposed. She was faithful to 
her engagement, and retired accordingly. Cyrus 
then formally delegated his authority to his son 



64 



HERODOTUS. 



Cambyses ;' and above all recommended Croesus 
to his care, as one whom, if the projected expe- 
dition should fail, it would be his interest to 
distinguish by every possible mark of reverence 
and honour. He then dismissed them into 
Persia, and passed the river with his forces. 

CCIX. As soon as he had advanced beyond 
the Araxes into the land of the Massagetae, he 
saw in the night this vision: He beheld the 
eldest son of Hystaspes having wings upon his 
shoulders ; one of which overshadowed Asia, 
the other Europe. Hystaspes was the son of 
Arsamis, of the family of the Achsemenides ; 
the name of his eldest son was Darius, a youth 
of about twenty, who had been left behind in 
Persia as not yet of an age for military service. 
Cyrus awoke, and revolved the matter in his 
mind : as it appeared to him of serious impor- 
tance, he sent for Hystaspes to his presence, 
and, dismissing his attendants, " Hystaspes," 
said the king, " I will explain to you my rea- 
sons, why I am satisfied beyond all dispute that 
your son is now engaged in seditious designs 
against me and my authority. The gods, whose 
favour I enjoy, disclose to me all those events 
which menace my security. In the night just 
passed, I beheld your eldest son having wings 
upon his shoulders, one of which overshadowed 
Asia, the other Europe; from which I draw 
certain conclusions that he is engaged in acts of 
treachery against me. Do you therefore return 
instantly to Persia; and take care, that when 
I return victorious from my present expedition, 
your son may give me a satisfactory explanation 
of his conduct." 

CCX. The strong apprehension of the trea- 
chery of Darius induced Cyrus thus to address 
the father ; but the vision in reality imported 
that the death of Cyrus was at hand, and that 
Darius should succeed to his power. " Far be 
it, O king!" said Hystaspes in reply, "from 
any man of Persian origin to form conspiracies 
against his sovereign : if such there be, let im- 
mediate death be his portion. You have raised 
the Persians from slavery to freedom; from 
subjects, you have made them masters : if a 
vision has informed you that my son designs 
any thing against you, to you and to your dis- 
posal I shall deliver him." Hystaspes, after 
this interview, passed the Araxes on his return 



1 His son Cambyses.~\ — When the Persian kings went 
on any expedition, it was customary with them to name 
their successor, in order to prevent the confusion una- 
voidably arising from their dying without having done 
this. — Lurcher. 



to Persia, fully intehding to watch over his son, 
and deliver him to Cyrus. 

CCXI. Cyrus, advancing a day's march 
from the Araxes, followed, in all respects, the 
counsel of Croesus; and leaving behind him 
the troops upon which he had less dependence, 
he returned with his choicest men towards the 
Araxes. A detachment of about the third part 
of the army of the Massagetae attacked the 
Persians whom Cyrus had left, and, after a 
feeble conflict, put them to the sword. When 
the slaughter ceased, they observed the luxuries 
which had artfully been prepared ; and yielding 
to the allurement, they indulged themselves in 
feasting and wine, till drunkenness and sleep 
overcame them. In this situation the Persians 
attacked them : several were slain, but the 
greater part were made prisoners, among whom 
was Spargapises, their leader, the son of 
Tomyris. 

CCXII. As soon as the queen heard of the 
defeat of her forces, and the capture of her son, 
she despatched a messenger to Cyrus with these 
words : "Cyrus, insatiable as you are of blood, 
be not too elate with your recent success. When 
you yourself are overcome with wine, what fol- 
lies do you not commit? By entering your 
bodies, it renders your language more insulting. 
By this poison you have conquered my son, and 
neither by your prudence nor your valour. I 
venture a second time to advise what it will be 
certainly your interest to follow. Restore my 
son to liberty, and, satisfied with the disgrace 
you have put upon a third part of the Mas- 
sagetae, depart from these realms unhurt. If 
you will not do this, I sWear by the Sun, the 
great god of the Massagetae, that, insatiable as 
you are of blood, I will give you your fill of 
it." 3 

CCXIII. These words made but little im- 
pression upon Cyrus. The son of Tomyris, 
when, recovering from his inebriated state, he 
knew the misfortune which had befallen him, 
intreated Cyrus to release him from his bonds : 
he obtained his liberty, and immediately destroy- 
ed himself. 

CCXIV. On the refusal of Cyrus to listen 
to her counsel, Tomyris collected all her forces : 

2 Fill of blood.J— With this story of Cyrus that of the 
Roman Crassus nearly corresponds. The wealth of 
Crassus was only to be equalled by his avarice. He was 
taken prisoner in ah expedition against the Parthians, 
who poured liquefied gold down his throaj, in order, as 
they said, that he whose thirst of gold could never be 
satisfied when he was alive, might be filled with it when 
dead.— T. 



CLIO. 



65 



a battle ensued, and of all the conflicts which 
ever took place amongst the barbarians, this 
was I believe by far the most obstinately dis- 
puted. According to such particulars as I have 
jeen able to collect, the engagement began by 
a shower of arrows poured on both sides, from 
an interval of some distance ; when these were 
all spent, they fought with their swords and 
spears, and for a long time neither party gained 
the smallest advantage : the Massagetse were at 
length victorious, the greater part of the Per- 
sians were slain, Cyrus himself also fell ; and 
thus terminated a reign of twenty-nine years. 
When after diligent search his body was found, 
Tomyris directed his head to be thrown into a 
vessel filled with human blood, and having in- 
sulted and mutilated the dead body, exclaimed, 
" Survivor and conqueror as I am, thou hast 
ruined my peace by thy successful stratagem 
against my son ; but I will give thee now, as I 
threatened, thy fill of blood." — This account of 
the end of Cyrus seems to me most consistent 
with probability, although there are many other 
and diflferent relations. 8 

CCXV. The Massagetse in their clothes 
and food resemble the Scythians ; they fight on 
horseback and on foot, and are both ways for- 
midable. They have spears, arrows, and battle- 
axes. They make much use both of gold and 
brass. Their spears, the points of their arrows, 
and their battle-axes, are made of brass ; their 
helmets, their belts, and their breast-plates are 
decorated with gold. They bind also a plate 
of brass on the chests of their horses, whose 
reins, bits, and other harness, are plated with 
gold. They use neither iron nor silver, which 
indeed their country does not produce, though 
it abounds with gold and brass. 

CCXVL Concerning their manners we 
have to observe, that though each man marries 
but one wife, she is considered as common pro- 

3 Different relations.] — Xenophon makes Cyrus die 
peaceably in his bed ; Strabo inclines to this opinion ; 
Lucian makes him live beyond the age of an hundred. — 
Larcher. 

The Massagetse are by some authors confounded with 
the Scythians. Diodorus Siculus calls Tomyris queen of 
the Scythians.— Larcher. 



perty. For what the Greeks assert in general 
of the Scythians, is true only of the Massagetse. 
When a man of this country desires to have 
communication with a woman, he hangs up his 
quiver before his waggon, and enjoys her with- 
out fear of interruption. To speak of the num- 
ber of years to which they live, is impossible. 
As soon as any one becomes infirm through age, 
his assembled relations put him to death, 4 boil- 
ing along with the body the flesh of sheep and 
other animals, upon which they feast : esteem- 
ing universally this mode of death the happiest. 
Of those who die from any disease, they never 
eat ; they bury them in the earth, and esteem 
their fate a matter to be lamented, because they 
have not lived to be sacrificed. They sow no 
grain, but entirely subsist upon cattle, and upon 
the fish which the river Araxes abundantly sup- 
plies ; milk also constitutes a part of their diet. 
They sacrifice horses 5 to the sun, their only 
deity, thinking it right to offer the swiftest of 
mortal animals, to the swiftest of immortal 
beings. 



4 Put him to death.] — Hellanicus, speaking of the Hy- 
perboreans, who live beyond the Rhipean mountains, 
observes, that they learn justice, that they do not eat 
meat, but live entirely on fruit. Those of sixty years 
they carry out of the town, and put to death. Timseus 
says, that in Sardinia, when a man has passed the age of 
seventy years, his sons, in honour of Saturn, and with 
seeming satisfaction, beat his brains out with clubs, and 
throw him from some frightful precipice. The inhabi- 
tants of Iulis, in the isle of Ceos, oblige those who are 
past the age of sixty years to drink hemlock, fyc. 

This custom, so contrary to our manners, will, doubt- 
less, appear fabulous to those who are no friends to an- 
tiquity, and whose judgments are regulated entirely by 
modern manners. It is practised nevertheless at the 
present day in the kingdom of Aracan ; the inhabitants 
of this country accelerate the death of their friends and 
relations, when they see them afflicted by a painful old 
age, or incurable disease ; it is with them an act of piety. 
— Larcher. 

5 Sacrifice horses.] — This was a very ancient custom : 
it was practised in Persia in the time of Cyrus, and was 
probably anterior to that prince. Horses were also sac- 
rificed to Neptune, and the deities of the rivers, being 
precipitated into the sea or into rivers. 

Sextus Pompeius threw into the sea horses and live 
oxen, in honour of Neptune, whose son he professed him- 
self to be. — Larcher. 

Placat equo Persis radiis Hyperiona cinctum 
Ne detur celeii victima tarda dco Ovid. 



HERODOTUS. 



BOOK II. 



EUTERPE. 



I. Cambyses the son of Cyrus, by Cassanda- 
na, daughter of Phanaspe, succeeded his father. 
The wife of Cyrus had died before him ; he 
had lamented her loss himself with the sincer- 
est grief, and commanded all his subjects to 
exhibit public marks of sorrow. 1 Cambyses 
thus descended, considered the Ionians and 
iEolians as his slaves by right of inheritance : 
— He undertook therefore an expedition against 
Egypt, and assembled an army for this purpose, 
composed as well of his other subjects as of 
those Greeks who acknowledged his authority. 

II. Before the reign of their king Psam- 
mitichus, 8 the Egyptians esteemed themselves 
the most ancient of the human race ; but when 
this prince came to the throne he took consid- 
erable pains to investigate the truth of this 
matter; the result was, that they believe the 
Phrygians 3 more ancient than themselves, and 

1 Public marks of sorrow.] — Admetus pays the same 
tribute of respect to the memory of Ms deceased wife 
Alcestis. 

Udiriv $\ ®Mr<rot,kot(ri)i, Sv tyai x^<x,rZ, 
liivdo? ■yvto&irso; rvrSt xoivovffdott Xiya), 
Keuga |yg-<5«£/ xcci xinXots (/,€Kot,yxifMi?. 

Euripid. Alcest. 425. 
Wliich is thus rendered by Potter : 
Through my realms of Thessaly 
I give command, that all, in solemn grief 
For this dear woman, shear their locks, and wear 
The solemn garb of mourning. 

2 Before the reign of their king Psammitichus.] — It is 
read indifferently Psammetichus, Psammitichus, and 
Psamraietichus. 

According to Justin, the Scythians believed themselves 
to be more ancient than the Egyptians. 

3 Phrygians.] — The volumes of Greece and Rome 
abound with records of the Phrygians. Arrian tells us, 
that the Phrygians were the oldest of mankind, Xiyovrni 
$0wyts xuXu.ioTat.roi etvOQaimu)), citedby Eustathiusin Dion. 
Their religious madness in the worship of their goddess 
Cybele renders them very remarkable in classic story. 
They were remarkable for their effeminacy, and we have 
their character beautifully drawn by Virgil, in the con- 
trast which he gives us in the ninth iEneid, betwixt 
them and the ancient Tuscans : 



themselves than the rest of mankind. Whilst 
Psammitichus was engaged in this inquiry, he 
contrived the following as the most effectual 
means of removing his perplexity. He pro- 
cured two children just born, of humble parent- 
age, and gave them to a shepherd to be brought 
up among his flocks. He was ordered never 
to speak before them; to place them in a 
sequestered hut, and at proper intervals to bring 
them goats, whose milk 4 they might suck 
whilst he was attending to other employments. 
His object was to know what word they would 
first pronounce articulately. The experiment 
succeeded to his wish ; the shepherd complied 
with each particular of his directions, and at the 
end of two years, on his one day opening the 
door of their apartment, both the children ex- 
tended their arms towards him, as if in suppli- 
cation, and pronounced the word Becos. 5 It 
did not at first excite his attention, but on their 
repeating the same expression whenever he ap- 
peared, he related the circumstance to his mas- 
ter, and at his command brought the children 
to his presence. When Psammitichus had 
heard them repeat this same word, he endea- 



Vobis picta croco et fulgenti murice vestis; 
Desidiae cordi ; juvat indulgere choreis ; 
Et tunicae manicas et habent redimicula mitra». 
O vere Phrygiae, neque enim Phryges ! ite per alta 
Dindyma, ubi assuetis biforem dat tibia cantum. 
Tympana vox buxusque vocat Berecynthia matris 
Idaeae, sinite arma viris, et cedite ferro. 

This citation from Virgil implies, that these were instru- 
ments more becoming a woman than a warrior. The 
proverb, Phryx plagis emendatur (see Erasmus A dag .), 
was contemptuously applied to all this nation. 

4 Wfiose milk.] — Claudian has an allusion to this his- 
torical fact. See his Poem in Eutropium, ii. 250 : 

Dat cuncta vetustas 
Principium Phrygibus, nee rex jEgyptius ultra 
Restitit humani postquam puer uberis expers 
In Phrygiam primum laxavit murmura vocem. 

5 Becos.] — These infants, in all probability, pronounc- 
ed the word Bee, the cry of the animals wliich they im- 
itated, os being a termination appropriated to the Greek 
language. — Lurcher. 



68 



HERODOTUS. 



voured to discover among what people it was 
in use : he found it was the Phrygian name for 
bread. l From seriously revolving this incident, 
the Egyptians were induced to allow the Phry- 
gians to be of greater antiquity than themselves. 

III. That this was really done, I myself 
heard at Memphis from the priests of Vulcan. 
The Greeks, among other idle tales, relate, 
that Psammitichus gave the children to be 
nursed by women whose tongues were pre- 
viously cut out. During my residence at 
Memphis, the same priests informed me of 
many other curious particulars : but to be bet- 
ter satisfied how well the narrative which I 
have given on their authority was supported, I 
made it my business to visit Thebes and Helio- 
polis, 2 the inhabitants of which latter place are 
deemed the most ingenious of all the Egyptians. 
Except to specify the names of their divinities, 
I shall be unwilling to mention their religious 
customs, unless my subject demand it ; this be- 
ing a matter concerning which men in general 
are equally well informed. 

IV. In all which they related of human 
affairs, they were uniform and consistent with 
each other ; they agree that the Egyptians first 
defined the measure of the year, which they 
divided into twelve parts ; in this they affirm 
the stars to have been their guides. Their 
mode of computation is in my opinion more 
sagacious than that of the Greeks, who for the 
sake of adjusting the seasons accurately add 
every third year an intercalary month. The 
Egyptians divide their year into twelve months, 
giving to each month thirty days : by adding 
five days to every year they have an uniform 
revolution of time. The people of this country 
first invented 3 the names of the twelve gods, 
and from them the Grecians borrowed them. 4 

1 Bread.] — Hipponax, speaking of the people of 
Cyprus, uses this word as signifying bread. — Larcher. 

2 Heliopolis.]— This place was not only celebrated for 
being in a manner the school of Herodotus : Plato here 
studied philosophy, and Eudoxus astronomy. — There 
were in Egypt two cities of this name. — T. 

A barbarous Persian lias overthrown her temples, a 
fanatic Arab burned her books, and one solitary obelisk 
overlooking her ruins, says to passengers, this once was 
Heliopolis. — Savary. 

3 First invented.] — Larcher in a note vindicates the 
expression of first invented, but this was already done to 
his hands by Bentley, in his preface to Dissertation on 
Phalaris.— T. 

4 Grecians borrowed them.]— At the same time that 
Plato confesses that the Grecian mythology was of fo- 
reign original, he derives Artemis from a Greek word 
signifying integrity ; Poseidon, from notri fog-pot,, chains 
for the feet; Pallas, from crxXteiv, to vibrate, &c— T. 
\ If the Egyptian year had consisted of three hundred 



They were the first also who erected altars, 
shrines, and temples; and none before them 
ever engraved the figures of animals on stone ; 
the truth of all which they sufficiently authenti- 
cate. The name of their first king was Menes, 5 
in whose reign the whole of Egypt, except the 
province of Thebes, was one extended marsh. 
No part of all that district which is now situate 
beyond the lake of Moeris, was then to be seen, 
the distance between which lake and the sea is 
a journey of seven days. 

V. The account which they give of their 
country appears just and reasonable. It must 
be obvious to the inspection of any one of com- 
mon sagacity, even though he knew it not be- 
fore, that the part of Egypt to which the Greeks 
now sail formerly constituted a part of the bed 
of the river ; e which thing may always be ob- 
served of all that tract of country beyond the 
lake, to pass over which would employ a journey 
of three days, but this the Egyptians themselves 
do not assert. Of this fact there exists another 
proof: if from a vessel bound to Egypt, the 
lead be thrown at the distance of a day's sailing 
from the shore, 7 it will come up the depth of 



and sixty-five entire days, the seasons would be far from 
returning regularly at the same period. After some 
ages the winter months would be found to return in the 
spring, and so of the other seasons. — Larcher. 

5 Menes.]— Diodorus Siculus agrees with Herodotus in 
making Menes reign in Egypt, immediately after the gods 
and the heroes. — Larcher. 

6 Bed of the river.]— This sentiment was adopted by 
all the ancients, and a great part of the moderns. If it 
be true, all the country from Memphis to the sea must 
have been formerly a gulf of the Mediterranean, parallel 
to the Arabian gulf. The earth must have been raised 
up by little and little, from a deposit of the mud which 
the waters of the Nile carry away with them. — Larcher. 

7 Day's sailing from the shore.] — For seven or eight 
leagues from the land they know by the sounding plummet 
if they are near Egypt, as within that distance it brings up 
the black slimy mud of the Nile, that settles at the bottom 
of the sea, which is often of great use in navigation, the 
low land of this country not being seen afar off. — Pococke. 

I know not whether it has ever before been remarked, 
but it should seem, from the descriptions of modern 
travellers, that the approach to Alexandria in Egypt 
greatly resembles the approach to Madras in the bay of 
Bengal— T. 

It appears from Norden, that the Nile forms every 
year new islands in its course, for the possession of which 
the petty princes inhabiting the banks of the river eagerly 
contend.— T. 

The majority of travellers inform us, that upon an ave- 
rage the water usually rises every year to the height of 
twenty-two cubits. In 1702 it rose to twenty- three cubits 
four inches ; in the year preceding it rose to twenty-two 
cubits eighteen inches : according to these travellers, the 
favourable height is from twenty-two to twenty-three 
cubits : according to Herodotus, from fifteen to sixteen.— 
The difference is seven. — Larcher. 



EUTERPE. 



69 



eleven fathoms covered with mud, plainly indi- 
cating that it was brought there by the water. 8 
VI. According to our limitation of Egypt, 
which is from the bay of Plinthene to lake 
Serbonis, near mount Casius, the whole extent 
of the coast is sixty schaeni. 9 It may not be 



No addition seems to have been made, during - the space 
of five hundred years, to the number of cubits taken notice 
of by Herodotus. This we learn, not only from the sixteen 
children that attend the statue of the Nile, but from a 
medal also of Trajan, where we see the figure of the Nile, 
with a boy standing upon it, who points to the number 
sixteen. Fifteen cubits are recorded by the emperor 
Julian as the height of the Nile's inundation. Three 
hundred years afterwards the amount was no more than 
sixteen or seventeen j and at present, notwithstanding 
the great accumulation of soil, when the river riseth to 
sixteen cubits the Egyptians make great rejoicings, and 
call out, Wafaa Allah ! God has given ail they wanted. — 
Poc.ocke. 

Twenty-four cubits is the greatest height to which the 
Nile was ever known to rise. When our countryman 
Sandys was there it rose to twenty- three. — T. 

The following beautiful description of the time of the 
Nile's inundation is given by Lucan : 

Whene'er the Lion sheds his fires around, 
And Cancer bums Syene's parching ground, 
Then at the prayer of nations comes the Nile, 
And kindly tempers up the mouldering soil ; 
Nor from the plains the covering god retreats, 
Till the rude fervour of the skies abates ; 
Till Phoebus into milder autumn fades, 
And Meroa projects her length'ning shades : 
Nor let inquiring sceptics ask the cause— 
'Tis Jove's command, and these are nature's laws. 

Rome. 

8 Brought there by the water.]— This idea is strongly 
controverted by a modern traveller (Mr Bruce). He tells 
us, that the masters of vessels still pretend to kno w when 
they are approaching Egypt, by the black mud which they 
find upon their plummet at the end of their sounding line. 
It seems in his case they were egregiously mistaken ; for 
when the master, from the pretended circumstance of this 
mud, supposed the vessel within seven leagues of the 
coast, Mr Bruce, by an observation, found they were 
seventeen leagues distant. " Neither," says he, " could 
the mud of the Nile make the additi ons to the land of Egypt 
which Herodotus has supposed." The Etesian winds 
blowing all the summer upon that coast to the westward 
of north, and a current setting constantly to the eastward, 
it is impossible that any part of the mud of the Nile can go 
so high to the windward of any of the mouths of that 
river. The action of these winds, and the constancy of that 
current, has thrown a great quantity of mud, gravel, and 
sand, into all the ports of the coast of Syria 

"This," he continues, "every one knows to be the 
effect of that easterly current setting upon the coast, 
which as it acts perpendicularly to the course of the Nile, 
when discharging itself at all or any of its mouths, into the 
Mediterranean, must hurry what it is charged with on 
towards the coast of Syria, and hinder it from settling op- 
posite to, or making these additions to the land of Egypt 
which Herodotus has vainly supposed." 

9 Sixty schceni.] — The Greeks, whose territories were 
not extensive, measured them by stadia ; the Persians, 
whose region was still greater, used parasanges. The 
Egyptians, whose country was more spacious than Per- 
sia, properly so called, applied in their mensuration 
schami. Herodotus, when he observes that this last is 



improper to remark, that they who have smaller 
portions of land, measure them by orgyise, they 
who have larger by stadia, such as have consi- 
derable tracts by parasanges. The schaenus, 
which is an Egyptian measure, used in the 
mensuration of more extensive domains, is 
equivalent to sixty stadia, as the parasange is to 
thirty. Agreeably 'to such mode of computa- 
tion, the coast of Egypt towards the sea is in 
length three thousand six hundred stadia. 

VII. From hence inland to Heliopolis, 10 the 
country of Egypt is a spacious plain, which, 
though without water, and on a declivity, is a 
rich and slimy 11 soil. The distance betwixt 
Heliopolis and the sea, is nearly the same as 
from the altar of the twelve deities, 1 a at Athens, 
to the shrine of Jupiter Olympus at Pisa. 
Whoever will be at the trouble to ascertain this 
point, will not find the difference to exceed 
fifteen stadia: the distance from Pisa to Athens 
wants precisely fifteen stadia of one thousand 
five hundred, which is the exact number of 
stadia betwixt Heliopolis and the sea. 

VIII. From Heliopolis to the higher parts 
of Egypt la the country becomes more narrow, 
and is confined on one part by a long chain of 
Arabian mountains, which from the north, 
stretch south and south-west, in a regular in- 
clination to the Red Sea. The pyramids of 
Memphis M were built with stones drawn from 

an Egyptian measure, indirectly informs us that the 
stadium and parsangis were not there used. — LarcJier. 

10 Heliopolis.]— T^ow called Mantanea. It was probably 
the On of the scriptures, and, according to Strabo, cele- 
brated for the worship of the sun. There are but incon- 
siderable remains of this city. — There were in Egypt two 
cities of this name. — T. 

1 1 Rich and slimy -2 — The soil of Egypt, except what it 
has received from the overflowings of the Nile, is nat oral- 
ly sandy. It is full of nitre or salt, winch occasions nitrous 
vapours, making the nights cold and dangerous. It is this 
and the rich quality of the earth, which is the sediment 
of the water of the Nile, which makes Egypt so fertile, 
that sometimes they are obliged to temper the rich soil 
by bringing sand to it. — Pococke. 

12 Altar of the twelve deities.'] — TMs was in the Pythio 
place of Athens. Pisistratus, son of Hippias the tyrant, 
dedicated it to the twelve gods when he was archon. — 
Lurcher. 

13 Egypt.] — Egypt, in proportion as it recedes from 
the Mediterranean, is regularly elevated. — Larcher. 

14 Memphis.] — If we give credit to some authors, the 
city of Memphis was situated in the place where at 
present stands the village of Gize ; and I own that this 
opinion does not want probability. But if we attend to 
it carefully, we shall find it necessary to strike off a great 
deal of the grandeur of that ancient capital of Egypt, or 
else raise extremely all the plains about it In effrct, 
Gize does not occupy the half of the space of Old Cairo j 
and the plains that extend all around never fail to be 
deluged at the time of the overflowing of the waters of 
the Nile. Is it credible that they should have built a city 



70 



HERODOTUS 



these mountains, 1 which from hence have a 
winding direction towards the places we have 
before described. I have been informed, that 
to travel along this range of hills, from east to 
west, which is the extreme length of the country, 
will employ a space of two months : they add, 
that the eastern parts abound in aromatics. On 
that side of Egypt which lies towards Lybia, 
there is another stony mountain covered with 
sand, in which certain pyramids have been 
erected : this extends itself like those Arabian 
hills which stretch towards the south. Thus 
the country beyond Heliopolis differs exceed- 
ingly from the rest of Egypt, and may be passed 
in a journey of four days. The intermediate 
space betwixt these mountains is an open plain, 
in its narrowest part not more in extent than 
two hundred stadia, measuring from the Arabian 
to what is called the Lybian mountain, from 
whence Egypt becomes again wider. 

IX. From Heliopolis to Thebes 3 is a voy- 
age of about nine days, or a space of four thou- 

so great and famous in a place subject to be under water 
the half of the year ? Still less can it be imagined, that 
the ancient authors should have forgotten so particular 
a circumstance. — Norden. 

The description here given by Herodotus is confirmed 
by Norden, and by Savary. — T. 

1 With stones from these mountains'] — It has been a 
constant belief, that the stones composing these pyra- 
mids have been brought from the Lybian mountains, 
though any one who will take the pains to remove the 
sand on the south side will find the solid rock there hewn 
into steps. And in the roof of the large chamber 
where the sarcophagos stands, as also in the top of the 
roof of the gallery, you see large fragments of the rock, 
affording an unanswerable proof, that these pyramids 
were once huge rocks standing where they now are; 
that some of them, the most proper for the form, were 
chosen for the body of the pyramid, and the others hewn 
into steps, to serve for the superstructure and exterior 
parts of them. — Mr Bruce. 

2 Thebes."] — According to Norden, ancient Thebes was 
probably in the place where Luxor and Carnac now 
stand. A better idea of the magnificence and extent of 
Thebes cannot perhaps be given than by the following 
lines translated from Homer : 

Not all proud Thebes' unrivall'd walls contain, 
The world's great empress on the Egyptian plain, 
That spreads her conquests o'er a thousand states, 
. And pours her heroes through a hundred gates ; 
Two hundred horsemen, and two hundred cars, 
From each wide portal issuing to the wars. — Pope. 

Diodorus Siculus and Strabo both speak in the most 
exalted terms of its opulence and power. " Never was 
there a city," observes the former of these writers, 
" which received so many offerings in silver, gold, ivory, 
colossal statues, and obelisks." There were in particular 
four temples greatly admired. Near this place stood the 
celebrated vocal statue of Memnon. Its eastern part 
only was called Diospolis, according to Pococke. This 
writer, without citing his authority, remarks, that in 
the opinion of some writers, Thebes was the Sheba of 
the scriptures ; and that the Greeks, having no .way of 
writing this word, altered it to Thebai. — T. 



sand eight hundred and sixty stadia, equivalent 
to eighty-one schseni. I have before observed, 
that the length of the Egyptian coast is three 
thousand six hundred stadia ; from the coast to 
Thebes is six thousand one hundred and twenty 
stadia ; from Thebes to Elephantine 3 eight 
hundred and twenty. 

X. The greater part of the country described 
above, as I was informed by the priests (and 
my own observation induced me to be of the 
same opinion) has been a gradual acquisition 4 
to the inhabitants. The country above Mem- 
phis, between the hills before mentioned, seems 
formerly to have been an arm of the sea, and is 
not unlike the region about Ilium, Teuthrania, 
Ephesus, and the plain of the Meander, if we 
may be allowed to compare small things with 
great. It must certainly be allowed that none 
of the streams which water the above coun- 
try may in depth or in magnitude compare with 
any one of the five arms of the Nile. I could 
mention other rivers, which, though inferior to 
the Nile, have produced many wonderful 
effects ; of these, the river Achelous 5 is by no 
means the least considerable. This flows 
through Acarnania, and, losing itself in the sea 
which washes the Echinades, 6 has connected 
one half of those islands with the continent. 



3 Elephantine] — is now called Ell-Sag. In this place 
was a temple of Chuphis, and a nilometer.— T. 

When Herodotus speaks of the length of Egypt, he 
reckons from the Sebennitic mouth. — Larcher. 

4 Acquisition.] — This remark of Herodotus is con- 
firmed by Arrian and by Pliny. — T. 

5 Achelous.] — This river, fromits violence and rapidity, 
was anciently called Thoas. Homer calls it the king of 
rivers. Its present name is Aspro Potamo. Hercules, 
by checking the inundations of this river by mounds, 
was said to have broken off one of his horns ; whence 
the cornucopia. — T. 

The sea and the continent may be considered as two 
great empires, whose places are fixed, but which some- 
times dispute the possession of some of the smaller adja- 
cent countries. Sometimes the sea is compelled to contract 
its limits by the mud and the sands which the rivers 
force along with them ; sometimes these limits are ex- 
tended by the action of the waters of the ocean. — Voy- 
age dujeune Anacharsis. 

6 Echinades.] — These islands, according to the old 
Greek historians, are so close upon the coast of Elis, that 
many of them had been joined to it by means of the 
Achelous, which still continues to connect them with 
the continent, by the rubbish which that river deposits 
at its mouth, as I have had an opportunity of observing. 
— Wood on Homer. 

The above note from Wood I have introduced princi- 
pally with the view of refuting Ms gross mistake. Ache- 
lous is a river of Acarnania, and the Echinades close to 
that coast, and distant from Elis a considerable space. 
No descent of earth from Achelous could possibly join 
them to any thing but the main land ; whereas Elis is in 
the Peloponnese.— T. 



EUTERPE. 



71 



XL In Arabia, at no great distance from 
Egypt, there is a long but narrow bay, diver- 
ging from the Red Sea, which I shall more 
minutely describe. Its extreme length, from 
the straits where it commences to where it 
communicates with the main, will employ a 
bark with oars a voyage of forty days, but its 
breadth in the widest parts may be sailed over 
in half a day. In this bay the tide daily ebbs 
and flows ; and I conceive that Egypt itself 
, was a gulf formerly of similar appearance, and 
that, issuing from the Northern Ocean, it ex- 
tended itself towards Ethiopia; in the same 
manner the Arabian one so described, rising 
in the south, flowed towards Syria ; and that 
the two were only separated from each other 
by a small neck of land. If the Nile should 
by any means have an issue into the Arabian 
gulf, in the course of twenty thousand years 
it might be totally choaked up with earth 
brought there by the passage of the river. I 
am of opinion, that this might take place even 
within ten thousand years : why then might not 
a gulf still greater than this be choaked up with 
mud in the space of time which has passed be- 
fore our age, by a stream so great and powerful 
as the Nile? 

X II. All therefore, that I heard from the na- 
tives concerning Egypt, was confirmed by my 
own observations. Iremarkedalso, that this coun- 
try gains upon the region which it joins; that 
shells 7 are found upon the mountains ; and that 

7 Shells.]— It is very certain that shells are found upon 
the mountains of Egypt, but this by no means proves the 
existence of the Egyptian gulf. Shells also are found 
upon mountains much higher than those of Egypt, in 
Europe, Asia, and America. This only proves that all 
those regions have in part been covered by the waters 
of the sea, some at one time and some at another. I say 
in part, because it is certain, from the observation of the 
most skilful naturalists, that the highest mountains have 
not been covered with water. These, in the times of 
such general inundations, appeared like so many islands. 
— Larcher. 

That the deluge was not universal, but to be understood 
as confined to the inhabitants of Palestine, was the opinion 
of many ancient writers, and in particular of Josephus, 
see his second book against Appion, where he speaks of 
Berosus. In confirmation of the above opinion of Jose- 
phus, I have somewhere seen the following verse from 
Genesis adduced. « And the dove came in unto him in the 
evening, and lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off. " 
Thus, it has been urged, could not possibly be a leaf of an 
olive-tree which, for so great a length of time had been im 
mersed in water, and probably buried under mud and 
other substances. It is more reasonable to suppose 
that it was gathered from some tree in the more elevated 
parts of Asia, to which the inundation of Noah had not 
extended. As to the circumstance of shells being fre 
quently found on the summits of mountains, many natur 



an acrid matter 8 exudes from the soil, which 
has proved injurious even to the pyramids ; a and 
that the only mountain in Egypt which pro- 
duces sand is the one situate above Memphis. 
Neither does Egypt possess the smallest re- 
semblance to Arabia, on which it borders, nor 
to Libya and Syria, for the sea-coast of Arabia 
is possessed by Syrians. It has a black and 
crumbling soil, composed of such substances as 
the river in its course brings down from Ethi- 
opia. The soil of Africa we know to be red 
and sandy ; and the earth, both of Arabia and 
Syria, is strong and mixed with clay. 

XII I. The information of the priests confirm- 
ed the account which I have already given of 
this country. In the reign of Mceris as soon 
as the river rose to eight cubits, all the lands 
above Memphis were overflowed ; since which a 
period.of about nine hundred years has elapsed : 
but at present, unless the river rises to sixteen,' 
or at least fifteen cubits, its waters do not reach 
those lands. If the ground should continue to 
elevate itself as it has hitherto done, by the 
river's receding from it, the Egyptians below 
the lake Moeris, and those who inhabit the Delta, 
will be reduced to the same perplexity which 
they themselves aflirm, menaces the Greeks. 
For as they understand that Greece is fertilized 



alists are of opinion that this may have been produced by 
earthquakes, to which cause also the deluge has by some 
been ascribed. Our countryman, Woodward, considers 
this fact of shells being found on mountains, as an incon- 
testible proof of a deluge ; but this opinion is contradic- 
ted by Linnaeus, in his System of Nature, who says, that 
no certain marks of a deluge are any where to be found ; 
his words are, " Cataclysmi universalis certa rudera ego 
nondum attigi, quousque penetravi." In return, we 
have recently been informed by Sir William Jones, that 
in the oldest mythological books of Indostan there is a 
description of the deluge, nearly corresponding with that 
of the scriptures. Non nostrum est tantas componere 
lites.—r. 

8 Acrid matter.]— In every part of Egypt, on digging, 
a brackish water is found, containing natrum, marine 
salt, and a little nitre. Even when the gardens are over- 
flowed for the sake of watering them, the surface of the 
ground, after the evaporation and absorption of the water, 
appears glazed over with salt— Volney. 

9 Injurious to the pyramids.]— Mi Norden informs us, 
that the stones of the great pyramid on the north side are 
rotten ; but he assigns for this phenomenon no cause. 

It appears from experiment, that the water of the Nile 
leaves a precipitation of nitre ; and all travellers, of all 
ages, make mention of the nitrous quality of the atmos- 
phere. To this cause Pococke and Savary agree in im- 
puting those diseases of the eyes, so common and so fatal 
in Egypt. Eight thousand blind people, according to this 
latter author, are decently maintained in the great mosque 
of Grand Cairo. It may seem a little remarkable, that 
of this quality and probable effect of the air, Herodotus 
should make no mention T. 

10 To sixteen.]— See remarks on chapter 3th.— T. 



72 



HERODOTUS. 



and refreshed by rain, and not by rivers like 
their own, they predict that the inhabitants, 
trusting to their usual supplies, will probably 
suffer 1 the miseries of famine ; meaning, that as 
they have no resource, and only such water as 
the clouds supply, they must inevitably perish 
if disappointed of rain at the proper seasons. 

XIV. Such being the not unreasonable pre- 
judice of the Egyptians with respect to Greece, 
let us inquire how they themselves are circum- 
stanced. If, as I before remarked, the country 
below Memphis, which is that where the water 
has receded, should progressively from the same 
cause continue to extend itself, the Egyptians 
who inhabit it, might have still juster apprehen- 
sions of suffering from famine. For in that 
case their lands, which are never fertilized by 
rain, 2 could not receive benefit from the over- 
flowings of the river. The people who possess 
that district, of all mankind, and even of all the 
Egyptians, enjoy the fruits of the earth with 
the smallest labour. They have no occasion 
for the process nor the instruments of agricul- 
ture usual and necessary in other countries. As 
soon as the river has spread itself over their 
lands, and returned to its bed, each man scat- 

1 Probably suffer. ,] — It follows, therefore, that the 
Egyptians had no knowledge of those seven years of 
famine which afflicted their country during the adminis- 
tration of Joseph. These however, were the more re- 
markable, as occasioning an entire change in the consti- 
tution of the state. The people at first gave their gold 
and their silver to the prince in exchange for corn : they 
afterwards resigned to him their flocks and their herds, 
and ultimately became his slaves. — Lurcher. 

2 By rain.] — In upper Egypt they have sometimes a 
little rain ; and I was told that in eight years it had been 
known to rain but twice very hard for about half an hour. 
— Pococke. 

Maillet quotes Pliny, as affirming there were no rains 
in Egypt ; he however affirms that he had seen it rain 
there several times. Pitts, an eye-witness, confirms 
Maillet's account of the rain of Egypt, assuring us that 
when he was at Cairo it rained to that degree, that hav- 
ing no kennels in the streets to carry off the water, it 
was ancle deep, and in some places half way up the leg. 
When the sacred writer therefore says (Zech. xiv. 11) 
that Egypt has no rain, he must be understood in a mol- 
lified sense. — Observations on Passages of Scripture. 

It rains but seldom in Egypt, the natural cause of which 
in the inland parts, is, I imagine, the dryness of the sands, 
which do not afford a sufficient moisture for forming 
clouds,and descending in rains. — Norden. 

Rain is more frequent m Alexandria and Rosetta, than 
at Cairo, and at Cairo than at Mineah, and is almost a 
prodigy at Djirdha. 

When rain falls in Egypt, there is a general joy amongst 
the people. They assemble together in the streets, they 
sing, are all in motion, and shout, Ya Allah, Ya Mobarek ! 
—Oh God, Oh Blessed.— Volney. 

The earth burnt up with the violent fervour, never 
refreshed with rain, which here falls rarely, and then 
only in the winter.— Sandys. 



ters the seed over his ground, and waits patiently 
for the harvest, without any other care than 
that of turning some swine 3 into the fields to 
tread down the grain. These are at the proper 
season again let loose to shake the corn from 
the ear, which is then gathered. 

XV. If we follow the tradition of the Ioni- 
ans, it will appear that all which may be pro- 
perly denominated Egypt is limited to the 
Delta. This region, from the watch-tower 
erected by Perseus, extends along the coast to 
the salt- pits of Pelusium, to the length of forty 
schaeni. From the coast inland it stretches to 
the city of Cercasora, 4 where the Nile divides 
itself into two branches, one of which is termed 
Pelusium, the other Canopus. Of the rest of 
Egypt, they affirm that part of it belongs to 
Libya, and part to Arabia, which if it be true 
we shall be obliged to conclude that formerly 
the Egyptians had no country at all. The 
Delta, as they assert themselves, and as I my- 
self was convinced by observation, is still liable 
to be overflowed, and was formerly covered 
with water. 5 Under these circumstances, their 

3 Swine.]— Plutarch, Eudoxus, and Pliny relate the 
same fact. Valcnaer does not hesitate to consider it a 
fable invented by Herodotus ; and the sagacious Wessel- 
ing seems to be of the same opinion, though he has not 
rejected the expression. Gale, not thinking swine adap- 
ted to tread down the grain, has substituted oxen, be- 
cause in Hesychius and Phavorinus, the word us seems 
to signify an ox. They are at present made use of in 
some of our provinces, to find out trouffles, with a kind 
of muzzle to prevent their devouring them. My own 
opinion on this matter is, that Herodotus is mistaken 
only with regard to the time when they were admitted 
into the fields. It was probably before the corn was 
sown, that they might eat the roots of the aquatic plants, 
which might prove of injury to the grain.— See Diodorus 
Siculus. 

It has been objected, that the Egyptians considered 
swine as unclean animals, and that therefore probably 
they had not a sufficient number of them for the purposes 
here specified. To this I reply, that as they sacrificed 
them at the time of every full Moon and to Bacchus, 
they had probably a great abundance of these animals. 
— Larcher. 

I dare assert, by what I have seen, that there is scarce 
a country where the land has greater need of culture, 
than in Egypt. I must own that in the Delta, which is 
more frequented and more cultivated, the mechanical 
contrivances are more plain and simple than what you 
will find higher up in the country. — Norden. 

They spread out the corn when reaped, and an ox 
draws a machine about on it, which, together with the 
treading of the ox, separates the grain from the straw, 
and cuts the straw. — Pococke. 

4 Cercasora. ]— Concerning the etymology of this place, 
consult Bryant, vol. i. 357.— T. 

5 Covered with water.] — Diodorus Siculus is also of 
opinion that Egypt, formerlywas one extended sea, and 
that the land was formed by the mud brought down from 
Ethiopia by the Nile.— T. 



EUTERPE. 



73 



curiosity to examine whether they were the 
most ancient of the human race" must seem 
preposterous, and their experiment of the two 
children to discover what language they should 
first speak, was absurd and unnecessary. For 
my own part I am of opinion, that the Egypti- 
ans did not commence their origin with the 
Delta, but from the first existence of the human 
race. That as their country became more ex- 
tensive, some remained in their primitive places 
of residence, whilst others migrated to a lower 
situation. Hence it was that Thebes, com- 
prising a tract of land which is six thousand 
one hundred and twenty stadia in circumfer- 
ence, went formerly under the name of Egypt. 

XVI. If our opinion concerning Egypt be 
true, that of the Ionians must certainly be 
wrong ; if on the contrary the Ionians are right 
in their conjecture, it will not be difficult to 
prove the Greeks, not excepting the Ionians, 
mistaken in their account of the earth ; of which 
they affirm that Europe, Asia, and Libya con- 
stitute the proper division; but if the Delta 
belong neither to Asia nor Africa, it makes by 
itself necessarily a fourth and distinct portion 
of the globe ; for, according to the above mode of 
reasoning; the Nile cannot completely form the 
division between Asia and Africa : at the ex- 
tremity of the Delta it is separated into two 
branches, and the country lying between, can- 
not properly belong either to Asia or Africa. 

XVII. Avoiding further comment upon the 
sentiments of the Ionians, I myself am of opin- 
ion, that all the tract of country inhabited by 
Egyptians is properly called Egypt, as the 
countries inhabited by the Cilicians and As- 
syrians are respectively denominated Cilicia 
and Assyria. And I must think that the land 
of Egypt alone constitutes the natural and pro- 
per limits of Asia and Africa. If we adhere 
to the opinion received amongst the Greeks, 
we are to consider the whole of Egypt com- 
mencing from the cataract, and the City Ele- 
phantine as divided into two parts, with dis- 
tinct appellations, the one belonging to Libya, 
the other to Asia ; the Nile, beginning at the 
cataract, flows through the centre of Egypt, and 
empties itself into the sea. As far as the city 

6 Ancient of the human race.~\ — Diodorus Siculus in- 
forms us, that the Ethiopians consider the Egyptians as 
one of their colonies, at the head of which was Osiris. 
He observes also in another place, that the inhabitants of 
the Thebaid consider themselves as the most ancient of 
mankind. This liistorian, doubtless, has a view to the 
traditions of the two people, without giving u? his own 
opinion. — Larcher. 



Cercasora it proceeds in one undivided chan- 
nel, but it there separates itself into three bran- 
ches ;' that which directs itself towards the east 
is called the Pelusian mouth, the Canopic in- 
clines to the west ; the third in one continued 
line meets the point of the Delta, which divid- 
ing in two, it finally pours itself into the sea ; 
this arm is equally celebrated, and not inferior 
in the depth of its waters, it is called the Se- 
bennitic mouth, and this again divides itself in- 
to two branches ; one is called the Saitic, and 
one the Mendesian channel ; both empty them- 
selves into the sea. There are two other 
mouths, the Bolbitinian and the Bucolic ; these 
are not produced by nature, but by art. 

XVIII. My opinion concerning the extent 
of Egypt, receives farther confirmation from 
the oracle of Ammon, of which however I had 
no knowledge, till my mind was already satisfi- 
ed on the subject. The people of Marea and 
Apis, who inhabit the borders of Libya, think- 
ing themselves to be not Egyptians but Libyans, 
both of them disliked the religious ceremonies 
of the country, and that particular restriction 
which did not permit them to kill heifers for 
food : they sent therefore with this impression 
to Ammon, declaring that they had no connec- 



7 TJiree branches.] — This river, whose source has not 
yet been explored, comes by one single channel from 
Ethiopia to the point of the Delta ; arrived here it sep- 
arates itself into three principal branches : of these one 
takes a direction towards the east, and is called the 
Pelusian channel : a second proceeds northward, and is 
called the Sebennitic branch; the third flows towards 
the west, and takes the name of the Canopic branch. The 
Sebennitic arm is divided into two others, the Saitic and 
and the Mendesian : the Saitic is between the Bolbitine, 
which is an artificial branch, and the Sebennitic. The 
Bucolic also is the production of the inhabitants, and 
flows betwixt the Sebennitic, from which it proceeds, 
and the Mendesian. Thus the seven branches of the 
Nile, from east to west, are the Pelusian, the Mendesian, 
the Bubolic, the Sebennitic, the Saitic, the Bolbitine, and 
the Canopic. — Such is the account of Herodotus. — Lar- 
cher. 

The different appearances which the Nile exhibits in 
its course is beautifully described by Lucan, and is thus 
not unskilfully translated by Rowe : 

Who that beholds thee, Nile, thus gently flew, 
With scarce a wrinkle on thy glassy brow, 
Can guess thy rage when rocks resist thy force 
And hurl thee headlong in thy downward course; 
When sporting cataracts thy torrent pour, 
And nations tremble at the deaf ning roar; 
When thy proud waves with indignation rise, 
And dash their foamy fury to the skies ? 
The Arabian account of the Nile and its different divi- 
sions, may be foimd in the Bibliotheque Orientale of 
Herbelot, which, the curious reader will do well to com- 
pare with the^description given by Herodotus, and that 
of modern travellers, particularly of Pococke, Norden, 
Volney, and Savary. — T. j^ 



74 



HERODOTUS. 



tion with the Egyptians ; for they lived beyond 
the Delta, had their opinions and prejudices as 
distinct as possible, and wished to have no 
restriction in the article of food. The deity 
signified his disapprobation of their conduct, 
and intimated that every part of that region 
which was watered by the Nile, was strictly to 
be denominated Egypt, and that all who dwelt 
below Elephantine, and drank of this stream, 1 
were Egyptians. 

XIX. In its more extensive inundations, the 
Nile does not overflow the Delta only, but part 
of that territory which is called Libyan, and 
sometimes the Arabian frontier, and extends 
about the space of two days' journey on each 
side, speaking on an average. Of the nature of 
this river 8 I could obtain no certain information, 
from the priests or from others. It was never- 
theless my particular desire to know why the 
Nile, beginning at the summer solstice, * con- 
tinues gradually to rise for the space of a hun- 
dred days, after which for the same space it 
as gradually recedes, remaining throughout the 
winter, and till the return of the summer sol- 
stice, in its former low and quiescent state : but 
all my inquiries of the inhabitants proved inef- 
fectual, and I was unable to learn why the Nile 
was thus distinguished in its properties from 
other streams. I was equally unsuccessful in 
my wishes to be informed why this river alone, 
wafted no breeze 4 from its surface. 

XX. From a desire of gaining a reputation 



1 Drank of this stream.'] — The ancients, says Strabo, 
confined the appellation of Egypt to the inhabited coun- 
try watered by the Nile, from the environs of Syene to 
the sea.— T. 

2 Tliis river. ] — That the Nile was considered by the 
natives as a tutelar deity, appears from the following 
passages of Tibullus and of Statius. 

Nile pater, quanam possum te dicere causa 

Aut quibus in terris acculuisse caput ? 
Te propter, initios tellus tua postulat imbrei 

Arida nee pluris supplicat herba Jovi, 
Te canit atque suum pubes miratur Osirin 
Barbara, Memphitem plangere docta bovem. 

Tibullus. 
See also Statius, Theb. 4. 

Tu nunc vends pluvioque rogaris 

Pro Jove. T. 

3 Summer solstice.] — The inundation commences regu- 
larly about the month of July, or three weeks after the 
rains have begun to fall in Ethiopia.— Larchej: 

The Nile is not the only river which increases its 
waters in the summer season ; it has this property in 
common with many others, both of Africa and India. — 
Lurcher. 

4 No breeze.] — What I have rendered no breeze, Mr 
Bruce translates no fogs. The Greek word is a.vga.i ; 
and Diodorus Siculus, 1. i. c. 38, page 46, says the same 
thing, adding likewise, that it does not emit fogs. I 
should rather suppose therefore, that Mr Bruce is mis- 



for sagacity, this subject has employed the at- 
tention of many among the Greeks. There 
have been three different modes 6 of explaining 
it, two of which merit no farther attention than 
barely to be mentioned ; one of them affirms the 
increase of the Nile to be owing to the Etesian 
winds, which by blowing in an opposite direc- 
tion, impede the river's entrance to the sea. 
But it has often happened that no winds have 
blown from this quarter, and the phenomenon 
of the Nile has still been the same. It may 
also be remarked, that were this the real cause, 
the same events would happen to other rivers, 
whose currents are opposed to the Etesian 
winds, 6 which, indeed, as having a less body of 
waters, and a weaker current, would be capable 
of still less resistance : but there are many 
streams, both in Syria and Africa, none of 
which exhibit the same appearances with the 
Nile. 

XXI. The second opinion 7 is still less agree- 
able to reason, though more calculated to excite 
wonder. This affirms, that the Nile has these 
qualities, as flowing from the ocean, which en- 
tirely surrounds the earth. 

XXII. The third opinion, though more 



taken in his reference, and intended to quote Diodorus 
and not Herodotus. 

5 Three, different modes.] — Diodorus Siculus allow3 
only two of these hypotheses to be Grecian ; the one by 
Thales, the other by Anaxagoras ; the third, concerning 
the ocean, he makes of Egyptian extraction amongst the 
priests. — Norden. 

b' Etesian winds.] — Of these winds the following ac- 
count is given by Pliny. — In the hottest part of the sum- 
mer the dog-star rises ; this is usually the fifteenth day- 
preceding the calends of August, when the sun enters 
Leo. About eight days before this star rises, the north- 
east winds rise, which the Greeks call Prodromi, (fore- 
runners :) about two days afterwards these winds in- 
crease in force, and continue for the space of forty days ; 
these are called the Etesian winds. — T. 

The most satisfactory explanation of the inundation 
of the Nile is given by Pococke. " It must be supposed,'' 
he observes, " that the north winds are the cause of its 
overflow, which begin to blow about the latter end of 
May, and drive the clouds formed by the vapours of the 
Mediterranean southward, as far as the mountains of 
Ethiopia, which stopping their course, they condense and 
fall down in violent rains. It is said, that at this time not 
only men from their reason, but the wild beasts by a sort 
of instinct, leave the mountains. The wind, which is the 
cause of the rise of the Nile, driving the clouds against 
those hills, is also the cause of it in another respect, as it 
drives in the water from the sea, and keeps back the 
waters of the river, in such a manner as to raise the wa- 
ters above." For further particulars on this curious 
subject, see Pococke. — T. 

7 The second opinion.]-' This second was the opinion 
of Euthymenes of Marseilles. According to Diodorus 
Siculus it was the prevailing sentiment of the Egyptian 
priests. — T. 



EUTERPE. 



75 



plausible in appearance, is still more false in 
reality. It simply intimates that the body of 
the Nile is formed from the dissolution of snow, 
which coming from Libya through the regions 
of Ethiopia discharges itself upon Egypt. But 
how can this river descending from a very 
warm, to a much colder climate, be possibly 
composed of melted snow ? There are many 
other reasons concurring to satisfy any person 
of good understanding, that this opinion is con- 
trary to fact. The first and the strongest ar- 
gument may be drawn from the winds, which 
are in these regions invariably hot : it may also 
be observed, that rain and ice are here entirely 
unknown. 8 Now if in five days 9 after a fall 
of snow it must necessarily rain, which is in- 
disputably the case, it follows, that if there 
were snow in those countries, there would cer- 
tainly be rain. The third proof is taken from 
the colour of the natives, who from excessive 
heat are universally black ; moreover, the kites 
and the swallows are never known to migrate ly 
from this country : the cranes also, flying from 
the severity of a Scythian winter, pass that cold 
season here. If therefore it snowed although 
but little in those places through which the Nile 
passes, or in those where it takes its rise, reason 
demonstrates that none of the above-mentioned 
circumstances could possibly happen. 

XXIII. The argument which attributes to 
the ocean ,l these phenomena of the Nile, seems 

8 Rain and ice are here entirely unknown.] — Nonnus 
reports, in the history of his embassy, that during the 
period when the Nile inundates Egypt, there are very 
violent storms in the different parts of Ethiopia. The at- 
mosphere is exceedingly cloudy, and the rains fall in such 
torrents as to inundate the country. 

The Portuguese missionaries inform us, that from June 
to September there does not pass a day in Abyssinia 
without rain, and that the Nile receives all the rivers, 
streams, and torrents, which fall from the mountains.— 
Larcher. 

9 If in five days.]— Herodotus had probably remarked, 
that at Halicarnassus or at Thurium, where he Hved, 
snow was in the space of a few days succeeded by rain. — 
Wesseling. 

10 Never known to migrate.] — The kites and swallows 
of those regions through which the Nile flows, continue 
there throughout the year without injury"; differing in 
this respect from those of our climate, it may be reason- 
ably concluded that those regions are of a warm temper- 
ature. — Reiske. 

11 Ocean.]— Larcher refers to the circumstance of 
Homer's mentioning the rising and setting of the sun in 
the ocean, as a proof of his excelling Herodotus in the 
science of geography. Wood is of a very different opin- 
ion : " Upon farther consideration," says Mr Wood, " I 
was induced to think that Homer's account of the ocean, 
upon which so much of liis geographical science is found- 
ed, will, if rightly understood, rather convince us of his 
ignorance on that head, and that the ocean in his time 



rather to partake of fable, than of truth or sense. 
For my own part, I know no nver of the name 
of Oceanus ; and I am inclined to believe that 
Homer, or some other poet of former times, 
first invented and afterwards introduced it in his 
compositions. 

XXIV. But as I have mentioned the pre- 
ceding opinions only to censure and confute 
them, I may be expected perhaps to give my 
own sentiments on this intricate subject — It is 
my opinion that the Nile overflows u in the 
summer season, because in the winter the sun, 
driven by the storms from his usual course, 
ascends into the higher regions of the air above 
Libya. My reason may be explained without 
difficulty ; for it may be easily supposed, that 
to whatever region this power more nearly ap- 
proaches, the rivers and streams of that coun- 
try will be proportionably dried up and dimi- 
nished. 

XXV. If I were to go more at length into 
the argument, I should say that the whole is 
occasioned by the sun's passage through the 
higher parts of Libya. For as the air is in- 
variably serene, and the heat always tempered 

had a very different meaning from that which it now 
conveys ; nor am I surprised that so much later Herodo- 
tus should treat this idea of an ocean where the sun rises, 
as a poetical fiction. See Wood farther on this subject, 
p. 48, 50, &c— T. 

12 Nile overflows.] — This explanation of the overflow- 
ing of the Nile in the summer, which seemed probable 
to Herodotus, is not only obscure but absurd, not to say 
false. This is sufficiently proved by Aristides, in his 
oration on the causes of the increase of the Nile.— 
Reiske. 

This hypothesis of Herodotus is completely refuted by 
Diodorus Siculus, Book ii. 19, 20, 2k— T. 

The hypothesis of Mr Bruce to solve tliis phenome- 
non of the Nile's inundation is too long to insert in this 
place. I therefore refer the reader to vol. iii. chapter 16, 
of his work. 

I insert from the same writer, the different names by 
which the Nile has been, or is now distinguished. 

Among the Agow, a barbarous and idolatrous nation, 
it is called Gzeir, Geesa, Seir ; the first of which words 
signifies God; it is also called Abba, father. In Gojam, 
it is called Abay ; by the Gongas on the south of the 
mountains Dyne and Togla, who are Indigenae, it is 
called Dahli. To the north of this mountain, its name 
is Kowass, both which last names signify a watching dog, 
the latrator anubis, the dog star. In the plain country 
betwixt Vazuclo and Senaar, it is called Nil, which sig- 
nifies blue. The Arabs interpret it by the word Azergue. 
The next name by which it went was Siris. Pliuy says it 
was called Siris both before and after it came into Beja. The 
name it obtains in Homer is Egyptus, which Mr Bruce 
apprehends was a very ancient name given it in Ethiopia. 
The Nile is also called Krpnides, Jupiter ; as also several 
other names, which are rather epithets of poets, than the 
permanent appellation of the river. Some of the fathers 
of the church have called it Geon. — Bruce, vol iii, page 
655. 



76 



HERODOTUS. 



by cooling breezes, the sun acts there as it does 
in the summer season, when his place is in the 
centre of the heavens. The solar rays absorb 
the aqueous particles, which their influence 
forcibly elevates into the higher regions ; here 
they are received, separated, and dispersed by the 
winds. And it may be observed, that the south 
and south-west, which are the most common 
winds in this quarter, are of all others most 
frequently attended with rain : it does not, 
however, appear to me, that the sun remits all 
the water which he every year absorbs from the 
Nile, some is probably withheld. As winter 
disappears he returns to the middle place of 
the heavens, and again by evaporation draws to 
him the waters of the rivers, all of which are 
then found considerably increased by the rains, 
and rising to their extreme heights. But in 
summer, from the want of rain, and from the 
attractive power of the sun, they are again re- 
duced : but the Nile is differently circumstanced, 
it never has the benefit of rains, whilst it is 
constantly acted upon by the sun ; a sufficient 
reason why it should in the winter season be 
proportionably lower than in summer. In 
winter the Nile alone ] is diminished by the 
influence of the sun, which in summer attracts 
the water of the rivers indiscriminately ; I im- 
pute therefore to the sun the remarkable pro- 
perties of the Nile. 

XXVI. To the same cause is to be ascribed, 
as I suppose, the state of the air in that country, 
which from the- effect of the sun is always 
extremely rarified, so that in the higher parts of 
Africa there prevails an eternal summer. If 
it were possible to produce a change in the 
seasons, and to place the regions of the north 
in those of the south, and those of the south 
in the north, the sun, driven from his place by 
the storms of the north, would doubtless affect 
the higher parts of Europe, as it now does 
those of Libya. It would also, I imagine, then 
act upon the waters of the Ister, as it now 
does on those of the Nile. 

XXVII. That no breeze a blows from the 

1 Nile alone.] — If the sun attracted moisture from the 
Nile during the whiter season, it would do the same 
with respect to the other rivers of Libya, and in like 
manner diminish the force of their currents. As tins is 
not the fact, the reasoning of this author falls to the 
ground. The rivers of Greece are increased during the 
winter, not on account of their distance from the sun, but 
from the frequency of the rains. — Diodorus Siculus. 

2 No breeze.] — An immense body of water, from 
which no breeze is exhaled, naturally excites an idea of 
pestilence and putridity. The waters of the Nile, on the 
contrary, are not only wholesome but extremely deli- 
rious. Maillet informs us, that the Egyptians are so fond 



surface of the river, may I think be thus ac- 
counted for : Where the air is in a very warm 
and rarefied state, wind can hardly be expected, 
this generally rising in places which are cold. 
Upon this subject I shall attempt no further 
illustration, but leave it in the state in which 
it has so long remained. 

XXVIII. In all my intercourse with Egyp- 
tians, Libyans, and Greeks, I have only met 
with one person who pretended to have any 
knowledge of the sources of the Nile. a This 
was the priest who had the care of the sacred 
treasures in the temple of Minerva, at Sais. 
He assured me, that on this subject he possess- 
ed the most unquestionable intelligence, though 
his assertions never obtained my serious confi- 
dence. He informed me, that betwixt Syene, 
a city of the Thebais, and Elephantine, there 
were two mountains, respectively terminating 
in an acute summit : the name of the one was 
Crophi, of the other Mophi. He affirmed, 
that the sources of the Nile, which were foun- 
tains of unfathomable depth, flowed from the 
centres of these mountains ; that one of these 
streams divided Egypt, and directed its course 
to the north ; the other in like manner flowed 
towards the south, through Ethiopia. To con- 
firm his assertion, that those springs were un- 
fathomable, he told me, that Psammitichus, 
sovereign of the country, had ascertained it by 
experiment ; he let down a rope of the length 
of several thousand orgyiae, but could find no 
bottom. This was the priest's information, 
on the truth of which 4 I presume not to deter- 
mine. If such an experiment was really made, 
there might perhaps in these springs be certain 

of it, that they endeavour to procure an artificial thirst 
in order to drink the more of it. Of this acknowledged 
excellence of the waters of the Nile, Mr Harmer avails 
himself to explain a passage in Exodus : " The Egyp- 
tians shall loathe to drink of the water of the river:" — 
that is, they shall loathe to drink of the water of which 
they were formerly so fond. This may to some perhaps 
appear forced, but it is certainly ingenious. — T. 

3 Sources of the Nile.]— Much as has been written on 
the subject of the sources of the Nile, it is still involved 
in obscurity and darkness. The world are taught to 
expect some illustrations on this head from the promised 
publication of Mr Bruce, who penetrated into the in- 
terior parts of Abyssinia ; and much may be reasonably 
hoped from the spirit and liberality which has induced 
some individuals amongst us to patronise an expedition 
to Africa, of which an investigation of the sources of 
the Nile is one avowed object. — T. 

4 On the truth of which.] — Herodotus could not have 
told us more explicitly that he disbelieved the whole of 
this narrative. On this occasion Strabo speaks con- 
temptuously of Herodotus, as a retailer of fables. But 
the geographer had not always so had an opinion of him, 
for he frequently copies him without acknowledging it. 
— Larcher. 



EUTERPE. 



77 



vortices, occasioned by the reverberation of 
the water from the mountains, of force suffi- 
cient to buoy up the sounding- line, and prevent 
its reaching the bottom. 

XXIX. Any other intelligence than the 
above I was not able to procure, though I so 
far carried my inquiry, that, with a view of 
making observation, I proceeded myself to 
Elephantine : of the parts which lie beyond 
that city I can only speak from the information 
of others. Beyond Elephantine this country 
becomes rugged ; in advancing up the stream it 
will be necessary to hale the vessel on each 
side by a rope, such as is used for oxen. If 
this should give way, the impetuosity of the 
stream forces the vessel violently back again. 
To this place from Elephantine is a four days' 
voyage ; and here, like the Meander, the Nile 
becomes winding, and for the space of twelve 
schaeni there is no mode of proceeding but that 
above-mentioned. Afterwards you come to a 
wide and spacious plain, and meet an island 
which stands in the centre of the river, and is 
called Tachompso. The higher part beyond 
Elephantine is possessed by the Ethiopians, 
who also inhabit half of this island, the other 
half belongs to the Egyptians. In the vicinity 
of the island is an extensive lake, near which 
some Ethiopian shepherds reside ; passing 
over this, you again enter into a channel of 
the Nile, which flows into the above lake. 
Beyond this 5 it is necessary, for the space of 
about forty days, to travel on the banks of the 
river, which is here so impeded with rocks, 
as to render the passage in a vessel impossible. 
At the end of these forty days the traveller 
enters a second vessel, and after a voyage of 
twelve days will arrive at Meroe, 6 a very con- 
siderable town, and as some say the capital of 
the rest of Ethiopia. The inhabitants pay 
divine honours to Jupiter and Bacchus 7 only, 



5 Beyond this, Sfc.} — This passage is mentioned by 
Longinus in terras of admiration.— T. 

The above is also imitated by Lucian, in his essay on 
Writing True History— Having passed thpse islands, 
you will come to a great continent, Scc.—Larcher. 

6 Meroe.} — The Jesuit fathers, who resided long in 
that country, were of opinion that the kingdom of Go- 
jam in Abyssinia was the ancient Meroe ; this is disputed 
by Ludolf, and positively denied by Vossius. Father Lo- 
bo, in discussing this subject, enumerates the different 
opinions, and concludes with saying, that the ancients 
knew sj very little of that part of Ethiopia, and have 
spoken so variously and so confusedly about Meroe, that 
as much may be said in favour of its being the modern 
kingdom of Gojara, as against it. — T. 

Where the shadow both ways falls, 

IUeroe, Nilotic Isle Milton. 

7 Jupiter and Bacch «*.]— Strabo, in describing the 



but these they worship with the extremest 
veneration. At this place is an oracle of Jupi- 
ter, whose declarations, with the most implicit 
obedience, they permit to regulate all their 
martial expeditions. 

XXX. Leaving this city at about the same 
distance as from hence to Elephantine, your 
bark will arrive at the country of the Automoli, 
who are also known by the name of Asmach. 
This word translated into our language, signi- 
fies those who stand on the left hand of the 
sovereign. This people, to the amount of two 
hundred and forty thousand individuals, were 
formerly Egyptian warriors, and migrated to 
these parts of Ethiopia on the following occa- 
sion : in the reign of Psammitichus they were 
by his command stationed in different places ; 
some were appointed for the defence of Ele- 
phantine against the Ethiopians, some at the 
Pelusian Daphne, others were detached to 
prevent the incursions of the Arabians and 
Assyrians ; and to awe Libya there was a 
garrison also at Marea : at this present period 
the military stations are regulated by the Per- 
sians, as they were under king Psammitichus ; 
for there are Persian garrisons now stationed at 
Elephantine and Daphne. When these Egyp- 
tians had remained for the space of three years 
in the above situation, without being relieved, 
they determined by general consent to revolt 
from Psammitichus 8 to the Ethiopians ; on 
intelligence of which event they were imme- 
diately followed by Psammitichus, who, on his 
coming up with them, solemnly adjured them 
not to desert the gods of their country, their 
wives and their children. One of them is said 
indecently to have produced the mark of his 
sex, and to have replied, that wherever they 
carried that, they should doubtless obtain both 
wives and children. On their arrival in Ethi- 
opia, the Automoli 9 devoted themselves to the 

manners of the Ethiopians, makes no mention of either 
Jupiter or Bacchus. Every thing, therefore, must have 
been changed from the age of Herodotus to that of Stra- 
bo, or these two authors must have received very differ- 
ent impressions with respect to the two countries. — 
Larcher. 

8 Revolt from Psammitichus.'} — Diodorus Siculus as- 
signs a very different reason for the revolt of these 
Egyptians. " Psammitichus," says that historian, " hav- 

j ing meditated an expedition against Syria, gave the 
place of honour in his army to strangers, and discovered 
on all occasions a preference to them, to the prejudice of 
his natural subjects." A predilection of a similar nature 
was the cause of those repeated and formidable re- 
volts, which so essentially disturbed the repose of 
Charles the Fifth, on his first accession to the Spanish 
throne.— T. 

9 Automoli.}— Automoliis Greek, and means deserters. 



78 



HERODOTUS. 



service of the monarch, who in recompense for 
their conduct assigned them a certain district 
of Ethiopia possessed by a people in rebellion 
against him, whom he ordered them to expel 
for that purpose. After the establishment of 
the Egyptians among them, the tincture which 
they imbibed of Egyptian manners had a very 
sensible effect in civilizing the Ethiopians. 

XXXI. Thus, without computing that part 
of it which flows through Egypt, the course of 
the Nile is known to the extent of four 
months' journey, partly by land and partly by 
water ; for it will be found on experience, that 
no one can go in a less time from Elephantine 
to the Automoli. It is certain that the Nile 
rises in the west, but beyond the Automoli all 
is uncertainty, this part of the country being, 

# from the excessive heat, a rude and uncultivated 
desert. 

XXXII. It may not be improper to relate 
an account which I received from certain Cy- 
renseans : on an expedition which they made to 
the oracle of Ammon, they said they had an 
opportunity of conversing with Etearchus, the 
sovereign of the country : among other topics 
the Nile was mentioned, and it was observed, 
that the particulars of its source were hitherto 
entirely unknown ; Etearchus informed them, 
that some Nassamonians once visited his 
court ; (these are a people of Africa who in- 
habit the Syrtes, and a tract of land which from 
thence extends towards the east) on his making 
inquiry of them concerning the deserts of 
Africa, they related the following incident: 
some young men, who were sons of persons of 
distinction, had on their coming to man's estate 
signalized-themselves by some extravagance of 
conduct. Among other things, they deputed 
by lot five of their companions to explore the 
solitudes of Africa, and to endeavour at extend- 
ing their discoveries beyond all preceding ad- 
venturers. All that part of Libya towards the 
Northern Ocean, from Egypt to the promon- 
tory of Soloeis, which terminates the third 
division of the globe, is inhabited by the 
different nations of the Libyans, that district 
alone excepted in possession of the Greeks 
and Phoenicians. The remoter parts of Libya 
beyond the sea-coast, and the people who in- 
habit its borders, are infested by various beasts 
of prey; the country yet more distant is a 
parched and immeasurable desert. The young 
men left their companions, well provided with 
water and with food, and first proceeded 
through the region which was inhabited ; they 



next came to that which was infested by wild 
beasts, leaving which, they directed their course 
westward through the desert. After a journey 
of many days, over a barren and sandy soil, 
they at length discerned some trees growing in 
a plain ; these they approached, and seeing 
fruit upon them, they gathered it. Whilst 
they were thus employed, some men of dwarf- 
ish stature 1 came where they were, seized their 
persons, and carried them away. They were 
mutually ignorant of each other's language, but 
the Nassamonians were conducted over many 
marshy grounds to a city, in which all the inha- 
bitants were of the same diminutive appear- 
ance, and of a black colour. This city was 
washed by a great river, which flowed from 
west to east, and abounded in crocodiles. 

XXXIII. Such was the conversation of 
Etearchus, as related to me ; he added, as the 
Cyrenaeans farther told me, that the Nassamo- 
nians returned to their own country, arid re- 
ported the men whom they had met to be all 
of them magicians. The river which washed 
their city, according to the conjecture of Ete- 
archus, which probability confirms, was the 
Nile. The Nile certainly rises in Libya, 
which it divides ; and if it be allowable to 
draw conclusions from things which are well 
known, concerning those which are uncertain 
and obscure, it takes a similar course with the 
Ister. 2 This river, commencing at the city of 



1 Dwarfish stature.']— The pigmies are as old as Ho- 
mer. They were not confined to Ethiopia, they were 
believed to exist also in India. Homer thus mentions 
them : * 

So when inclement winters vex the plain, 
With piercing frosts, or thick descending rain, 
To warmer seas the cranes embodied fly, 
With noise and order through the midway sky ; 
To pigmy nations wounds and death they bring, 
And all the war descends upon the wing Pope. 

Mention also is made of them by Pliny and Strabo. Pom- 
ponius Mela places them in a certain part of Arabia. P. 
Jovius says they are found in the extremities of the nor- 
thern regions. The circumstance of their hostilities with 
the cranes is mentioned by Oppian, in his first book of 
Halieuticsj by Juvenal, sat. 13 j by Ovid, Fast, book vi. 
Mr Gibbon properly enough treats the whole as a con- 
temptible fable. — T. 

2 The Ister.] — A description of this river cannot possi- 
bly be given better than in the words of Mr Gibbon. — 
" The European provinces of Rome were protected by 
the course of the Rhine and the Danube. The latter of 
those mighty streams, which rises at the distance of only 
thirty miles from the former, flows above thirteen hun- 
dred miles, for the most part to the south-east, collects 
the tribute of sixty navigable rivers, and is at length, 
through six mouths, received into the Euxine, which 
appears scarcely equal to such an accession of waters." 



EUTERPE. 



79 



Pyrene, 3 among the Celtre, flows through the 
centre of Europe. 4 These Celtse are found 
beyond the Columns of Hercules ; 5 they border 
on the Cynesians, the most remote of all the 
nations who inhabit the western parts of Eu- 
rope. At that point which is possessed by the 
Istrians, a Milesian colony, the Ister empties 
itself into the Euxine. 

XXXIV. The sources of the Ister, as it 
passes through countries well inhabited, are 
sufficiently notorious ; but of the fountains of 
the Nile, washing as it does the rude and unin- 
habitable deserts of Libya, no one can speak 
with precision. All the knowledge which I 
have been able to procure from the most dili- 
gent and extensive inquiries, I have before 
communicated. Through Egypt it directs its 
course towards the sea. Opposite to Egypt 
are the mountains of Cilicia, from whence to 
Sinope, on the Euxine, a good traveller may 
pass in five days : on the side immediately op- 
posite to Sinope, the Ister is poured into the 
sea. Thus the Nile, as it traverses Africa, 
may properly enough be compared to the Ister. 
But on this subject I have said all that I think 
necessary. 

XXXV. Concerning Egypt itself I shall 
speak more at large ; it claims our admiration 
beyond all other countries, and the wonderful 
things 6 which it exhibits demand a very copious 

description The Egyptians, born under a 

climate to which no other can be compared, 
possessing a river different in its nature and 
properties from all the rivers in the world, are 
themselves distinguished from the rest of man- 
kind by the singularity of their institutions and 
their manners. In this country the women 



3 Pyrene.]— Many critics have supposed that Herodo- 
tus here intended to speak of the Pyrenean mountains ; 
but this opinion cannot possibly be supported by any 
plausible reasoning. — T. 

4 Centre of Europe.]— This is not quite true. He 
means the same as when he observes, a little before, that 
the Nile divides Libya in the midst. But this mistake 
will not justify our following the example of Bouhier, 
who accuses Herodotus of confounding the Nile with the 
Niger. — Larcher. 

5 Columns of Hercules.]— Africa is divided from Spain 
by a narrow strait of about twelve miles, through which 
the Atlantic flows into the Mediterranean. The Columns 
of Hercules, so famous among the ancients, were two 
mountains which seemed to have been torn asunder by 
some convulsion of the elements ; and at the foot of the 
European mountain Gibraltar is now situated. — Gibbon. 

6 Wonderful things.] — The Egyptian nation might 
well abound in prodigies, when even their country and 
soil itself was a kind of prodigy in'nature.— Lord Shaftes- 
bury. 



leave to the men 7 the management of the loom 
in the retirement of the house, whilst they them- 
selves are engaged abroad in the business of 
commerce. 8 Other nations in weaving shoot 
the woof above, the Egyptians beneath : here 
the men carry burdens on their heads, women 
on their shoulders ; women stand erect to make 
water, the men stoop. The offices of nature" 
are performed at home, but they eat their meals 
publicly in the streets. In vindication of this 
they assert, that those things which though ne- 
cessary are unseemly, are best done in private ; 
but whatever has no shame attached to it, should 
be done openly. The office of the priesthood 
is in every instance confined to the men ; there 
are no priestesses in Egypt, in the service 
either of male or female deities ; the men are 
under no obligation 10 to support their parents 
if unwilling to do so, but the women are. 

7 The women leave to the men, $c] — This custom was 
contradictory to the manners of Greece. 

The employments of the two sexes prove, that in Egypt 
the women had more authority than their husbands, 
although Herodotus says nothing of the matter. But Dio- 
dorus Siculus is of this opinion ; and he thinks that by 
this peculiarity they wished to perpetuate the gratitude 
which they felt from the mild government of Isis. 
" Thus," says he, " in Egypt, the queens are more hon- 
oured than the kings, and the influence of the women is 
greater also in private life. In the contracts of marriage 
it is stipulated, that the woman shall be mistress of her 
husband, and that he shall obey her in every particular." 
—Larcher. 

Nymphodorus (in the Scholia to the (Ed. Col. of So- 
phocles) remarks, that Sesostris seeing Egypt become ex- 
ceedingly populous, and fearing lest the inhabitants 
should conspire against him, obliged them to employ 
themselves in feminine occupations, in order to enervate 
them. — LarcJier. 

The present aspect of Egypt exhibits a scene of very 
different manners. " Each family," says Savary, " forms 
a small state, of which the father is king, the members 
of it, attached to him by the ties of blood, acknowledge 
and submit to his power. When the master of the family 
dines, the women stand, and frequently hold the basin 
for him to wash, and serve him at table, and on all occa- 
sions behave to him with the extremest humility and 
reverence. The women spend their time principally 
among their slaves, in works of embroidery, &c. — T. 

See the CEdipus Coloneus of Sophocles, line 350. I give 
Franklin's translation of the passage : 

How like the unmanly sons of Egypt's clime, 
Where the men sit inglorious at the loom, 
And to their wives leave each domestic care; 
E'en they, my sons, who should have labour'd for me. 
Like women idly sit at home, &c. 

8 Business of commerce.] — The same fact is mentioned 
in the CEdipus Coloneus of Sophocles, verse 352. It oc- 
curs also in Pomponius Mela, which, however, is little 
more than a translation of our author. — T. 

9 Offices of nature.] — For this purpose the Greeks went 
out of doors. — T. 

10 Men are under no obligation.] — In this barbarous 
custom I can by no means discern the so much boasted 



80 



HERODOTUS. 



XXXVI. The priests of the gods, 1 who in 
other places wear their hair long, in Egypt wear 
it short. It is elsewhere customary, 2 in cases of 
death, for those who are most nearly affected to 
cut off their hair in testimony of sorrow ; but 
the Egyptians, who at other times have their 
heads closely shorn, suffer the hair on this occa- 
sion to grow. Other nations will not suffer 
animals to approach the place of their repast ; 
but in Egypt they live promiscuously with the 
people. Wheat and barley is a common article 
of food in other countries ; but it is in Egypt 
thought mean and disgraceful, the diet here con- 
sists principally of spelt, a kind of corn which 
some call zea. 3 Their dough they knead with 
their feet ; whilst in the removal of mud and 

wisdom of the Egyptians. The law of Solon seems much 
more commendable : this permitted a young- man to neg- 
lect the maintenance of his father, and to refuse him ad- 
mission into his house, if he had been prostituted by his 
means. He was nevertheless obliged, after Ms death, 
to give liim sepulture, with the usual funeral solemnities. 
The law of which Herodotus speaks had probably this 
foundation— The priests and the military having duties 
to perform which did not suffer them to take care of 
their parents, these in their sons' absence would pro- 
bably have experienced neglect. It is well known that 
the priests were also j udges, and that they were despatch- 
ed to different places to administer justice, and that of 
consequence they must often have been absent from their 
families. — Lurcher. 

1 The priests of the gods.] — Amongst the singularities 
which distinguished the Jewish priesthood, there is one 
so striking, that I cannot forbear pointing it out to the 
attention of the reader. The Jewish high-priest was not 
allowed to marry except with a virgin. He was forbid- 
den to marry either with " a widow, or a divorced woman, 
or profane, or an harlot." See Levit. xxi. 14. The dis- 
cipline of the primitive christians was not in this instance 
much less rigorous : they were excluded from the priest- 
hood who had either married two wives, or a widow, 
or whose wives had been guilty of adultery. If this last 
incident happened, they were either obliged to be di- 
vorced, or to renounce their profession. 

It can by no means be impertinent to add, from Mo- 
sheim, that the christian doctors had the good fortune to 
persuade the people that the ministers of the christian 
church succeeded to the character, rights, and privileges 
of the Jewish priesthood, which persuasion was a new 
source of honour and of profit to the sacred order. 
Accordingly, the bishops considered themselves as invest- 
ed with a rank and character similar to those of the high- 
priest among the Jews, while the presbyters represented 
the priests, and the deacons the Levites. The errors to 
which this notion gave rise were many, and one of its 
immediate consequences was the establishing a greater 
difference between the christian pastors and their flock, 
than the genius of the gospel seems to admit. — T. 

2 Elsewhere customary.] — Amongst the Greeks when 
any sad calamity befalls them, the women cut their hair 
close, the men wear it long ; in general, the women wear 
their hair long, the men short. — Plutarch. 

3 Zea.] — I suspect this to be a kind of bearded wheat. 
The far, olyra, xea, all mean a corn which we have not 
m cultivation, but which our writers call spelt. 



dung they do not scruple to use their hands. 
Male children, except in those places which have 
borrowed the custom from hence, are left in 
other nations as nature formed them; in Egypt 
they are circumcised. 4 The men have two vests, 
the women only one. In opposition to the 



What Martyn says upon this subject very much de- 
serves attention. See his note upon Georg. i. 73. at the word 
farra. " Far," says he, " seems to be put here for corn 
in general." It seems to me pretty plain that it is the 
£s;a or Kf-cL of the Greeks, and what we call in English 
spelt. It is a sort of corn very like wheat, but the chaff 
adheres so strongly to the grain, that it requires a mill 
to separate them, like barley. Dionysius of Halicarnas- 
sus says expressly that the Greeks call that &i« which the 
Latins call far. The principal objection to this seems to 
be, that Pliny treats of zea and far as two different sorts 
of grain; but we may reasonably suppose, that what 
Pliny says of zea, was taken from the Greek authors, 
and that they are the same grain, notwithstanding his 
having distinguished them. Besides this, in the 219th 
verse of this Georgic, Virgil has given the epithet robusta 
to farra, which is the very same that Theophrastus has 
given to zea, &c. 

4 Circumcised.]—" I am aware," says Mr Gibbon, 
" how tender is the question of circumcision." He 
affirms, however, that the Ethiopians have a physical 
reason for the circumcision of males and even of females, 
and that it was practised in Ethiopia long before the in- 
troduction of Judaism or Christianity. 

Its commencement with the Jews was unquestionably 
with Abraham, and by the command of God. Marsham 
is of opinion, that the Hebrews borrowed it from the 
Egyptians, and that God was not the first author of this 
custom. This latter is contrary to the testimony of 
Moses, the former position will admit of more debate. 
This practice, as it prevails amongst the Jews and Egyp- 
tians, had a very different object; with the first it was 
a ceremony of religion ; with the latter a point of decen- 
cy or cleanliness, or as some say, of physical necessity. 
With the former it was performed on the eighth day 
from the birth of the child ; with the latter not till the 
thirteenth year, and then on the girls as well as boys. 

There is a kind of circumcision practised in Otaheite, 
which consists of slitting the prepuce through the upper 
part, see Havvkesworth's Voyages. 

From the pain attending the operation, when perform- 
ed at an advanced age, Mr Harmer takes occasion to ex- 
plain a passage in the Old Testament, concerning which 
commentators have materially differed.— See Observations 
on Passages of Scripture, vol. ii. p. 500. 

After a generation's intermission, the Jews returned 
to circumcision under Joshua. See Joshua, v. 2. " And 
the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and 
circumcise again the children of Israel the second time." 

The curious reader may also consult Exodus, chap. iv. 
to see what passed betwixt Moses and his wife Zipporah, 
on the subject of circumcising their son. Upon tins last 
the author of the Characteristics remarks, that Zipporah, 
from reproaching Moses with the bloodiness of the deed, 
seems to have been a party only through necessity, and in 
fear rather of her husband, than of God. 

Upon this subject see also Spencer de Legibus Hebrae- 
orum. The above observations are compiled from the 
different writers on tliis curious topic. It may not be 
improper to add, that circumcision is sometimes used 
medicinally. — T. 



EUTERPE. 



81 



customs of other nations, the Egyptians fix the 
ropes to their sails on the inside. The Greeks, 
when they write or reckon with counters, go 
from the left to the right, the Egyptians from 
right to left ; notwithstanding which they per- 
sist in affirming that the Greeks write to the 
left, but they themselves always to the right. 

They have two sorts of letters, 5 one of which 
is appropriated to sacred subjects, the other 
used on common occasions. 

XXXVII. Their veneration of their deities 
is superstitious to an extreme ; of their cus- 
toms one is to drink out of brazen goblets, 
which it is a universal practice among them 
to cleanse every day. They are so regardful 
of neatness, that they wear only linen, 6 and that 
always newly washed ; and it is from the idea 
of cleanliness, which they regard much beyond 
comeliness, that they use circumcision. Their 
priests 7 every third day shave every part of their 
bodies, to prevent vermin 8 or any species of im- 
purity from adhering to those who are engaged 
in the service of the gods ; the priesthood is also 
confined to one particular mode of dress ; they 
have one vest of linen, and their shoes are made 
of the byblus ; they wash themselves in cold 
water twice in the course of the day, and as 
often in the night ; it would indeed be difficult 
to enumerate their religious ceremonies, all of 

5 Two sorts of letters.] — Diodorus Siculus agrees in 
this respect with Herodotus. Clemens Alexandrinus 
and Porphyry remark, that the Egyptians nsed three sorts 
of letters : the first is called epistolary, the second the 
sacerdotal, the third the hieroglyphic. Warburton, in 
Ids Divine Legation of Moses, attributes to the Egyptians 
four sorts of letters. Although I am ignorant of the time 
when the Egyptians first began to have an alphabet, I am 
satisfied it must have been long before the invasion of 
Cambyses. — Larcher. 

6 Only linen."] — So much was said by the ancients upon 
the linen of Egypt, that many have been induced to sup- 
pose it remarkably fine, but it was certainly very coarse. 
The Greeks had no flax, and were not skilled in the art 
of weaving, which circumstances excuse the praise they 
have bestowed on the Egyptian linen. It appears from 
the Philosophical Transactions of 1764, that Dr Halley, 
after a minute examination of an Egyptian mummy, 
found the upper filleting hardly equal in fineness to what 
is sold in the shops for two and four-pence a yard ; the 
inner filleting was coarser. — T. 

7 Their priests."] — For a more particular account of the 
peculiarities observed by the Egyptian priests, see Por- 
phyrius de Abstinentia, lib. iii. ; from whom it appears, 
that their whole time was divided betwixt study and acts 
of devotion. It may not be improper to advertise the 
English reader, that the institutions of Pythagoras appear 
to have been almost wholly founded upon the manners 
and customs of these priests. — T. 

8 To prevent vermin.] — In this respect the Jews were 
in like manner tenacious : if a Jewish priest found any 
dirt or dead vermin betwixt his inner garments and his 



which they practise with superstitious exactness. 
The sacred ministers possess in return many and 
great advantages ; 9 they are not obliged to con- 
sume any part of their domestic property ; each 
has a moiety of the sacred viands ready dressed 
assigned him, besides a large and daily allowance 
of beef and of geese ; they have also wine, 10 
but are not permitted to feed on fish. :l 

Beans are sown in no part of Egypt, neither 
will the inhabitants eat them, either boiled or 
raw ; the priests will not even look at this pulse, 
esteeming it exceedingly unclean. Every god 
has several attendant priests, and one of supe- 
rior dignity, who presides over the rest ; when 
any one dies he is succeeded by his son. 12 

XXXVIII. They esteem bulls as sacred to 
Epaphus, 13 which previously to sacrifice are 
thus carefully examined : if they can but dis- 
cover a single black hair in his body, he i? 

skin, he might not perform the duties of his office. See 
Maimonides. — T. 

9 Possess many and great advantages.] — They en- 
joyed one great advantage of which Herodotus takes no 
notice: iElian positively affirms, that they were the 
judges of the nation ; Larcher, from whom the above re- 
mark is taken, proceeds to a minute comparison betwixt 
the customs of the priests of Egypt and those of the Jews. 

See also Genesis, chap, xlvii. ver. 22 ; from which it 
appears that the priests of Egypt had no share in the 
miseries of the famine. " Only the land of the priests 
bought he not, for the priests had a portion assigned them 
of Pharaoh, &c." 

10 They have also wine.]— This assertion of Herodotus 
is contradicted by other writers ; but, as Montfaucon 
observes, the customs of the priests mightovary according 
to times and places. — T. 

11 Not permitted to feed on fish.]— The reason of this, 
according to Plutarch, was their excessive enmity to the 
sea, which they considered as an element inimical to man ; 
the same reasoning they extended to the produce of the 
Nile, which they thought corrupted by its connection 
with the sea. — T. 

Various motives are assigned why the Pythagoreans, 
in imitation of the Egyptians, abstained from beans, by 
Plutarch, Cicero, and others. "The Pythagoreans," ob- 
serves Cicero, " abstained from beans, as if that kind of 
food inflated the mind rather than the belly ; but there is 
nothing so absurd which has not been affirmed by some 
one of the philosophers. — T. 

12 Succeeded by his son.]— Amongst the Egyptians the 
priests composed a distinct class, as the Levites amongst 
the Jews, and the Brachmans with the Indians.— Larcher. 

13 Bulls as sacred to Epaphus.] — It was doubtless from 
the circiunstance of this idolatry that Aaron erected the 
golden calf in the wilderness, and Jeroboam in Dan and 
Bethel.— T. 

Egyptia superstitione inquinatos Israelitas vituluiu 
aureum coluisse certum est. — Selden de Diis Syria. 

It is in this place not unworthy of remark, that Hero- 
dotus uses the word ftotrxos, which may be interpreted 
vitulus. See also Virgil : 

Ego hanc virulam, ne forte recuses 
Bis venit ad mulctram, binos alit ubere foetus 
De iiono. 

L 



82 



HERODOTUS. 



deemed impure; for this purpose a priest is 
particularly appointed, who examines the animal 
as it stands, and as reclined on its back : its 
tongue is also drawn out, and he observes 
vvhether it be free from those blemishes ' which 
are specified in their sacred books, and of which 
I shall speak hereafter. The tail also under- 
goes examination, every hair of which must 
grow in its natural and proper form : if in all 
these instances the bull appears to be unblem- 
ished, the priest fastens the byblus round his 
horns ; he then applies a preparation of earth, 
which receives the impression of his seal, and the 
animal is then led away ; this seal is of so great 
importance, that to sacrifice a beast which has 
it not, is deemed a capital offence. 

XXXIX. I proceed to describe their mode 
of sacrifice: — Having led the animal destined 
and marked for the purpose to the altar, they 
kindle a fire : a libation of wine is poured upon 
the altar ; the god is solemnly invoked, and the 
victim then is killed; they afterwards cut off 
his head, and take the skin from the carcase ; 
upon the head they heap many imprecations : 
such as have a market-place at hand carry it 
there, and sell it to the Grecian traders ; if they 
have not this opportunity, they throw it into the 
river. They imprecate the head, by wishing 
that whatever evil menaces those who sacrifice, 
or Egypt in general, it may fall upon that head. 2 
This ceremony respecting the head of the ani- 
mal, and this mode of pouring a libation of wine 
upon the altar, is indiscriminately observed by 
all the Egyptians : in consequence of the above, 
no Egyptian will on any account eat of the head 
of a beast. As to the examination of the vic- 
tims, and their ceremony of burning them, they 
have different methods, as their different occa- 
sions of sacrifice require. 

XL. Of that goddess whom they esteem the 
first of all their deities, and in whose honour 
their greatest festival is celebrated, I shall now 
make more particular mention. After the pre- 
vious ceremony of prayers, they sacrifice an ox : 
they then strip off the skin, and take out the 
intestines, leaving the fat and the paunch ; 



1 Free from those blemishes.] — See Numbers, chap. 
xix. ver. 2. " Speak unto the children of Israel, that 
they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no 
blemish, and upon which never came yoke." 

2 Fall upon that head.] — See Leviticus, chap. xvi. ver. 
21. " And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head 
of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of 
the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, put- 
ting thern upon the head of the goat." I 



they afterwards cut off the legs, the shoulders, 
the neck, and the extremities of the loin ; the 
rest of the body is stuffed with fine bread, 
honey, raisins, figs, frankincense, myrrh, and 
various aromatics ; after this process they burn 
it, pouring upon the flame a large quantity of 
oil ; whilst the victim is burning the spectators 
flagellate themselves, 3 having fasted before the 
ceremony; the whole is completed by their 
feasting on the residue of the sacrifice. 

XL I. All the Egyptians sacrifice bulls 
without blemish, and calves ; the females are 
sacred to Isis, and may not be used for this pur- 
pose. This divinity is represented under the 
form of a woman, and, as the Greeks paint Io, 
with horns upon her head ; for this reason the 
Egyptians venerate cows far beyond all other 
cattle, neither will any man or woman among 
them kiss a Grecian, nor use a knife, or spit on 
any domestic utensil belonging to a Greek, 4 
nor will they eat even the flesh of such beasts 
as by their law are pure, if it has been cut with 
a Grecian knife. If any of these cattle die, 
they thus dispose of their carcases, the females 
are thrown into the river, the males they bury 
in the vicinity of the city, and by way of mark 
one and sometimes both of the horns are left 
projecting from the ground ; they remain thus 
a stated time, and till they begin to putrefy, 
when a vessel appointed for this particular pur- 
pose is despatched from Prosopitis, an island of 
the Delta, nine schaeni in extent, and containing 
several cities. Atarbechis, 5 one of these cities, 



3 Flagellate themselves.] — Athenagoras, in his Legat. 
pro Chris, ridicules this custom of the Egyptians ; Lar- 
cher quotes the passage, and adds, that it is somewhat 
singular that such a ceremony shovJd seem ridiculous to 
a Christian. Flagellation, however inflicted, or volun- 
tarily submitted to as a penance, was subsequent to the 
time of Athenagoras. 

It is a maxim, says Mr Gibbon, of the civil law, that 
he who cannot pay with his purse must pay with his 
body. The practice of flagellation was adopted by the 
monks, as a cheap though painful equivalent. 

The thirteenth century, according to Mosheim, gave 
birth to the sect of the Flagellants.— T. 

4 Belonging to a Greek.] — That the Egyptians would 
not eat with strangers, appears from the following pas- 
sage in Genesis, chap, xliii. ver. 32. " And they set on 
for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for 
the Egyptians which did eat with him by themselves, 
because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the He- 
brews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians." 

5 Atarbechis.] — Atarbec in Egypt is the temple of Atar 
or Athar, called Atarbechis by Herodotus : the same is 
Athyr-bet, and styled Athribites by Strabo.— Bryant. 

Atar signifies Venus, and Bee a city, as Balbec the 
city of the sun, called by the Greeks Heliopolis. 

Whoever wishes to be minutely informed concerning 



EUTERPE. 



83 



in which is a temple of Venus, provides the 
vessels for this purpose, which are sent to the 
different parts of Egypt : these collect and 
transport the bones of the animals, which are all 
buried in one appointed place. This law and 
custom extends to whatever cattle may happen 
to die, as the Egyptians themselves put none 
to death. 

XLII. Those who worship in the temple of 
the Theban Jupiter, or belong to the district of 
Thebes, abstain from sheep, and sacrifice goats. 
The same deities receive in Egypt different 
forms of worship ; the ceremonies of Isis and 
of Osiris, who they say is no other than the 
Grecian Bacchus, b are alone unvaried ; in the 
temple of Mendes, and in the whole Mendesian 
district, goats are preserved and sheep sacrificed. 
Why the Theban s, and all who are under their 
influence, abstain from sheep, is thus explained : 
Jupiter, they say, was long averse to the ear- 
nest solicitations of Hercules to see his person; 
but in consequence of his repeated importunity, 
the god, in compliance, used the following 
artifice : he cut off the head of a ram, and 
covering himself with its skin, showed himself 
in that form to Hercules ; from this incident, 
the Egyptian statues of Jupiter represent that 
divinity with the head of a ram. This custom 
was borrowed of the Egyptians by the Ammo- 
nians, who are composed partly of Egyptians 
and partly of Ethiopians, and whose dialect 
is formed promiscuously of both those lan- 
guages. The Egyptians call Jupiter, Am- 
moun, 7 and I should think this was the reason 



the various names and attributes of Venus, the different 
places where she was worshipped, and indeed every tiling 
which antiquity has handed down concerning this god- 
dess, will do well to consult the Memoire sur Venus, by 
Larcher, to which the prize of the French Academy was 
assigned in 1775.— T. 

6 The Grecian Bacchus."] — The Egyptians maintain, 
that their god Osiris is no other than the Dionysus of 
Greece. In like manner the Indi assure us, that it is the 
same deity who is conversant in their country. — Diodo- 
rus Sic. 1. iv. 210. 

7 Call Jupiter, Ammoun.] — Plutarch says, that of all 
the Egyptian names which seem to have any correspon- 
dence with the Zeus of Greece, Amoun or Ammon was 
the most peculiar and adequate : he speaks of many peo- 
ple who were of this opinion. — Bryant. 

The following line occurs in the scholiast to Pindar, 
Pyth. Ode 4th, v. 28. 

Ztvi Aifiw/is Aju.fu.oov xt^xry^o^i xtxXvtt ju.oi.vti. 

Jupiter was almost as much in fashion amongst the 
old worshippers of images, as the Virgin amongst the 
modern : he had temples and different characters almost 
everywhere. At Carthage he ivas called Ammon; in 
E £ypt> Serapis; at Athens, the great Jupiter was the 



why the above people named themselves Am- 
monians. From this however it is, that the 
Thebans esteem the ram as sacred, and, except 
on the annual festival of Jupiter, never put one 
to death. Upon this solemnity they kill a ram, 
and placing its skin on the image of the god, 
they introduce before it a figure of Hercules ; 
the assembly afterwards beat the ram, and con- 
clude the ceremony by inclosing the body in a 
sacred chest. 

XLIII. This Hercules, as I have been in- 
formed, is one of the twelve great gods, but of 
the Grecian Hercules I could in no part of 
Egypt- procure any knowledge ; that this name 
was never borrowed by Egypt from Greece, but 
certainly communicated by the Egyptians to the 
Greeks, and to those in particular who assign 
it to the son of Amphitryon, is among other ar- 
guments sufficiently evident from this, that both 
the reputed parents of this Hercules, Amphi- 
tryon and Alcmena, were of Egyptian origin. 
The Egyptians also disclaim all knowledge both 
of Neptune and the Dioscuri, neither of whom 
are admitted among the number of their gods : 
if they had ever borrowed the name of a deity 
from Greece, the remembrance of these, so far 
from being less, must have been stronger than 
of any other ; for if they then made voyages, 
and as I have great reason to believe, there were 
at that time Greek sailors, they would rather 
have been acquainted with the names of the 
other deities, than with that of Hercules. Her- 
cules is certainly one of the most ancient deities 
of Egypt : 8 and as they themselves affirm, is 
one of the twelve, who were produced from the 
eight gods, seventeen thousand years before the 
reign of Amasis. 

XLIV. From my great desire to obtain in- 
formation on this subject, I made a voyage to 
Tyre, in Phoenicia, where is a temple of Her- 
cules held in great veneration. Among the 
various offerings which enrich and adorned it, 



Olympian Jupiter; and at Rome, the greatest Jupiter 
was the Capitoline. — Spence, Polymetis. — T. 

8 Deities of Egypt.]— The remark, that the Egyptian 
is a very distinct personage from the Grecian Hercules, 
is not peculiar to Herodotus ; it is affirmed by all the au- 
thors who have had occasion to speak on the subject : 
Cicero gives him the Nile as his father : Nilo genitus. — 
Larcher. 

According to Cicero, the Egyptian Hercules was not 
the most ancient : he calls him the second Hercules. 
The Hercules, son of Amphitryon and Alcmena, was the 
sixth : this last, however, was the one most known, who 
is represented in almost all our ancient monuments, and 
who was worshipped by the Greeks and Romans. — T. 



84 



HERODOTUS. 



I saw two pillars : the one was of the purest 
gold, the other of* emerald/ which in the night 
diffused an extraordinary splendour. I inquir- 
ed of the priests how long this temple had been 
erected, but I found that they also differed in 
their relation from the Greeks. This temple, 
as they affirmed, had been standing ever since 
the first building of the city, a period of two 
thousand three hundred years. I saw also at 
Tyre another temple consecrated to the Thasi- 
an Hercules. At Thasus, which I visited, I 
found a temple erected to this deity by the 
Phoenicians, who built Thasus while they were 
engaged in search of Europa : an- event 
which happened five generations before Hercu- 
les, the son of Amphitryon, was known in 
Greece. From all these circumstances I was 
convinced that Hercules must be a very ancient 
deity. Such therefore of the Greeks as have 
erected two temples to the deity of this name, 
have, in my opinion, acted very wisely ; to the 
Olympian Hercules they offer as to an immortal 
being ; to the other they pay the rites of a hero. 

XLV. Among the many preposterous fables 
current in Greece, the one concerning Hercules 
is not the least ridiculous. He arrived, they 
say, in Egypt, where the inhabitants bound him 
with the sacred fillet, and the usual ornaments of 
a victim/ and made preparations to sacrifice him 
to Jupiter. For a while he restrained himself, 
but upon his being conducted with the usual so- 
lemnities to the altar, he exerted his strength, and 
put all his opponents to death. This story of the 
Greeks demonstrates the extremest ignorance of 



1 Of emerald.] — This pillar, of which Herodotus here 
speaks, could not, says Mr Larcher, have been a true 
emerald, it was probably a pseudosmaragdus. The 
learned Frenchman agrees in opinion with the authors 
of the Universal History, that it was of coloured glass, 
illuminated by lamps placed within. 

Whether at so early a period they had knowledge of 
glass, may be disputed ; but it is well known, that before 
the discovery of glass, or the application of it for win- 
dows, the rich used transparent stones for this purpose, 
which will solve the difficulty quite as well. — T. 

2 Of a victim.] — The gradations by which mankind 
was led from offering the produce of the earth to the 
gods to sacrifice animals, are related by Porphyry, in his 
second book, de Abstinentia. He relates the following 
story on this subject : " So abhorrent," says he, " were 
the ancient Athenians from the destroying of any kind 
of animals, that a woman, named Clymene, was deemed 
guilty of a very criminal act, from her having without 
design killed a hog, Her husband, from the supposition 
that she had committed an impiety, went to consult the 
oracle on the occasion. But as the deity did not consid- 
er it in a very heinous light, men were afterwards in- 
duced to make light of it also." See Porphyr, lib. ii. 
chap. 9.— T. 



the Egyptian manners ; for how can it be rea 
sonable to suppose, that they will offer human 
beings in sacrifice, who will not for this purpose 
destroy even animals, except swine, bulls, male 
calves without blemish, and geese ? Or how 
could Hercules, an individual, and, as they them- 
selves affirm, a mortal, be able to destroy many 
thousands of men ? I hope, however, that what 
I have introduced on this subject will give no 
offence either to gods or heroes. 

XL VI. The Mendesians, of whom I have 
before spoken, refuse to sacrifice goats of either 
sex, out of reverence to Pan, whom their tradi- 
tions assert to be one of the eight deities, whose 
existence preceded that of the twelve. Like the 
Greeks, they always represent Pan in his ima- 
ges with the countenance of the she-goat 3 and 
legs of the male ; not that they believe this has 
any resemblance to his person, or that he in 
any respect differs from the rest of the deities : 
the real motive which they assign for this cus- 
tom I do not choose to relate. The venera- 
tion of the Mendesians for these animals, and 
for the males in particular,* is equally great and 
universal : this is also extended to goat-herds. 
There is one he-goat more particularly hon- 
oured than the rest, whose death is seriously 
lamented by the whole district of the Mendesi- 
ans. In the Egyptian language the word Men- 
des is used in common for Pan and for a goat. 
It happened in this country, within my remem- 
brance, and was indeed universally notorious, 
that a goat had indecent and public communi- 
cation with a woman. 

XL VII. The Egyptians regard the hog as 
an unclean animal, 5 and if they casually touch 

3 Countenance of the she goat, fyc.~\ — Montfaucon ob- 
serves, that what Herodotus says in this place of the 

I Egyptian manner of representing Pan, does not agree 
I with the statues and images of Pan which have come 
down to us. Both the Greeks and Romans, if we may 
I credit their monuments, which are very numerous, pic- 
tured Pan with a man's face, and with the horns, ears, 
and feet of a she or he-goat. — T. 

4 Males in particular.'} — The Egyptians venerated the 
he-goat as a deity for the same reason that the Greeks do 
Priapus. Tins animal has a strong propensity to venery, 
and the member which is the instrument of generation 
they esteem honourable, because from it, animals derive 
their existence. — Diodorus Sic. i. 98. 

5 Unclean animal.] — The abhorrence of the Jews to 
the flesh of swine is generally supposed to have been imi- 
tated from the Egyptians : they differed in this, the Jews 
would never eat it, the Egyptians occasionally did. The 
motives assigned by Plutarch for the prejudice of both 
these nations in this particular instance is curious 
enough : " The milk of the sow," says he, " occasion- 
ed leprosies, which was the reason why the Egyptians 
entertained so great an aversion for this animal." 



EUTERPE. 



85 



one they immediately plunge themselves clothes 
and all into the water. This prejudice operates 
to the exclusion of all swine-herds, although 
natives of Egypt, from the temples ; with people 
of this description a connection by marriage is 
studiously avoided, and they are reduced to the 
necessity of intermarrying among those of their 
own profession. The only deities to whom 
the Egyptians offer swine, are Bacchus and 
Luna ; to these they sacrifice swine when the 
moon is at the full, after which they eat the 
flesh. Why they offer swine at this particular 
time, and at no other, the Egyptians have a 
tradition among themselves, which delicacy for- 
bids me to explain. The following is the mode 
in which they sacrifice this animal to Luna: as 
soon as it is killed they cut off the extremity of 
the tail, which, with the spleen and the fat, 
they inclose in the cawl, and burn ; upon the 
remainder, which at any other time they would 
disdain, they feast at the full moon, when the 
sacrifice is performed. They who are poor 
make the figures of swine with meal, which 
having first baked, they offer on the altar. 

XLVIII. On the day of the feast of Bac- 
chus, at the hour of supper, every person before 
the door of his house, offers a hog in sacrifice. 
The swine-herd of whom they purchase it, is 
afterwards at liberty to take it away. Except 
this sacrifice of the swine, the Egyptians cele- 
brate the feast of Bacchus in the same manner 
as the Greeks. Instead of the phalli, 6 they 
have contrived certain figures of about a cubit 
in length ; the private members of which are 



The same author in another place explains in this man- 
ner the dislike of the Jews to swine. The religion, the 
ceremonies, and feasts of the Jews, were, as he pretends, 
the same as those practised in Greece with respect to 
Bacchus. Bacchus and Adonis are the same divinities ; 
and the Jews abstain from swine's flesh, because Adonis 
was slain by a boar. 

It is no less worth remarking, that Plutarch explains j 
the derivation of Levites from Lysios, Avtrios, a name of 
Bacchus.— T. 

6 Phalli.} — Macrobius explains the consecration of the 
phallus into an emblem of the power of generation, whose 
prolific virtue is thereby invoked to impregnate the uni- 
verse ; for which reason that ceremony is for the most 
part performed in the spring, when the whole world re- 
ceives a kind of regeneration from the gods. Macrobius, 
Saturnal. lib. i. 7. — See also on this subject Lucian de Dea 
Syria; Apuleiusj Letters on Mythology. See also Voyage 
de Jeune Anacharsis, vol. iii. 138. — T. 

Mention is made in Athenaeus of a phallus, carried in 
a Bacchanal procession, of gold, and one hundred and 
twenty cubits long. It was moreover adorned with gar- 
lands, which were twined round it to its vertex, where 
was a golden star six cubits in circumference. — See 
Athenceus, book v. chap. 5. 



made to move. These the women carry about 
the streets and villages, and the member which 
distinguishes the sex being almost as large as 
the rest of the body, with these, and preceded 
by a piper, they sing in a long procession, the 
praises of Bacchus. Why this member is so 
disproportionably large, and why they give a 
motion to it alone, they assign a sacred and 
mysterious reason. 

XLIX. I am of opinion, that Melampus, 7 
son of Amytheon, was acquainted with this 
ceremony. It was Melampus who first taught 
the Greeks the name and the sacrifice of Bac- 
chus, and introduced the procession of the 
phalli ; 8 the mysterious purport of which he did 
not sufficiently explain ; but since his time it 
has received from different sages adequate illus- 
tration. It is unquestionable, that the use of 
the phalli in the sacrifice of Bacchus, with the 
other ceremonies which the Greeks now know 
and practise, were first taught them by Melam- 
pus. I therefore, without hesitation, pronounce 
him to have been a man of wisdom, and of skill 
in the art of divination. Instructed by the 
Egyptians 9 in various ceremonies, and particu- 
larly in those which relate to Bacchus, with 
some few trifling changes he brought them into 
Greece. 1 can by no means impute to accident 
the resemblance which exists in the rites of 
Bacchus in Egypt, and in Greece ; in this case 
they would not have differed so essentially from 
the Grecian manners, and they might have been 
traced to more remote antiquity : neither will I 
affirm that these, or that any other religious 
ceremonies, were borrowed of Greece 10 by the 

7 Melampus.'} — So called because, being exposed when 
a child by his mother Rhodope, liis whole person was 
covered, excepting his feet ; these the rays of the sun 
turned black. He was a famous soothsayer : he was 
also, according to Pausanias, a physician, and had a tem- 
ple and statues, and solemn games instituted in his 
honour. — T. 

8 Of the phalli.'}— In what manner these were carried 
in processions, may be seen in the Acharnenses of Aris- 
tophanes. 

O SkvOioc; rov QctXXov o%9ov (TT'/icTcitw. 
See also the scholiast on this passage.— T- 

9 Instructed by the Egyptians.— As Egypt was then 
famous for the sciences and arts, the Greeks, who were 
beginning to emerge from barbarism, travelled thither 
to obtain knowledge, which they might afterwards com- 
municate to their countrymen. With this view the fol- 
lowing illustrious characters visited this country : " Or- 
pheus, Musaeus, Melampus, Daedalus, Homer, Lycurgus 
the Spartan, Solon of Athens, Plato the philosopher, 
Pythagoras of Samos, Euddxus, Democritus of Abdera, 
iEnopis of Chios, &c. 8cc."—Larche?: 

10 Borrowed of Greece.}— See Bryant's Mythology, 
vol. ii. 483. Diodorus Sic. vol. i. 62, 63, We*selh>fcs's 
edition.— T. 



86 



HERODOTUS. 



Egyptians; I rather think that Melampus 
learned all these particulars which relate to the 
worship of Bacchus, from Cadmus, and his 
Tyrian companions, when they came from Phoe- 
nicia to what is now called Boeotia. ' 

L. Egypt has certainly communicated to 
Greece the names of almost all the gods ; that 
they are of barbarian origin, I am convinced by 
my different researches. The names of Nep- 
tune and the Dioscuri I mentioned before ; 
with these, if we except Juno, 2 Vesta, Themis, 
the Graces, and the Nereids, the names of all 
the other deities have always been familiar in 
Egypt. In this instance I do but repeat the 
opinions of the Egyptians. Those names of 
which they disclaim any knowledge are all, 
except Neptune, of Pelasgian derivation; for 
their acquaintance with this deity, they are in- 
debted to Africa, where indeed he was first of 
all known, and has always been greatly honoured. 
The Egyptians do not pay any religious cere- 
monies to heroes. 

LI. With the above, the Greeks have de- 
rived many other circumstances of religious 
worship from Egypt, which I shall hereafter 
relate ; they did not however learn from hence, 
but from the Pelasgi, to construct the figure of 
Mercury with an erect priapus, which custom 
was first introduced by the Athenians, and 
communicated from them to others. At that 
period the Athenians were ranked among the 
nations of Greece, and had the Pelasgians for 
their neighbours: from which incident this 
people also began to be esteemed as Greeks. 
Of the truth of this, whoever has been initiated 
in the Cabirian mysteries, 3 which the Samo- 

1 Boeotia.'}— This country was so called from Boeotus, 
son of Itonus, and the nymph Menalippe, and grandson 
of Amphictyon. See JDiod. Sic. lib. iv. 67 : and also 
Thucydides, lib. i. p. 11. 

2 Juno.2 — We learn from Porphyry, that to the Egyp- 
tian Juno, on a certain festival, three men were sacri- 
ficed, who were first of all examined like so many calves 
destined for the altar. Amasis abolished these, substi- 
tuting in their room three figures of wax. Porphyr. de 
Abstinentia, lib. ii. c. 55. 

3 Cabirian mysteries.}— The Cabiri, says Montfaucon, 
were a sort of deities about whom the ancients differ 
much. The Cabiri, the Curet83, the Corybantes, the 
Idean Dactyli, and sometimes the Telchinii, were taken 
for the same : they were sometimes taken for the Dios- 
curi. With regard to their functions, and the places in 
which they exercised, opinions equally various are held : 
some call them the sons of Vulcan, others of Jupiter. — 
See Montfaucon. 

"They," says Mr Larcher, principally from the scho- 
liast to the Irene of Aristophanes, " who had been ad- 
mitted to these mysteries were highly esteemed, as they 
were supposed to have notlung to apprehend from tem- 



thracians use, and learned of the Pelasgi, will 
be necessarily convinced; for the Pelasgians 
before they lived near the Athenians formerly 
inhabited Samothracia, and taught the people 
of that country their mysteries. By them the 
Athenians were first of all instructed to make 
the figure of Mercury with an upright priapus. 
For this the Pelasgians have a sacred tradition, 
which is explained in the Samothracian mys- 
teries. 

LII. The Pelasgians, as I was informed at 
Dodona, formerly offered all things indiscrimi- 
nately to the gods. They distinguished them 
by no name or sirname, for they were hitherto 
unacquainted with either ; but they called them 
gods, which by its etymology means disposers, 
from observing the orderly disposition and dis- 
tribution of the various parts of the universe. 
They learned, but not till a late period, the 
names of the divinities from the Egyptians, and 
Bacchus was the last whom they knew. Upon 
this subject they afterwards consulted the oracle 
of Dodona, 4 by far the most ancient oracle of 
Greece, and at the period of which we speak, 
the only one. They desired to know whether 
they might with propriety adopt the names 
which they had learned of the barbarians, and 
were answered that they might ; they have ac- 
cordingly used them ever since in their rites of 
sacrifice, and from the Pelasgi they were com- 
municated to the Greeks. 

LIII. Of the origin of each deity, whether 
they have all of them always existed, as also of 
their form, their knowledge is very recent in- 

pests." "They," observes Plutarch, " who had learned 
their names, availed themselves of them as a kind of 
amulet to avert calamity, pronouncing them slowly. " 

These names were, according to the scholiast on Apol- 
lon. Rhod. Ceres, Proserpine and Pluto, to which others 
add Mercury. 

Who these Cabirim might be, has been a matter of 
unsuccessful inquiry to many learned men. The utmost 
that is known with certainty is, that they were origin- 
ally three, and were called by way of eminence, The 
Great, or Mighty Ones, for that is the import of the He- 
brew name. Of the like import is the Latin appellation, 
Penates : Dii per quos penitus spiramus, &c. Thus the 
joint worship of Jupiter, Junq, and Minerva, the triad of 
the Roman capitol, is traced to that of The Three Mighty 
Ones in Samothrace, which was established in that island, 
at what precise time it is impossible to determine ; but 
earlier, if Eusebius may be credited, than the days of 
Abraham. — Bishop Horsley's Charge to the Clergy, 
%c—T. 

Bochart derives Cabiri from a root, signifying deos 
potentes ; but I have somewhere seen it derived from a 
Hebrew word signifying- ^ra.^ot, socii partidpes. 

4 Oracle of Dodona.]— See on this subject Bryant's 
Mythology, vol. ii. 286. 



EUTERPE. 



87 



deed. The invention of the Grecian theogony, 5 
the names, the honours, the forms, and the 
functions of the deities may with propriety be 
ascribed to Hesiod and to Homer, 6 who I be- 
lieve lived four hundred years, and not more, 
before myself. If I may give my opinion, the 
poets who are reported to have been before these, 
were certainly after them. What I have said 
of the names and origin of the gods, has been on 
the authority of the priests of Dodona ; of 
Hesiod and of Homer I have delivered my own 
sentiments. 

LIV. Of the two oracles of Greece and 
Libya, the Egyptians speak as follows : I was 
told by the ministers of the Theban Jupiter, 
that the Phoenicians had violently carried off 
from Thebes two priestesses, one of whom had 
been sold into Africa, the other into Greece ; 
they added, that the commencement of the above 
oracles must be assigned to these two women. 
On my requesting to know their authority for 
these assertions, they answered, that after along j 
and ineffectual search after these priestesses, j 
they had finally learned what they had told me. ; 

LV. I have related the intelligence which 1 1 
gained from the priests at Thebes : The priest- 

5 Grecian theogony.] — To suppose Homer to have been j 
the author of the theology and mythology contained in his | 
poems, would be as unreasonable as to imagine that he 
first taught the Greeks to read and write. We find that, 
in the following ages, when wise men began to reason 
more upon these subjects, they censured Homer's theolo- j 
gy, as highly injurious to the gods, if it were understood in 
the literal sense. But when Homer wrote, he had suf- 
ficient excuse and authority for the fables which he de- | 
livered : and he introduced into his poems, by way of ! 
machinery, and with some decorations, theological le- 
gends, contrived in more rude and ignorant times, and 
sanctified by hoary age and venerable tradition. Tradi- i 
fion had preserved some memory of the things which the I 
gods had done and had suffered when they were men. — i 
Jortin's Dissertation, 207. 

This evidence of Herodotus must be esteemed early, J 
and his judgment valid. What can afford us a more sad j 
account of the doubt and darkness in which mankind i 
were enveloped, than these words of the lustorian ? How 
plainly does he show the necessity of divine interposition, | 
and of revelation in consequence of it — Bryant's mythol- \ 
ogy, i. 307. 

Hesiode a laisse un nom celebre et des ouvrages esti- 
mes, comme on l'a suppose contemporain d'Homere, 
quelques-uns ont pense qu'iletoitson rival, mais Homero 
ne pouvoit avoir de rivaux. 

La theogonie d' Hesiode, comme celle de plusieurs 
anciens ecrivains de la Grece, n'est qu'un tissu d'idees 
absurdes, ou d'allegories impenetrables.— Voyage du 
Jeune Anacharsis, iii. 315. 

6 Homer.']— To me it seems certain that the life of Ho- 
mer, attributed to Herodotus, was not written by our 
historian This I think might very easily be proved, but 
it would require a dissertation, and much exceed the 
limits of a note. — Lurcher. 



esses of Dodona 7 assert, that two black pigeons 
flew from Thebes in Egypt, one of which set- 
tled in Africa, the other among themselves : 
which latter, resting on the branch of a beech- 
tree, declared with a human voice that here by 
divine appointment was to be an oracle of Jove. 
The inhabitants, fully impressed that this was a 
divine communication, instantly complied with 
the injunction. The dove which flew to Africa 
in like manner commanded the people to fix 
there an oracle of Ammon, which also is an 
oracle of Jupiter. Such was the information I 
received from the priestesses of Dodona, the 
eldest of whom was called Promenea, the se- 
cond Timarete, the youngest Nicandre ; the 
other ministers employed in the service of the 
temple agreed with these in every particular. 

LVL My opinion of the matter is this : If 
the Phoenicians did in reality carry away these 
two priestesses, and sell one to Africa, the other 
to Greece, this latter must have been carried 
to the Thesproti, which country, though part 
of what is now termed Greece, was formerly 
called Pelasgia. 8 That, although in a state of 
servitude, she erected, under the shade of a 
beech-tree, a sacred edifice to Jupiter, which 
she might very naturally be prompted to do, 
from the remembrance of the temple of Jupiter 
at Thebes, whence she was taken. Thus she 
instituted the oracle, and having learned the 
Greek language, might probably relate that by 
the same Phoenicians her sister was sold for a 
slave to Africa. 

LVII. The name of doves was probably 
given them because, being strangers, the sound 
of their voices might to the people of Dodona 
seem to resemble the tone of those birds. 
When the woman, having learned the language, 
delivered her thoughts in words which were 
generally understood, the dove might be said 



7 Priestesses of Dodona.] — There is an account given 
by Palaephatus, of one Metra, or Mestra, who conld 
change herself into various forms. The story at bottom 
is very plain : Egypt was frequently called Mestra and 
Mestraia, and by the person here called Mestra we are 
certainly to understand a woman of the country. She 
was sometimes simply mentioned as a cahen or priestess, 
which the Greeks have rendered xwa., a dog. Women in 
this sacred character attended at the shrine of Apis and 
Mnenis, and of the sacred heifer at Onuphis. Some of 
them in different countries were styled Cygneans, and 
also Peleiadae, of whom the principal were the women 
at Dodona. — Bryant. 

8 Pelasgia.] — The people who then composed the body 
of the Hellenistic nation in those ancient times, gave 
their names to the countries which they occupied. The 
Pelasgians were widely dispersed.— Lurcher. 



88 



HERODOTUS. 



to have spoken with a human voice. Before 
she had thus accomplished herself, her voice 
might appear like that of a dove. It certainly 
cannot be supposed that a dove should speak 
with a human voice ; and the circumstance of 
her being black, explains to us her Egyptian 
origin. 

LVIII. The two oracles of -Egyptian 
Thebes and of Dodona have an entire resem- 
blance to each other. The art of divination, 
as now practised in our temples, is thus deriv- 
ed from Egypt ; at least the Egyptians were 
the first who introduced the sacred festivals, 
processions, and supplications, and from them 
the Greeks were instructed. Of this it is to 
me a sufficient testimony, that these religious 
ceremonies are in Greece but of modern date, 
whereas in Egypt they have been in use from 
the remotest antiquity. 

LIX. In the course of the year the Egypti- 
ans celebrate various public festivals ; l but the 
festival in honour of Diana, at the city of Bu- 
bastos, is the first in dignity and importance. 
The second is held in honour of Isis, at the 
city Busiris, which is situated in the middle of 
the Delta, and contains the largest temple of 
that goddess. Isis is called in the Greek 
tongue, Demeter or Ceres. The solemnities of 
Minerva, observed at Sais, 8 are the third in 
consequence ; the fourth are Heliopolis, and 
sacred to the sun ; the fifth are those of Latona, 
at Butos ; the next those of Mars, solemnized 
at Papremis. 

LX. They who meet to celebrate the fes- 
tival at Bubastos 3 embark in vessels, a great 
number of men and women promiscuously 
mixed. During the passage some of the wo- 
men 4 strike their tabors,accompanied by the men 



1 Festivals.] — Mr Savary, with other modern travel- 
lers, give us an account of the annual fairs of Egypt. 
These are to be considered as the remains of the ancient 
pilgrimages of the Egyptians to Canopus, Sais, and Bu- 
bastos. 

2 Sais.]— This place is by some supposed to be the Sin 
of the scriptures. — T. 

3 Bubastos.~] — Savary has translated this passage in his 
Letters on Egypt. From a comparison of his version 
with mine, it is painful to observ e he has given to Hero- 
dotus what the historian never imagined. — Larcher. 

4 The women.] — These no doubt, are the Almai, which 
were not then more decent than now. 

The Egyptians since Herodotus have been governed 
by various nations, and at length are sunk deep in igno- 
rance and slavery, but their true character has undergone 
no change. The frantic ceremomes the pagan religion 
authorized are now renewed around the sepulchres of 
San-tons, before the churches of the Copts, and in the 
fairs I mentioned. — Savary. 



playing on flutes. The rest of both sexes clap 
their hands, and join in chorus. Whatever 
city they approach, the vessels are brought to 
shore -. of the women some continue their in- 
strumental music, others call aloud to the 
females of the place, provoke them by injurious 
language, dance about, and indecently throw 
aside their garments. This they do at every 
place near which they pass. On their arrival 
at Bubastos, the feast commences, by the sacri- 
fice of many victims, and upon this occasion a 
greater quantity of wine 5 is consumed than in 
all the rest of the year. The natives report, 
that at this solemnity seven hundred thousand u 
men and women assemble, not to mention chil- 
dren. 

LXI. I have before related in what manner 
the rites of Isis are celebrated at Busiris. Af- 
ter the ceremonies of sacrifice the whole assem- 
bly, to the amount of many thousands, flagel- 
late 7 themselves ; but in whose honour they do 
this I am not at liberty to disclose. The 
Carians of Egypt treat themselves at this 
solemnity with unparelleled severity. 8 they cut 
themselves in the face with swords, and by this 
distinguish themselves from the Egyptian na- 
tives. 

LXII. At the sacrifice solemnized at Sais, 
the assembly is held by night ; they suspend 
before their houses in the open air, lamps which 
are filled with oil mixed with salt ; y a wick floats 
at the top, which will burn all night ; the feast 
itself is called the feast of lamps. 10 Such of the 

5 Quantity of wine.] — In the Greek it is wine of the 
vine, to distinguish it from beer, which he calls barley- 
wine. — Larcher. 

Whoever has not seen a witty and humorous disser- 
tation on otvos xpdtvos, or barley-wine, published at Ox- 
ford in 1750 may promise himself much entertainment 
from its perusal. 

6 Seven hundred thousand.] — For seven hundred 
thousand, some read only seventy thousand. — T. 

7 Flagellate themselves.] — The manner in which Vol- 
taire has translated this passage is too singular to be 
omitted — " On frappe, dans la ville de Busiris, dit Hero- 
dote, les hommes et les femmes apres le sacrifice, mais 
de dire ou on les frappe, c'est ce qui nem'est pas permis." 
— Questions sur V Encyclopedic. 

8 Xenophanes, the physician, seeing the Egyptians 
lament and beat themselves at their festivals, says to 
them, sensibly enoiigh, " If your gods be gods in reality, 
cease to lament them ; but if they are mortals, forbear 
to sacrifice to them " — Plutarch. 

9 Salt.] — Salt was constantly used at all entertainments, 
both of the gods and men, whence a particular sanctity 
was believed to be lodged in it : it is hence called duos «A.<r, 
divine salt, by Homer. — Potter. 

10 Feast of lamps.] — This feast, which much resembles 
the feast of lamps observed from time immemorial in 
China, seems to confirm the opinion of M. de Guignes, 



EUTERPE. 



89 



Egyptians as do not attend the ceremony think 
themselves obliged to observe the evening of 
the festival, and in like manner bum lamps be- 
fore their houses : thus on this night not Sais 
only, but all Egypt is illuminated. A religious 
motive is assigned for the festival itself, and for 
the illuminations by which it is distinguished. 

LXIII. At Heliopolisand Butos, 11 sacrifices 
alone are offered, but at Papremis, as at other 
places, in addition to the offering of victims, 
other religious ceremonies are observed. At 
the close of the day a small number of priesjs 
are in immediate attendance upon the statue of 
Mars ; a greater number, armed with clubs, 
place themselves at the entrance of the temple; 
opposite to these may be seen more than a 
thousand men tumultuously assembled, with 
clubs also in their hands, to perform their reli- 
gious vows. The day before the festival they 
remove the statue of the god, which is kept in 
a small case decorated with gold, to a different 
apartment. The priests attendant upon the 
statue place it, together with its case, on a four- 
wheeled carriage, and begin to draw it along. 
Those at the entrance of the temple endeavour 
to prevent its admission : but the votaries above 
mentioned come to the succour of the god, and 
a combat ensues between the two parties, in 
which many heads are broken, and I should 
suppose many lives lost, though this the Egyp- 
tians positively deny. 

LXIV. The motive for this ceremony is 
thus explained by the natives of the country: — 
This temple, they say, was the residence of the 
mother of Mars : the god himself, who had 
been brought up at a distance from his parent, 
on his arrival at man's estate came hither to 
visit his mother. The attendants, who had 
never seen him before, not only refused to admit 
him, but roughly drove him from the place. 
Obtaining proper assistance, he returned, se- 
verely chastised those who had opposed him, 
and obtained admission to his parent. From 
this circumstance the above mode of fighting 



who has been the first to intimate that China was a 
colony from Egypt. — Larcher. 

In Egypt there is no rejoicing, no festival of any consid- 
eration at all, unaccompanied with illumination. For this 
purpose they make use of earthen lamps, which they put 
into very deep vessels of glass, in such a manner as that 
the glass is two thirds, or at least one half of its height, 
higher than the lamp, in order to preserve the light, and 
prevent its extinction by the wind. The Egyptians have 
earried this art to the highest perfection, Scc—Maillet. 

11 Butos.'}— This is indifferently written Butos, Butis, 
and Buto.— T. 



was ever after practised on the festival of Mars : 
and these people were also the first who make 
it a point of religion not to communicate car- 
nally with a woman ,a in a temple, nor enter any 
consecrated place after the venereal act, without 
having first washed. Except the Egyptians and 
the Greeks, all other nations without scruple 
connect themselves with women in their tem- 
ples, nor think it necessary to wash themselves 
after such connection, previous to their paying 
their devotions. In this instance they rank man 
indiscriminately with other animals ; for ob- 
serving that birds as well as beasts copulate in 
shrines and temples, they conclude that it can- 
not be offensive to the deity. Such a mode of 
reasoning does not by any means obtain my 
approbation. 

LXV. The superstition of the Egyptians 
is conspicuous in various instances, but in this 
more particularly : notwithstanding the vicinity 
of their country to Africa, the number of beasts 
is comparatively small, but all of them, both 
those which are wild and those which are 
domestic, are regarded as sacred. If I were 
to explain the reason of this prejudice, I should 
be led to the discussion of those sacred subjects, 
which I particularly wish to avoid, 13 and which 
but from necessity I should not have discussed 
so fully as I have. Their laws compel them 
to cherish animals, a certain number of men 
and women are appointed to this office, which 
is esteemed so honourable, 14 that it descends in 

12 Communicate carnally ivith a woman.'} — Mention is 
made of the Mossyri, called by Apollonius Rhodius, 
Mossyraeci, who copulated in the public streets. See 
Xenophon, Diodorus Siculus, and others. 

Next by the sacred hill their oars impel 
Firm Argo, where the Mossyreecians dwell, 
Of manners strange, for they with care conceal 
Those deeds which others openly reveal, 
And actions that in secret should be done 
Perforin in public and before the sun ; 
For, like the monsters of the bristly drove, 
In public they perform the feats of love. 

Famkes Apollonius llho'l. 

Quid ego de Cynicis loquar, quibus in propatulo coire 
cum conjugibus mos fuit. Lactantius.— See also what 
Diogenes Laertius says of Crates and Hipparchia, See 
Bayle on the Adamites and Picards, and also " A Dialogue 
concerning Decency." See also Herodotus, book i. — T. 

13 Wish to avoid.]— The ancients were remarkably scru- 
pulous in every thing which regarded religion ; but in 
the time of Diodorus Siculus strangers did not pay the 
same reverence to the religious rites of the Egyptians. 
This historian was not afraid to acquaint us with the 
motives which induced the Egyptians to pay divine hou- 
ours to animals. — Larcher. ■ 

See Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. 21. 

14 Esteemed so honourable.]— So far from refusing this 
employ, or being ashamed publicly to exercise it, they 

M 



90 



HERODOTUS. 



succession from father to son. In the presence 
of these animals the inhabitants of the cities 
perform their vows. They address themselves 
as supplicants to the divinity, who is supposed 
to be represented by the animal in whose pre- 
sence they are ; they then cut off their chil- 
dren's hair, sometimes the whole of it, some- 
times half, at other times only a third part ; 
this they weigh in a balance against a piece of 
silver ; as soon as the silver preponderates, they 
give it to the woman who keeps the beast, she 
in return feeds the beast with pieces of fish, 
which is their constant food. It is a capital 
offence designedly to kill any one of these ' 
animals ; to destroy one accidentally is punish- 
ed by a fine, determined by the priests; but 
whoever, however involuntarily, kills an ibis 2 
or an hawk 3 cannot by any means escape 
death. 

LXVI. The number of domestic animals 
in Egypt is very great, and would be much 
greater if the increase of cats 4 were not thus 

make a vain display of it, as if they participated the 
greatest honours of the gods. "When they travel through 
the cities, or the country, they make known, by certain 
marks which they exhibit, the particular animal of which 
they have the care. They who meet them as they jour- 
ney respect and worship these. — Diodorus Siculus. 

1 To kill any one of these.] — The cat was also held in 
the extrcmest veneration by the ancient Egyptians ; and 
Diodorus Siculus relates, that a Roman having by acci- 
dent killed a cat, the common people instantly surround- 
ed his house with every demonstration of fury. The 
king's guards were instantly despatched to rescue him 
from their rage, but in vain ; his authority and the 
Roman name were equally ineffectual. — In the most ex- 
treme necessities of famine, they rather chose to feed on 
human flesh than on these animals. — T. 

2 Ibis.] — The Egyptians thus venerated the ibis, 
because they were supposed to devour the serpents 
which bred in the ground after the ebbing of the Nile. 
— T. 

3 Hawk.]— They have a kind of domestic large brown 
hawk, with a fine eye. One may see the pigeons and 
hawks standing close to one another. The Turks never 
kill them, and seem to have a sort of veneration for these 
birds, and for cats, as well as their ancestors. The an- 
cient Egyptians in this animal, worshipped the sun or 
Osiris, of which the brightness of its eyes was an em- 
blem. — Pococke. 

Osiris was worshipped at Philae, under the figure of 
the Ethiopian hawk.— T. 

4 If the increase of cats, fyc] — There occurs, I own, 
a difficulty iu the Egyptian system of theology. It is 
evident from their method of propagation, that a couple 
of cats in fifty years would stock a whole kingdom. If 
religious veneration were paid them, it would in twenty 
more not only be easier in Egypt to find a god than a 
man, (which Petronius says was the case in some parts 
of Italy) but the gods must at last entirely starve the 
men, and leave themselves neither priests nor votaries 
remaining. It is probable, therefore, that this wise nation, 
the most celebrated in antiquity for prudence and sound 



frustrated — The female cats, when delivered 
of their young, carefully avoid the company of 
the males, who to obtain a second commerce 
with them contrive and execute this stratagem ; 
they steal the young from the mother, which 
they destroy, but do not eat. This animal, 
which is very fond of its young, from its desire 
to have more, again covets the company of the 
male. In every accident of fire, the cats seem 
to be actuated by some supernatural 5 impulse ; 
for the Egyptians surrounding the place which 
is burning appear to be occupied with no 
thought but that of preserving their cats. 
These, however, by stealing between the legs 
of the spectators, or by leaping over their heads, 
endeavour to dart into the flames. This cir- 
cumstance, whenever it happens, diffuses uni- 
versal sorrow. 6 In whatever family a cat by 
accident happens to die, every individual cuts 
off his eye -brows 7 but on the death of a dog s 

policy, foreseeing such dangerous consequences, reserved 
all their worship for the full-grown divinities, and used 
the freedom to drown the holy spawn, or little sucking 
gods, Avithout any scruple or remorse. And thus the 
practice of warping the tenets of religion, in order to 
serve temporal interests, is not by any means to be re- 
garded as an invention of these later ages.— Hume. 

5 Supernatural] — It is astonishing that Herodotus 
should see this as a prodigy. The cat is a timid animal, 
fire makes it more so : the precautions taken to prevent 
its perishing, frighten it still more, and deprive it of its 
sagacity. — Larcher. 

6 Universal sorrow.] — One method of mourning pre- 
valent in the east, was to assemble in multitudes, and 
bewail aloud. In a manuscript of Sir John Chardin, part 
of which has been given in the work of Mr Harmer, we 
have this remark, " It is the genius of the people of Asia 
to express their sentiments of joy and grief aloud. 
These their transports are ungoverned, excessive, and 
truly outrageous." See Harmer, vol. ii. p. 136. 

7 Cuts off his eye-brows.] — The custom of cutting off 
the hair in mourning appears to have obtained in the east 
in the prophetic times. 

Among the ancient Greeks it was sometimes laid upon 
the dead body, sometimes cast into the funeral pile, and 
sometimes placed upon the grave. 

Women in the deep mourning of captivity, shaved off 
their hair. " Then thou shalt bring her home to thine 
house, and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails." 
Deut. xxi. 12. 

Maillet says, that in the east the women that attend a 
corpse to the grave generally have their hair hanging 
loose about their ears. 

8 Death of a dog.]— In this respect Plutarch differs 
from Herodotus. He allows that these animals were at 
one time esteemed holy, but it was before the time of 
Cambyses. From the era of his reign they were held in 
another light ; for when this king killed the sacred Apis, 
the dogs fed so liberally upon his entrails, without making 
a proper distinction, that they lost all their sanctity. But 
they were certainly of old looked upon as sacred ; and it 
was perhaps with a view to this, and to prevent the Is- 
raelites retaining any notion of this nature, that a dog 
was not suffered to come within the precincts of the 



EUTERPE. 



91 



they shave their heads and every part of their 
bodies. 

LXVII. The cats when dead are carried to 
sacred buildings, and after being salted y are 
buried in the city Bubastis. Of the canine 
species, the females are buried in consecrated 
chests, wherever they may happen to die, which 
ceremony is also observed with respect to the 
ichneumons. 10 The shrew-mice and hawks are 
always removed to Butos ; the ibis to Hermo- 
polis ;" the bears, an animal rarely seen in 
Egypt, and the wolves, l2 which are not much 
bigger than foxes, are buried in whatever place 
they die. 

temple of Jerusalem. In the Mosaic law, the price of a 
dog, and the hire of a harlot are put upon the same level. 
See Deuteronomy, xxiii. 18. "Thou shalt not bring the 
hire of a whore nor the price of a dog into the house of 
the Lord thy God for any vow, for both these are an 
abomination to the Lord thy God."— Bryant. 

It is because the dog was consecrated to Anubis, that 
lie was represented with a dog's head. Virgil and Ovid 
call him Latrator Anubis ; Propertius and Prudentius, 
Latrans Anubis. — Larcher. 

At the present day dogs are considered in the east as 
defiling : they do not suffer them in their houses, and 
ever with care avoid touching them in the streets. By 
the ancient Jews, as remarked before, they were, consi- 
dered in a disagreeable light. " Am I a dog?" says the 
Philistine to David. " What, is thy servant a dog ?" 
says Hazael, &c. See Harmer, vol. i. p. 220. It may 
indeed be observed, that in most countries and languages 
the word dog is a term of contempt. " I took by the 
throat the uncircumcised dog." — T. 

9 After being salted.] — Diodorus Siculus says the same 
thing, and he also describes the process used on the oc- 
casion. — T. 

'10 Ichneumon] — is found both in Upper and Lower 
Egypt. It creeps slowly along, as if ready to seize its 
prey ; it feeds on plants, eggs, and fowls. In Upper 
Egypt it searches for the eggs of the crocodile, which lie 
hid in the sand, and eats them, thereby preventing the 
increase of that animal. It may be easily tamed, and 
goes about the houses like a cat. It makes a growling 
noise and barks when it is very angry. The French in 
Egypt have called this Rat de Pharaon. Alpinus and 
Bellonius, following this, have called it Mus Pharaonis. 
The resemblance it has to a mouse in colour and hair, 
might have induced people ignorant of natural history to 
call it a mouse, but why Pharaoh's mouse ? The Egyp- 
tians were in the time of Pharaoh too intelligent to call 
it a mouse : nor is it at this day called pliar by the Arabs, 
winch is the name for mouse ; they call it nems. What 
is related concerning its entering the jaws of the croco- 
dile is fabulous. — Hasselquist. 

11 Hermopolis."] — There were in Egypt two places of 
this name, Wesseling supposes Herodotus to speak of 
that in the Thebiad.— T. 

12 Wolves.] — Hasselquist did not meet with either of 
these animals in Egypt. Wolves were honoured in 
Egypt, says Eusebius, probably from their resemblance 
to the dog. Some relate, that the Ethiopians having made 
an expedition against Egypt, were put to flight by a vast 
number of wolves, which occasioned the place where the 
incident happened to be called Lycopolis. 



LXVIII. I proceed now to describe the na- 
ture of the crocodile, 13 which during the four 
severer months in winter eats nothing : it is a 
quadruped, but amphibious ; it is also ovipa- 
rous, and deposits its eggs in the sand ; the 
greater part of the day it spends on shore, but 
all the night in the water, as being warmer than 
the external air, 14 whose cold is increased by the 
dew. No animal that I have seen or known, 
from being at first so remarkably diminutive 
grows to so vast a size. The eggs are not lar- 
ger than those of geese: on leaving the shell the 
young is proportion ably small, but when arrived 
at its full size it is sometimes more than seven- 
teen cubits in length : it has eyes like a hog, ' 5 



13 Of the crocodile.] — The general nature and proper- 
ties of the crocodile are sufficiently known. I shall 
therefore be contented with giving the reade* , from dif- 
ferent authors, such particulars of this extraordinary ani- 
mal as are less notorious. The circumstance of their 
eating nothing during the four severe winter months 
seems to be untrue. 

The excrements do not appear to pass through the 
anus, they pass through the gut into the ventricle, and 
are vomited up. Under the shoulder of the old crocodile 
is a folliculus containing a thick matter, which smells like 
musk, a perfume much esteemed in Egypt. When the 
male copulates with the female, he turns her with his 
snout on her back. 

The fat of the crocodile is used by the Egyptians against 
the rheumatism. The gall is thought good for the eyes, 
and for barrenness in women. The eyes are an aphro- 
disiac, and as Hasselquist affirms, esteemed by the Arabs 
superior even to ambergris. 

When the ancient prophets in the Old Testament speak 
of a dragon, a crocodile is generally to be understood. 
"Am 1 a sea or a jannin?" See Job vii 12; where, 
according to Harmer, a crocodile alone can be meant. 
The animal is of most extraordinary strength. " One of 
twelve feet," says Maillet, "after a long fast threw down 
with the stroke of Ms tail five or six men, and a bale of 
coffee." They sleep in the sun, but not soundly. They 
seldom descend below the Thebais, and never below 
Grand Cairo. Some have been seen fifty feet long. 
Herodotus says it has no tongue, but it has a fleshy sub- 
stance like a tongue, which serves it to turn its meat : 
it is said to move only the upper jaw, and to lay fifty 
eggs. It is not a little remarkable, that the ancient name 
being champsa, the Egyptians now call it timsah. — T. 

14 Warmer than the external air.]— Water exposed to 
violent heat during the day preserves its warmth in the 
night, and is then much less cold than the external air.— 
Larcher. From consulting modern travellers, we find 
the remarks of Herodotus on the crocodile, excepting 
only the particularities which we have pointed out, con- 
firmed.— T. 

\bEyes like a hog.]— The leviathan of Job is variously 
understood by critics for the whale and the crocodile. 
Both these animals are remarkable for the smallness of 
their eyes, in proportion to the bulk of their bodies : 
those of the crocodile are said to be extremely piercing 
out of the water ; in which sense, therefore, the poet's 
expression, " its eyes are like the eyelids of the morn- 
ing," can only be applicable. Dr Young, in his para- 
phrase on this part of Job, describing the crocodile as the 



92 



HERODOTUS. 



teeth large and prominent, in proportion to the 
dimensions of its body ; but, unlike all other 
animals, it has no tongue. It is further and 
most singularly distinguished by only moving its 
upper jaw. Its feet are armed with strong 
fangs ; the skin is protected by hard scales re- 
gularly divided. In the open air its sight is re- 
markably acute, but it cannot see at all in the 
water ; living in the water its throat is always 
full of leeches ; beasts and birds universally 
avoid it, the trochilus alone excepted, which, 
from a sense of gratitude, it treats with kind- 
ness. When the crocodile leaves the water, 
it reclines itself on the sand, and generally to- 
wards the west, with its mouth open : the tro- 
chilus entering its throat destroys the leeches ; 
in acknowledgment for which service it never 
does the trochilus injury. 

LXIX. This animal, by many of the Egyp- 
tians, is esteemed sacred, 1 by others it is treated 
as an enemy. 2 They who live near Thebes, 
and the lake Mceris, hold the crocodile in re- 
ligious veneration ; they select one, which they 
render tame and docile, suspending golden or- 
naments from its ears, 3 and sometimes gems of 
value ; the fore feet are secured by a chain. 
They feed it with the flesh of the sacred victims, 

animal intended in the original, has given the image an 
erroneous reference to the magnitude rather than the 
brightness of its eye, 

Large is his front, and when his burnish'd eyes 
Lift their broad lids, the morning seems to rise. 

Dr Aiken, Poetical Use of Nat. Hist. 

1 Esteemed sacred."} — On this subject we have the fol- 
lowing singular story in Maximus Tyrius. An Egyptian 
woman brought up the young one of a crocodile. The 
Egyptians esteemed her singularly fortunate, and rever- 
ed her as the nurse of a deity. The woman had a son 
about the same age with the crocodile,, and they grew 
up and played together. No harm ensued whilst the 
crocodile was gentle from being weak ; but when it got 
its strength it devoured the child. The woman exulted 
in the death of her son, and considered his fate as blessed 
in the extreme, in thus becoming the victim of their do- 
mestic god.— T. 

2 Treated as an enemy.} — These were the people of 
Tentyra in particular, now called Dandera, they were 
famous for their intrepidity as well as art in overcoming 
crocodiles. For a particular account of their manner of 
treating them, see Pliny, book viii. chap. 25.— T. 

3 Ornaments from its ears.} — This seems to suppose, 
that the crocodile has ears externally, nevertheless those 
which the Sultan sent to Louis the Fourteenth, and 
which the academy of sciences dissected, had none. They 
found in them indeed apertures of the ears placed below 
the eyes, but concealed and covered with skin, which 
had the appearance of two eye-lids entirely closed. When 
the animal was alive, and out of the water, these lids 
probably opened. However this may be, it was, as may 
be presumed, to these membranes that the ear-rings were 
fixed. — Larcher. 



and with other appointed food. While it lives 
they treat it with unceasing attention, and when 
it dies it is first embalmed, and afterwards de- 
posited in a sacred chest. They who lived in 
or near Elephantine, so far from considering 
these beasts as sacred, make them an article of 
food : they call them not crocodiles, but champ- 
sae. 4 The name of crocodiles was first imposed 
by the Ionians, from their resemblance to liz- 
ards so named by them, which are produced in 
the hedges. 

LXX. Among the various methods that arc 
used to take the crocodile, 5 1 shall only relate one 
which most deserves attention : they fix on a 
hook a piece of swine's flesh, and suffer it to 
float into the middle of the stream ; on the 
banks they have a live hog, which they beat till 
it cries out. The crocodile hearing the noise 
makes towards it, and in the way encounters 
and devours the bait. They then draw it on 
shore, and the first thing they do is to fill its 
eyes with clay; it is thus easily manageable, 
which it otherwise would not be. 

LXXI. The hippopotamus 6 is esteemed sa- 

4 Champsce.} — The crocodile had many names, such as 
carmin, souchus, campsa. This last signified an ark or 
receptacle. — Bryant. 

5 To take the crocodile.} — The most common way of 
killing the crocodile is hy shooting it. The ball must be 
directed towards the belly, where the skin is soft, and 
not armed with scales like the back. Yet they give an 
account of a method of catching them something like that 
which Herodotus relates. They make some animal cry 
at a distance from the river, and when the crocodile 
comes out they thrust a spear into lus body, to which a 
rope is tied : they then let him go into the water to spend 
himself ; and afterwards drawing him out, run a pole in- 
to his mouth, and jumping on Ms back tie his jaws toge- 
ther.— Pococke. 

6 TJie hippopotamus.} — It is to be observed, that the 
hippopotamus and crocodile were symbols of the same 
purport: both related to the deluge, and however the 
Greeks might sometimes represent them, they were both 
in different places reverenced by the ancient Egyptians. 
— Bryant, who refers Ms reader on this subject to the 
Ms and Osiris of Plutarch. 

The Mppopotamus is generally supposed to be the be- 
hemoth of scripture. Maillet says his skin is two fingers 
thick ; and that it is so much the more difficult to kill it 
as there is only a small place M its forehead where it is 
vuMerable. Hasselquist classes it not with the ampMbia 
but quadrupeds. It as an inveterate enemy to the cro- 
codile, and kills it wherever it meets it. It never appears 
below the cataracts. The hide is a load for a camel : 
Maillet speaks of one which would have been a heavy 
load for four camels. He does great injury to the Egyp- 
tians, destroying in a very short time an entire field of 
corn or clover. Their manner of destroying it is too curi- 
ous to be omitted : they place in his way a great quantity 
of pease ; the beast filling Mmself with these, they occa- 
sion an intolerable tMrst. Upon these he drinks large 
draughts of water, and the Egyptians afterwards find 



EUTERPE. 



93 



,cred in the district of Papremis, but in no other 
part of Egypt. I shall describe its nature 
and properties : it is a quadruped, its feet are 
cloven, and it has hoofs like an ox ; the nose is 
short, but turned up, the teeth prominent ; it 
resembles a horse in its mane, its tail, and its 
voice : it is of the size of a very large ox, and 
it has a skin so remarkably thick, that when 
dried it is made into offensive weapons. 

LXXII. The Nile also produces otters, 
which the Egyptians venerate, as they also do 
the fish called lepitodus, and the eel : 8 these are 
sacred to the Nile, as among the birds is one 
called the chenalopex 9 . 

L XXIII. They have also another sacred 
bird, which, except in a picture, I have never 
seen : it is called the phoenix. 10 It is very un- 

liim dead on the shore, blown up as if killed with the 
strongest poison. Pennant relates, in Ids Synopsis of 
Animals, other and more plausible means of taking this 
animal. Its voice is between the roaring of a bull and 
the braying of an elephant. It is at first interrupted with 
frequent short pauses, but may be heard at a great dis- 
tance. The oftener he goes on shore, the better hopes 
have the Egyptians of a sufficient increase of the Nile. 
His food, they say, can be almost distinguished in his 
excrements. Pococke calls it a fish, and says that he 
was able to obtain little information concerning it. 

I have asserted that this animal is generally allowed 
to be the behemoth of scripture ; Mr Bruce is of a con- 
trary opinion, and believes the behemoth to be the ele- 
phant.— See his Travels, vol. v. p. 88. 

The above particulars are compiled chiefly from Has- 
selquist, Maillet, and Pennant— T. 

8 The eel.~\— Antiphanes in Athenaeus, addressing him- 
self to the Egyptians, says, " You adore the ox j I sacri- 
fice to the gods. You reverence the eel as a very power- 
ful deity ; we consider it as the daintiest of food." Anti- 
phanes, and the Greek writers, who amused themselves 
with ridiculing the religious ceremonies of Egypt, were 
doubtless ignorant of the motive which caused this par- 
ticular fish to be proscribed. The flesh of the eel, and 
some other fish, thickened the blood, and by checking the 
perspiration excited all those maladies connected with the 
leprosy. The priests forbade the people to eat it, and to 
render their prohibitions more effectual, they pretended 
to regard these fish as sacred. M. Paw pretends that the 
Greeks have been in an error in placing the eel amongst 
the sacred fish, but I have always to say to that learned 
man, where are your proofs ?—Larcher. 

9 C/ienalope.vJ- This bird in figure greatly resembles 
the goose, but it has all the art and cunning of the fox.— 
Larcher. 

10 Phwnix.y- From what is related of this bird the 
Phoenicians gave the name phoenix to the palm-tree, be- 
cause when burnt down to the ground it springs up again 
fairer and stronger than ever. 

The ancient Christians also refer to the phcenix, as a 
type of the resurrection. — T. 

We find the following remark in Thomasius de Plagio 
Literario. 

Herodotus in secundo ex historica Hecataei Milesii 
narratione quamplurima verbis totidem exscripsisse dici- 
tur, pauca quaedam leviter ementitus, ctijusmodi sunt. 



common even among themselves; for according 
to the Heliopolitans, it comes there but once in 
the course of five hundred years, and then only 
at the decease of the parent bird. If it bear 
any resemblance to its picture, the wings are 
partly of a gold and partly of a ruby colour, and 
its form and size perfectly like the eagle. They 
relate one thing of it which surpasses all credi- 
bility : they say that it comes from Arabia to 
the temple of the sun, bearing the dead body of 
its parent inclosed in myrrh, which it buries. 
It makes a ball of myrrh shaped like an egg, as 
large as it is able to carry, which it proves by 
experiment. This done, it excavates the mass, 
into which it introduces the body of the dead 
bird ; it again closes the aperture with myrrh, 
and the whole becomes the same weight as when 
composed entirely of myrrh ; it then proceeds 
to Egypt to the temple of the sun. 

LXXIV. In the vicinity of Thebes there 
are also sacred serpents, 11 not at all troublesome 
to men : they are very small, but have two horns 
on the top of the head. When they die, they 
are buried in the temple of Jupiter, to whom 
they are said to belong. 

LXXV. There is a place in Arabia, near 
the city Butos, which I visited for the purpose 
of obtaining information concerning the winged 
serpent.' 2 I saw here a prodigious quantity of 



quae de phcenice ave, deque fluviatili equo et crocodi- 
lorum venatione commemorat, p. 204. 

As to what he may have borrowed from Hecataeus, 
nothing can be said, but the term ' leviter ementitus' does 
not appear to be candidly applicable to a writer who, in 
this book particularly, tells you in every page that he 
only relates the information he received, and who pro- 
fessedly regards the story of the phoenix as fabulous.— T. 

11 Sacred serpents. ,]— The symbolical worship of the 
serpent was in the first ages very extensive, and was in- 
troduced into ali the mysteries wherever celebrated. It 
is remarkable that wherever the Amonians founded any 
places of worship, there was generally some story of a 
serpent. There was a legend about a serpent at Colchis, 
at Thebes, and at Delphi, &c— Bryant. 

The Egyptians worshipped the goodness of the Creator 
under the name of Cneph. The symbol, according to 
Eusebius, was a serpent. " The serpent within a circle, 
touching it at the two opposite points of its circumfer- 
ence, signifies the good genius." 

These serpents, honoured by the name of Haridi, still 
are famous, as treated by the priests of Ac\\mva.—Savary. 

We have already observed, that the serpent was a 
symbol of the sun, which the Egyptians gave a place in 
their sacred tables. Nor did they content themselves 
with placing the serpent with their gods, but often repre- 
sented even the gods themselves with the "body and tail 
of a serpent joined to their own head.— Montfaucon. 

12 Winged serpent.]— We ought not to be too prompt 
either to believe, or the contrary, things which are un- 
common. Although I have never seen winged serpents, 
I believe that they exist ; for a Phrygian brought into 



94 



HERODOTUS. 



serpents' bones and ribs placed on heaps of dif- 
ferent heights. The place itself is a strait be- 
twixt two mountains, it opens upon a wide 
plain which communicates with Egypt. They 
affirm, that in the commencement of every 
spring these winged serpents fly from Arabia 
towards Egypt, but that the ibis l here meets 
and destroys them. The Arabians say, that in 
acknowledgment of this service the Egyptians 
hold the ibis in great reverence, which is not 
contradicted by that people. 

LXXVI. One species of the ibis is entirely 
black, its beak remarkably crooked, its legs as 
large as those of a crane, and in size it resembles 
the crex : this is the enemy of the serpents. The 
second species is the most common : these have 
the head and the whole of the neck naked ; the 
plumage is white, except that on the head, the 
neck, the extremities of the wings, and the tail, 
these are of a deep black colour, but the legs 
and the beak resemble in all respects those of 
the other species. The form of the flying and 
of the aquatic serpents is the same ; the wings 
of the former are not feathered, but entirely 
like those of the bats. And thus I have fin- 
ished my account of the sacred animals. 

LXXVII. Those Egyptians who live in the 
cultivated parts of the country are all of whom 
I have seen, the most ingenious, being attentive 



Ionia a scorpion wliich had wings like those of the grass- 
hopper. — Pausanias. 

"The burden of the beasts of the south : into the land 
of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and 
old lion, the viper, and fiery flying serpent, &c." — Isaiah, 
xxx. 6. 

De serpentibus memorandi maxime, quos parvos ad- 
modum et veneni prsesentis, certo anni tempore ex limo 
concretarum paludum emergere in magno examine vo- 
lantes Egyptum tendere, atque in ipso introitu finium ab 
avibus quas ibidas appellant, adverso agmine excipi pug- 
naque confici traditum est. — Pomponius Mela. 

1 lb is.2 — The ibis was a bird with a long neck and a 
crooked beak, not much unlike the stork ; his legs were 
long and stiff, and when he put lus head and neck under 
his wing, the figure he made, as Elian says, was some- 
thing like a man's heart. It is said, that the use of clys- 
ters was-first found out from observations made of this 
bird's applying that remedy to himself, by the help of his 
long neck and beak. It is reported of it, that it could 
live no where but in Egypt, but would pine itself to 
death if transported to another country. — Montfaucon. 

In contradiction to the above M. Larcher informs us, 
that one was kept for several years in the Menagerie at 
Versailles.— T. 

Hasselquist calls the ardca ibis, the ibis of the ancient 
Egyptians, because it is very common in Egypt, and al- 
most peculiar to that country : because it eats and de- 
stroys serpents; and because the urns found in sepul- 
chres contain a bird of tliis size : it is of the size of a 
raven hen. 



to the improvement of the memory* beyond the 
rest of mankind. To give some idea of their 
mode of life: for three days successively in 
every month they use purges, vomits, and clys- 
ters; this they do out of attention to their 
health, 3 being persuaded that the diseases of the 
body are occasioned by the different elements 
received as food. Besides this, we may ven- 
ture to assert, that after the Africans there is 
no people in health and constitution i to be 

2 Of the memory.'}— The invention of local memory is 
ascribed to Simonides. "Much," says Cicero, "do I 
thank Simonides of Chios, who first of all invented the 
art of memory." Simonides is by some authors affirmed 
to have taken medicines to acquire this accomplishment. 
— See Bayle, article Simonides. 

Mr Hume remarks, that the faculty of memory was 
much more valued in ancient times than at present ; that 
there is scarce any great genius celebrated in antiquity, 
who is not celebrated for this talent, and it is enumerated 
by Cicero amongst the sublime qualities of Caesar.— T. 

3 Their health, #e.] — This assertion was true previous 
to the time of Herodotus, and a long time afterwards ; 
but when they began to neglect the canals, the water 
putrefied, and 'die vapours which were exhaled rendering 
the air of Egypt very unhealthy, malignant fevers soon 
began to appear : these became epidemical, and these 
vapours concentrating and becoming every day more 
pestilential, finally caused that dreadful malady known 
by the name of the plague. It was not so before canals 
were sunk at all, or as long as they were kept in good 
order : but probably that part of Lower Egypt which 
inclines to Elearchis has never been healthy. — Larcher. 

4 Health and constitution.'] — It is of this country, which 
seems to have been regarded by nature with a favour- 
able eye, that the gods have made a sort of terrestrial 
paradise. — The air there is more pure and excellent than 
in any other part of the world ; the women, and the fe- 
males of other species, are more fruitful than any where 
else ; the lands are more productive. As the men there 
commonly enjoy perfect health, the trees and plants 
never lose their verdure, and the fruits are always deli- 
cious, or at least salutary. It is true, that this air, good 
as it is, is subject to be corrupted in some proportion to 
other climates. It is even bad in those parts where, 
when the inundations of the Nile have been very great, 
this river in returning to its channel, leaves marshy 
places, which infect the country round about : the dew 
is also very dangerous in Egypt. — Quoted from Maillet, 
by Harmer in his Observations on Scripture. 

Pococke says, that the dew of Egypt occasions very 
dangerous disorders in the eyes ; but he adds, that they 
have the plague very rarely in Egypt, unless brought by , 
infection to Alexandria, where it does not commonly 
spread. Some suppose that this distemper breeds in 
temperate weather, and that excessive cold and heat stops 
it : so that they have it not in Constantinople in winter, 
nor in Egypt in summer. The air of Cairo in particular 
is not thought to be wholesome ; the people are much 
subject to fluxes, and troubled with ruptures ; the small- 
pox also is common, but not dangerous ; pulmonary 
diseases are unknown. Savary speaks in high terms of 
the healthiness of the climate, but allows that the season 
from February to the end of May is unhealthy. Volney, 
who contradicts Savary in many of his assertions, con- 
firms what he says of the climate of Egypt.— T. 



EUTERPE. 



95 



compared with the Egyptians. To this ad- 
vantage the climate, which is here subject to 
no variations, may essentially contribute i 
changes of all kinds, and those in particular of 
the seasons, promote and occasion the maladies 
of the body. To their bread, which they make 
with spelt, they give the name of cyllestis ; 
they have no vines 5 in the country, but they 
drink a liquor fermented from barley ; b tbey 



5 No vines."] — That there must have been vines in some 
parts of Egypt, is evident from the following passage in 
the book of Numbers : " And wherefore have ye made 
us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil 
place ? it is no place of seed or of figs, or of vines, or of 
pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink." 
Larcher therefore supposes Herodotus to speak only of 
that part of Egypt where corn was cultivated. Again, 
in the Psalms, we have this passage : " He destroyed 
their vines with hailstones." Egypt, however, certainly 
never was a wine country, nor is it now productive of a 
quantity adequate to the wants of the inhabitants. 

The Greeks were wrong, says Savary, in wishing to 
establish a perfect resemblance betwixt Bacchus and 
Osiris. The first was honoured as the author of the 
vine ; but the Egyptians, far from attributing its culture 
to Osiris, held wine in abhorrence. "The Egyptians," 
says Plutarch, "never drank wine before the time of 
Psammitichus ; they held this liquor to be the blood of 
the giants, who having made war on the gods, and per- 
ished in battle, and that the vine sprang from the earth 
mingled with their blood ; nor did they offer it in liba- 
tions, thinking it odious to the gods." Whence the 
oriental aversion for wine originated, would be difficult 
to say, but exist it did, which probably was one reason 
why it was forbidden by Mahomet. Perhaps we should 
6eek for the cause in the curse of Noah, pronounced upon 
Ham, who insulted his father finding him drunk.— 
Savary. 

In the time of Homer the vine grew wild in the island 
of Sicily, but it was not improved by the skill, nor did it 
afford a liquor grateful to the taste of the savage inhabi- 
tants. — Gibbon. 

Of the small quantity of wine made anciently in Egypt, 
some was carried to Rome, and according to Maillet, 
was the third in esteem of their wines. 

6 Fermented from barley.']— See a Dissertation on 
Barley Wine, before alluded to, where, amongst a pro- 
fusion of witty and humorous remarks, much real in- 
formation is communicated on this subject. — T. 

The most vulgar people make a sort of beer of barley, 
without being malted ; they put something in it to make 
it intoxicate, and call it bouny : they make it ferment ; 
it is thick and sour, and will not keep longer than three 
or four days. — Pococke. 

The invention of this liquor of barley is universally 
attributed to Osiris. — T. 

An Englishman may in this place be excused, if he 
assert with some degree of pride, that the " wine of 
narley" made in this country, or in other words British 
beer, is superior to what is made in any other part of the 
world : the beer of Bremen is however deservedly fam- 
ous. It has been asserted by some that our brewers 
throw dead dogs flayed into the wort, and boil them till 
the flesh is all consumed. " Others," say the authors of 
the Encyclopaedia Britannica, " more equitable, attribute 
the excellency of our beer to the quality of our malt and 
water, and skill of our brewers." 



live principally upon fish, either salted 7 or dried 
in the sun; they cat also quails, 8 ducks, and 
some smaller birds, without other preparation 
than first salting them ; but they roast and boil 
such other birds and fishes as they have, ex- 
cepting those which are preserved for sacred 
purposes. 

LXXVIIL At the entertainments of the 
rich, just as the company is about to rise from 
the repast, a small coffin is carried round, con- 
taining a perfect representation of a dead body ; 
it is in size sometimes of one but never of 
more than two cubits, and as it is shown to the 
guests in rotation, the bearer exclaims, " Cast 
your eyes on this figure, after death you your- 
self will resemble it; drink then, and be hap- 
py." — Such are the customs they observe at 
entertainments. 

LXXIX. They contentedly adhere to the 
customs of their ancestors, and are averse to 
foreign manners." Among other things which 
claim our approbation, they have a song, 10 which 



7 Salted.] — A distinction must here be observed be- 
twixt sea-salt and fossil-salt : the Egyptians abhorred 
the former, but made no scruple of using the latter. 

8 Quails.] — " The quails of Egypt are esteemed a great 
delicacy, are of the size of a turtle dove, and called by 
Hasselquist, tetrao Israelitarum." A dispute, however, 
has arisen amongst the learned, whether the food of the 
Israelites in the desert was a bird ; many suppose that 
they fed on locusts. Their immense quantities seem to 
form an argument in favour of tliis latter opinion, not 
easily to be set aside ; to which may be added, that the 
Arabs at the present day eat locusts when fresh, and 
esteem them when salted a great delicacy. — T. 

9 Averse to foreign manners.]— The attachment of the 
Egyptians to their country has been a frequent subject 
of remark ; it is nevertheless singular, that great num- 
bers of them anciently lived as servants in other lands. 
Mr Harmer observes, that Hagar was an Egyptian, with 
many others ; and that it will not be easy to pick out 
from the Old Testament accounts an equal number of 
servants of other countries, that lived in foreign lands 
mentioned there. — T. 

10 They have a song.]— Linus, says Diodorus Siculus, 
was the first inventor of melody amongst the Greeks. 
We are told by Athenaeus, that the strain called Linus 
was very melancholy. Linus was supposed to have been 
the first lyric poet in Greece, and was the master ol 
Orpheus, Thamyris, and Hercules. 

Plutarch, from Heraclides of Pontus, mentions certain 
dirges as composed by Linus ; his death gave rise to a 
number of songs in honour of his memory : to these 
Homer is supposed to allude in the following lines : 

To these a jouth awakes the warbling strings, 
Wliose tender lay the fate of Linus sings ; 
In measured dance behind him move the train, 
Tune soft the voice, and answer to the strain. — Pope. 

Song in Greece is supposed to have preceded the use 
of letters. — Not only the Egyptians, but the Hebrews; 
Arabians, Assyrians, Persians, and Indians had their 
national songs. 



96 



HERODOTUS. 



is also used in Phoenicia, Cyprus, and other 
places, where it is differently named. Of all 
the things which astonished me in Egypt, no- 
thing more perplexed me than my curiosity to 
know whence the Egyptians learned this song, 
so entirely resembling the Linus of the Greeks ; 
it is of the remotest antiquity among them, and 
they call it Maneros. They have a tradition 
that Maneros was the only son of their first 
monarch ; and that having prematurely died, 
they instituted these melancholy strains in his 
honour, constituting their first and in earlier 
times their only song. 

LXXX. The Egyptians surpass all the 
Greeks, the Lacedaemonians excepted, in the 
reverence 1 which they pay to age ; if a young 
person met his senior, he instantly turns aside 
to make way for him ; if a senior enter an apart- 
ment, the youth always rise from their seats ; 
this ceremony is observed by no other of the 
Greeks. When the Egyptians meet they do 
not speak, but make a profound reverence, bow- 
ing with the hand down to the knee. 

LXXXI. Their habit, which they call cal- 
asiris, 8 is made of linen, and fringed at the bot- 

Montaigne has preserved an original Caribbean song, 
which he does not hesitate to declare worthy of Anacreon. 

" Oh, snake, stay; stay, O snake, that my sister may 
draw from the pattern of thy painted skin the fashion and 
work of a rich ribbon, which I mean to present to my 
mistress : so may thy beauty and thy disposition be pre- 
ferred to all other serpents. Oh snake, stay!" Ritson's 
Essay on National Song. 

1 Reverence, 8$c.~\ — The following- story is related by 
Valerius Maximus : An old Athenian going to the theatre, 
was not able to find a place amongst his countrymen ; 
coming by accident where the ambassadors from Sparta 
were sitting, they all respectfully rose, and gave him the 
place of honour amongst them. The people were loud 
in their applause, which occasioned a Spartan to remark, 
that the Athenians were not ignorant of virtue, though 
they forhore to practise it. 

Juvenal, reprobating the dissipation and profligacy of 
the times in which he lived, expresses himself thus : 
Credebant hoc grande nefas et morte piandum 
Si juvenis vetulo rum assurexerat, et si 
Barbato cuicunque puer. 

As if the not paying a becoming reverence to age was 
the highest mark of degeneracy which could be shown. 

Savary tells his readers, that the reverence here men- 
tioned is at this day in Egypt exhibited on every occasion 
to those advanced in years. Various modes of testifying 
respect are adopted amongst different nations, but this 
of rising from the seat seems to be in a manner instinctive, 
and to prevail every where. 

2 Calasiris.] — This calasiris they wore next the skin, 
and it seems to have served them both for shirt and habit, 
it being the custom of the Egyptians to go lightly clothed ; 
it appears also to have been in use amongst the Greeks. — 
See Montfaucon. Pococke, with other modern travel- 
lers, informs us that the dress of the Egyptians seems to 
have undergone very little change ; the most simple dress 



torn ; over this they throw a kind of shawl made 
of white wool, but in these vests of wool they 
are forbidden by their religion either to be bur- 
ied or to enter any sacred edifice ; this is a 
peculiarity of those ceremonies which are called 
Orphic 3 and Pythagorean : 4 whoever has been 
initiated in these mysteries can never be interred 
in a vest of wool, for which a sacred reason is 
assigned. 

L XX XII. Of the Egyptians it is further 
memorable, that they first imagined what month 
or day was to be consecrated to each deity; 
they also from observing the days of nativity, 5 
venture to predict the particular circumstances 
of a man's life and death : this is done by the 
poets of Greece, but the Egyptians have cer- 
tainly discovered more things that are wonderful 
than all the rest of mankind. Whenever any 



being only a long shirt with wide sleeves, tied about the 
middle. When they performed any religious offices, we 
find from Herodotus, they were clothed only in linen ; 
and at this day when the Egyptians enter a mosque they 
put on a white garment ; which circumstance, Pococke 
remarks, might probably give rise to the use of the 
surplice. To this simplicity of dress in the men, it 
appears that the dress of the females, in costliness and 
magnificence, exhibits a strilcing contrast. — T. 

3 Orphic."] — Those initiated into Orpheus's mysteries 
were called Orpheolelestai, who assured all admitted 
into their society of certain felicity after death : which 
when Philip, one of that order, but miserably poor and 
indigent, boasted of, Leotychidas the Spartan replied, 
" Why do you not die then, you fool, and put an end to 
your misfortunes together with your life ?" At their 
initiation little else was required of them besides an oath 
of secrecy. — Potter. 

So little do we know about Orpheus, that Aristotle 
does not scruple to question his existence. The cele- 
brated Orphic verses cited by Justin are judged by Dr 
Jortin to be forgeries. 

4 Pythagorean.'] — To be minute in our account of the 
school of Pythagoras, would perhaps be trifling with the 
patience of some readers, whilst to pass it over without 
any notice might give offence to others. Born at Samos, 
he travelled to various countries, but Egypt was the great 
source from which he derived his knowledge. On his 
return to his country, he was followed by numbers of his 
disciples ; from hence came a crowd of legislators, phi- 
losophers, and scholars, the pride of Greece. To the 
disciples of Pythagoras the world is doubtless indebted 
for the discovery of numbers, of the principles of music, 
of physics, and of morals. — T. 

5 Days of nativity. ] — Many illustrious characters have 
in all countries given way to this weakness; but that 
such a man as Dryden should place confidence in such 
prognostications, cannot fail to impress the mind with 
conviction of the melancholy truth, that the most exalted 
talents are seldom without their portion of infirmity. 

Casting their nativity, or by calculation seeking to 
know how long the queen should live, was made felony 
by act of the 23d of Elizabeth. 

Sully also was marked by this weakness; and Riche- 
lieu and Mazarin kept an astrologer in pay. — See an in- 
genious Essay upon the Damon of Socrates. 



EUTERPE. 



97 



unusual circumstance occurs, they commit the 
particulars to writing, and mark the events 
which follow it : if they afterwards observe any 
similar incident, they conclude that the result 
will be similar also. 

LXXXIII. The art of divination 6 in Egypt 
is confined to certain of their deities. There 
are in this country oracles of Hercules, of 
Apollo, of Minerva and Diana, of Mars, and of 
Jupiter ; but the oracle of Latona at Butos is 
held in greater estimation than any of the rest : 
the oracular communication is regulated by no 
fixed system, but is differently obtained in dif- 
ferent places. 

LXXXIV. The art of medicine 7 in Egypt 
is thus exercised : one physician is confined to 
the study and management of one disease ; there 
are of course a great number who practise this 
art ; some attend to disorders of the eyes, others 
to those of the head ; some take care of the 
teeth, others are conversant with all diseases of 
the bowels ; whilst many attend to the cure of 
maladies which are less conspicuous. 

LXXXV. With respect to their funerals 
and ceremonies of mourning ; whenever a man 
of any importance dies, the females of his fami- 
ly, 8 disfiguring their heads and faces with dirt, 



6 Art of divination.] — Of such high importance was 
this art anciently esteemed, that no military expedition 
was undertaken without the presence of one or more of 
these diviners. 

7 Art of medicine.] — It is remarkable, with regard to 
medicine, that none of the sciences sooner arrived at per- 
fection ; for in the space of two thousand years, elapsed 
since the time of Hippocrates, there has scarcely been 
added a new aphorism to those of that great man, not- 
withstanding all the care and application of so many in- 
genious men as have since studied that science. — Dutens. 

With respect to the state of chirurgery amongst the 
ancients, a perusal of Homer alone will be sufficient to 
satisfy every candid reader, that their knowledge and 
skill was far from contemptible. Celsus gives an exact 
account and description of the operation for the stone, 
winch implies both a knowledge of anatomy, and some 
degree of perfection in the art of instrument-making. 

The three qualities, says Bayle, of a good physician, 
are probity, learning, and good fortune ; and whoever 
peruses the oath which anciently every professor of 
medicine was obliged to take, must both acknowledge 
its merits as a composition, and admire the amiable dis- 
position which it inculcates. — T. 

8 Females of his family.] — " I was awakened before 
day-break by the same troop of women; their dismal 
cries suited very well with the lonely hour of the 
night. This mourning lasts for the space of seven days, 
during which interval the female relations of the de- 
ceased make a tour through the town morning and 
night, beating their breasts, throwing ashes on their 
heads, and displaying every artificial token of sorrow." 
—Irwin. 

The assembling together of multitudes to the place 

where persons have lately expired, and bewailing them 

N 



leave the corpse in the house, and run publicly 
about, accompanied by their female relations, 
with their garments in disorder, their breasts 
exposed, and beating themselves severely : the 
men on their parts do the same, after which the 
body is carried to the embalmers. 9 

LXXXVI. There are certain persons le- 
gally appointed to the exercise of this profes- 
sion. When a dead body is brought them, they 
exhibit to the friends of the deceased different 
models highly finished in wood. The most 
perfect of these they say resembles one whom 
I do not think it religious to name in such a 
matter ; the second is of less price, and inferior 
in point of execution : another is still more 
mean ; they then inquire after which model 
the deceased shall be represented : when the 
price is determined, the relations retire, and the 
embalmers thus proceed : — In the most perfect 
specimens of their art, they draw the brain 
through the nostrils, partly with a piece of 
crooked iron, and partly by the infusion of 
drugs; they then with an Ethiopian stone 
make an incision in the side, through which 

in a noisy manner, is a custom still retained in the east, 
and seems to be considered as an honour done to the de- 
ceased. — Harmer. — This gentleman relates a curious cir- 
cumstance corroborative of the above, from the MS. of 
Chardin ; see vol. ii. 136. 

9 Embalmers.] — The following remarks on the subject 
of embalming are compiled from different writers. 

The Jews embalmed their dead, but instead of embow- 
elling, were contented with an external unction. The 
present way in Egypt, according to Maillet, is to wash 
the body repeatedly with rose-water. 

A modern Jew has made an objection to the history of 
the New Testament, that the quantity of spices used by 
Joseph and Nicodemus on the body of Christ, was enough 
for two hundred dead bodies. 

Diodorus Siculus is very minute on this subject : after 
describing the expense and ceremony of embalming, he 
adds, that the relations of the deceased, till the body was 
buried, used neither the baths, wine, delicate food, nor 
fine clothes. 

In the Philosophical Transactions for 1764, a particular 
account is given of the examination of a mummy. 

Diodorus Siculus describes three methods of embalm- 
ing, with the first of which our author does not appear 
to have been acquainted. The form and appearance of 
the whole body was so well preserved, that the deceased 
might be known by their features. 

The Romans had the art of embalming as well as the 
Egyptians ; and if what is related of them be true, this 
art had arrived to greater perfection in Rome than in 
Egypt. — See Montfaucon. 

A modern author remarks, that the numberless mum- 
mies which still endure, after so long a course of ages, 
ought to ascertain to the Egyptians the glory of having 
carried chemistry to a degree of perfection attained but 
by few. Some moderns have attempted by certain pre- 
parations to preserve dead bodies entire, but to no pur- 
pose.— T. 



98 



HERODOTUS. 



they extract the intestines ;' these they cleanse 
thoroughly, washing them with palm-wine, and 
afterwards covering them with pounded aroma- 
tics : they then fill the body with powder of 
pure myrrh, 8 cassia, and other perfumes, except 
frankincense. Having sown up the body, it is 
covered with nitre 3 for the space of seventy 
days, 4 which time they may not exceed ; at the 
end of this period it is washed, closely wrapped 
in bandages of cotton, 5 dipped in a gum, 6 which 
the Egyptians use as glue : it is then returned 
to the relations, who inclose the body in a case 
of wood, made to resemble a human figure; and 
place it against the wall in the repository of 
their dead. The above is the most cdstly mode 
of embalming. 

L XXXVII. They who wish to be less ex- 
pensive, adopt the following method : they 
neither draw out the intestines, nor make any 
incision in the dead body, but inject an unguent 
made from the cedar ; after taking proper 
means to secure the injected oil within the body, 
it is covered with nitre for the time above speci- 
fied : 7 on the last day they withdraw the liquor 



1 Intestines. ,] — Porphyry informs us what afterwards 
becomes of these : they are put into a chest, and one of 
the embalmers makes a prayer for the deceased, address- 
ed to the sun, the purport of which is to signify that if 
the conduct of the deceased has during- his life been at 
all criminal, it must have been on account of these ; the 
embalmer then points to the chest, which is afterwards 
thrown into the river.— T. 

2 Myrrh, fyc] — Instead of myrrh and cassia, the Jews 
in embalming - used myrrh and aloes. — T. 

3 Nitre.] — Larcher says, this was not of the nature of 
our nitre, but a fixed alkaline salt. 

4 Seventy days.]—" If the nitre or natrum had been 
suffered," says Larcher, " to remain for a longer period, 
it would have attacked the solid or fibrous parts, and 
dissolved them ; if it had been a neutral salt, like our 
nitre, this precaution would not have been necessary." 

5 Cotton.]— By the byssus cotton seems clearly to be 
meant, "which," says Larcher, "was probably conse- 
crated by their religion to the purpose of embalming." 
Mr Greaves asserts, that these bandages in which the 
mummies were involved were of linen ; but he appears 
to be mistaken. There are two species of this plant, 
annual and perennial, it was the latter winch was culti- 
vated in Egypt. 

6 Gum.]— This was gum arabic. Pococke says it is 
produced from the acacia, which is very common in 
Egypt, the same as the acacia called cyale in Arabia 
Petraea : in Egypt it is called sount. 

7 Time above specified.]— According to Irwin, the time 
of mourning of the modern Egyptians is only seven days : 
the Jews in the time of Moses mourned thirty days. 
The mourning for Jacob, we find from Genesis, chap. 
1. 3, was the time here prescribed for the process of 
embalming ; but how are we to explain the preceding 
verses ? 

"And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to 
embalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel. 



before introduced, which brings with it all the 
bowels and intestines ; the nitre eats away the 
flesh, and the skin and bones only remain : the 
body is returned in this state, and no further 
care taken concerning it. 

LXXXVIII. There is a third mode of 
embalming appropriated to the poor. A par- 
ticular kind of ablution 8 is made to pass through 
the body, which is afterwards left in nitre for 
the above seventy days, and then returned. 

LXXXIX. The wives of men of rank, and 
such females as have been distinguished by their 
beauty or importance, are not immediately on 
their decease delivered to the embalmers : they 
are usually kept for three or four days, which 
is done to prevent any indecency being offered 
to their persons. An instance once occurred of 
an embalmer's gratifying his lust on the body 
of a female lately dead : the crime was divulged 
by a fellow artist. 

XC. If an Egyptian or foreigner be found, 
either destroyed by a crocodile or drowned in 
the water, the city nearest which the body is 
discovered, is obliged to embalm and pay it every 
respectful attention, and afterwards deposit it 
in some consecrated place ; no friend or relation 
is suffered to interfere, the whole process is con 
ducted by the Priests of the Nile, 9 who bury 
it themselves with a respect to which a lifeless 
corpse would hardly seem entitled. 

XCI. To the customs of Greece they ex- 
press aversion, and to say the truth, to those of 
all other nations. This remark applies, with 
only one exception, to every part of Egypt. 



" And forty days were fulfilled for him ; (for so are 
fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed) and the 
Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days. "— T. 

8 Ablution.]— The particular name of this ablution is 
in the original surmaia, some believe it a composition of 
salt and water; the word occurs again in chap. cxxv. 
w here it signifies a radish. 

9 Priests of the Nile.]— That the Nile was esteemed 
and worshipped as a god, having cities, priests, festivals, 
and sacrifices consecrated to it, is sufficiently evident.— 
" No god," says Plutarch, "is more solemnly worship- 
ped than the Nile."— "The grand festival of the Nile." 
says Heliodorus, " was the most solemn festival of the 
Egyptians : they regard him as the rival of heaven, since 
without clouds or rain he waters the lands." 

The memory of these ancient superstitions is still pre- 
served, and is seen in the great pomp with which the 
canal of Grand Cairo is opened every year. It appears 
also from the representations of modern travellers, that 
the Egyptian women bathe in the Nile at the time of its 
beginning to rise, to express their veneration for the 
benefits it confers on their country. Irwin tells us, that 
a sacred procession along the banks of the Nile is an- 
nually made by women on the first visible rise of the 
river. 



EUTERPE. 



99 



Chemmis l0 is a place of considerable note in the 
Tbebaid, it is near Neapolis, and remarkable 
for a temple of Perseus " the son of Danae. 
This temple is of a square figure, and sur- 
rounded with palm-trees. The vestibule, which 
is very spacious, is constructed of stone, and 
on the summit are placed two large marble 
statues. Within the consecrated inclosure stand 
the shrine and statue of Perseus, who, as the 
inhabitants affirm, often appears in the country 
and the temple. They sometimes find one of 
his sandals, which are of the length of two 
cubits, and whenever this happens, fertility 
reigns through Egypt. Public games, after the 
manner of the Greeks, are celebrated in his 
honour. Upon this occasion they have every 
variety of gymnastic exercise. The rewards of 
the conquerors are cattle, vests, and skins. I8 I 
was once induced to inquire why Perseus made 
his appearance to them alone, and why they 
were distinguished from the rest of Egypt by 
the celebration of gymnastic exercises ? l3 They 

10 Chemmis.'] — The Egyptians called this place Chem- 
mo. Chemmis seems to be a Greek termination ; it is 
the same place with Panopolis. Plutarch informs us, 
that Pans and Satyrs once dwelt near Chemmis, which 
tradition probably arose from the circumstance of the 
worship of Pan commencing first in this place. — Lurcher. 

I suppose Akmim to have been Panopolis, famous of 
old for workers in stone, and for the linen manufactures ; 
at present they make coarse cotton here. It appears 
plainly from Diodorus, that this place is what was called 
Chemmis by Herodotus. It is now the place of residence 
of the prince of Akmim, who has the title of emir or 
prince, and is as a sheik of the country. — Pococke. 

1 1 Perseus] — Was one of the most ancient heroes in 
the mythology of Greece. The history of Perseus came 
apparently from Egypt. Herodotus more truly repre- 
sents hhn as an Assyrian, by which is meant a Babylon- 
ian (book vi. 54.) He resided in Egypt, and is said to 
have reigned at MempMs. To say the truth, he was 
worshipped there, for Perseus was a title of the deity. 
Perseus was no other than the sun, the chief god of the 
gentile world. On this account he had a temple at 
Chemmis, Memphis, and in other parts of Egypt. His 
true name was Perez or Parez, rendered Peresis, Perses, 
and Perseus ; and in the account given of this personage 
we have the history of the Peresians, Parrhasians, and 
Perezites in their several peregrinations. — Bryant. 

12 Skins.] — To prove that skins were in ancient times 
distributed as prizes at games, Wesseling quotes the fol- 
lowing lines from Homer : 

ob x litfio*, ouhl BOEIHN 

AqvihtOyiv <*t6 xoffcrtv u.i6kia. ylyvtrett kvhgStv, 
which literally means, " They did not attempt to gain a 
victim or the skin of an ox, the prize of the racers." 

Winch Pope, entirely omitting the more material 
circumstance of the sentence, very erroneously renders 
thus : 

No vulgar prize they play, 
No vulgar victim must reward the day, 
(S:ich as in races crown the speedy strife.)— T. 

13 Gymnastic exercises.] — These were five in number. 



informed me in return, that Perseus was a 
native of their country, as were also Danaus 
and Lynceus, who made a voyage into Greece, 
and from whom, in regular succession, they re- 
lated how Perseus was descended. This hero- 
visited Egypt for the purpose, as the Greeks 
also affirm, of carrying from Africa the Gorgon's 
head. 14 Happening to come among them, he 
saw and was known to his relations. The 
name of Chemmis he had previously known 
from his mother, and himself instituted the 
games which they continued to celebrate. 

XCII. These which I have described, are 
the manners of those Egyptians who live in the 
higher parts of the country. They who inhabit 
the marshy grounds differ in no material in 
stance. Like the Greeks, they confine them- 
selves to one wife. 15 To procure themselves 

They began with the foot race, which was the most 
ancient. The second was leaping with weights in the 
hand ; and mention is made in Pausanias, of a man who 
leaped fifty-two feet. The third was wrestling . the 
victor was required to throw liis adversary three times. 
The fourth was the disk ; and the fifth boxing. This last 
was sometimes with the naked fist, and sometimes with 
the csestus.— T. 

11 Gorgon's head.] — The Gorgons were three in num- 
ber, sisters, the daughters of Phorcys, a sea-god, and 
Ceto, of whom Medusa was the chief, or according r< ■ 
some authors the only one who was mortal. Her story 
is this : Independent of her other accomplishments, her 
golden hair was so very beautiful, that it captivated the 
god Neptune, who enjoyed her person in the temple of 
Minerva. The goddess in anger changed her hair into 
snakes, the sight of which transformed the spectators 
into stones. From the union of Medusa with Neptune 
Pegasus was born ; but after that, no one with impunity 
could look at Medusa. Perseus, borrowing the wings of 
Mercury, and the shield of Minerva, came suddenly 
upon her when she and her snakes were asleep, and cut 
off her head. 

But in every circumstance of the mythology of the 
Gorgons, there is great disagreement in different ancient 
authors : according to some the blood of Medusa alone 
produced Pegasus. 

The head of Medusa frequently exercised the skill of 
the more ancient artists, who, notwithstanding what is 
mentioned above, sometimes represented it as exceed 
ingly beautiful. 

The following description of the daughters of Phorcys, 
and of the Gorgons, I give from the Prometheus Vine. 
tus of ^schylus, in the animated version of Potter : 

Thou shalt come to the Gorgonian plains 

Of Cisthine, where dwell the swan-like forms 

Of Phorcys' daughters, bent and white with age , 

One common eye have these, one common tooth, 

And never does the sun with cheerful ray 

Visit them darkling, nor the moon's pale orb 

That silvers o'er the night. The Gorgons nigh, 

Their sisters, these spread their broad wings, and wreath 

Their horrid hair with serpents, fiends abhorr'd, 

Whom never mortal could behold and live. 

15 To one wife.] — Modern travellers inform us, that 
although the Mahometan law allows every man to have 
four wives, many are satisfied with one. 



100 



HERODOTUS. 



more easily the means of sustenance, they make 
use of the following expedient : when the 
waters have risen to their extremest height, and 
all their fields are overflowed, there appears 
above the surface an immense quantity of plants 
of the lily species, which the Egyptians call 
the lotos :' having cut down these, they dry them 
in the sun. The seed of the flower, which re- 
sembles that of the poppy, they bake, and make 
into a kind of bread ; they also eat the roojt of 
this plant, which is round, of an agreeable 
flavour, and about the size of an apple. There 
is a second species of the lotos, which grows in 
the Nile, and which is not unlike a rose. The 
fruit, which grows from the bottom of the root, 
resembles a wasp's nest : it is found to contain 
a number of kernels of the size of an olive- 
stone, which are very grateful, either fresh or 
dried. Of the byblus, which is an annual plant, 

" The equality in the number of males and females 
born into the world intimates," says Mr Paley, " the in- 
tention of God, that one woman should be assigned to 
one man." 

" From the practice of polygamy permitted among the 
Turks," says Volney, "the men are enervated very 
early ; and nothing is more common than to hear men of 
thirty complaining of impotence. But still it is no new 
remark, that the conversion of infidels is retarded by the 
prohibition of more wives than one." 

That the Greeks did not always confine themselves to 
one wife we learn from certain authority. Euripides was 
known to be a woman-hater, " but," says Hume, " it 
was because he was coupled to two noisy vixens." The 
reader will find many ingenious remarks and acute reason- 
ings in Hume's 19th essay on polygamy and divorces. — T. 

1 Lotos.2 — The lotos is an aquatic plant peculiar to 
Egypt, which grows in rivulets, and by the side of lakes. 
There are two species, the one bearing a white the other 
a bluish flower. The root of the first species is round, 
resembling a potatoe, and is eaten by the inhabitants 
who live near the lake Menzala. — Savary. 

The lotos is of the lily species. We find this singular 
remark in the Memoire sur Venus : — Le lys etoit ocu>ux 
a Venus parce qu'il lui disputoit la beaute. Aussi pour 
s'en venger fit-elle croitre an milieu de ses petales le 
membre de l'ane." The above is translated from the 
Alexipharmaca of Nicander. — T. 

The byblus or papyrus the ancients converted to a 
great variety of uses, for particulars of which consult 
Pliny and Strabo. It is a rush, and grows to the height of 
eight or nine feet ; it is now very scarce in Egypt, for 
Hasselquist makes no mention of it. The use of the papy- 
rus for books was not found out till after the building of 
Alexandria. As anciently books were rolled up, the 
nature of the papyrus made it very convenient for this 
purpose. They wrote upon the inner skins of the stalk. 
From papyrus comes our English word paper. — T. 

See in Homer, Odyss. ix. 94, the extraordinary effects 
imputed to the eating of the lotos. 

The trees around them all their food produce, 

Lotos the name divine, nectareous juice, 

Thence called Lotophagi, which whoso tastes 

Insatiate riots in the sweet repast ; 

Nor other home, nor other care intends, 

But quits his home, his country, and his friends. 



after taking it from a marshy place, where it 
grows, they cut off the tops, and apply them to 
various uses. They eat or sell what remains, 
which is nearly a cubit in length. To make 
this a still greater delicacy, there are many who 
previously roast it. With a considerable part 
of this people fish constitutes the principal 
article of food : they dry it in the sun, and eat 
it without other preparation. 

XCIII. Those fishes which are gregarious 
seldom multiply in the Nile, they usually pro- 
pagate in the lakes. At the season of spawn- 
ing they move in vast multitudes towards the 
sea : the males lead the way, and emit the en- 
gendering principle in their passage ; this the 
females absorb as they follow, and in conse- 
quence conceive. As soon as the seminal 
matter has had its proper operation, they leave 
the sea, return up the river, and endeavour to 
regain their accustomed haunts. The mode, 
however, of their passage is reversed, the 
females lead the way, whilst the males follow. 
The females do now what the males did before, 
they drop their spawn, resembling small grains 
of millet, which the males eagerly devour. 
Every particle of this contains a small fish, and 
each which escapes the males regularly increases 
till it becomes a fish. Of these fish, such as 
are taken in their passage towards the sea are 
observed to have the left part of their heads 
depressed, which on their return is observed of 
their right. The cause of this is obvious : as 
they pass to the sea they rub themselves against 
the banks on the left side ; as they return they 
keep closely to the same bank, and in both in- 
stances press against it, that they may not be 
obliged to deviate from their course by the cur- 
rent of the stream. As the Nile gradually 
rises, the water first fills those cavities of the 
land which are nearest the river. As soon as 
these are saturated, an abundance of small 
fry may be discovered. The cause of their 
increase may perhaps be thus explained : when 
the Nile ebbs, the fish, which in the preceding 
season had deposited their spawn in the mud, 
retreated reluctantly with the stream ; but at 
the proper season, when the river flows, this 
spawn is matured into fish. 

XCIV. The inhabitants of the marshy 
grounds make use of an oil, which they term 
kiki, expressed from the Sillicyprian plant. In 
Greece this plant springs spontaneously without 
any cultivation, but the Egyptians sow it on 
the banks of the river, and of the canals ; it 
there produces fruit in great abundance, but of 



EUTERPE. 



101 



a very strong odour ; when gathered they ob- 
tain from it, either by friction or pressure, an 
unctuous liquid, which diffuses an offensive 
smell, but for burning is equal in quality to 
the oil of olives. 

XCV. The Egyptians are provided with a 
remedy against gnats, of which there are a 
surprising number. As the wind will not suf- 
fer these insects to rise far from the ground, the 
inhabitants of the higher part of the country 
usually sleep in turrets. They who live in the 
marshy grounds use this substitute ; each per- 
son has a net, with which they fish by day, and 
which they render useful by night. They 
cover their beds with their nets, 2 and sleep 
securely beneath them. If they slept in 
their common habits, or under linen, the gnats 
would not fail to torment them, which they do 
not even attempt through a net. 

XCVI. Their vessels of burden are con- 
structed of a species of thorn, which resembles 
the lotos of Cyrene, and which distils a gum. 
From this thorn they cut planks about two 
cubits square : after disposing these in the form 
of bricks, and securing them strongly together, 
they place from side to side benches for the 
rowers* They do not use timber artificially 
carved, but bend the planks together with the 
bark of the byblus made into ropes. They 
have one rudder, 3 which goes through the keel 
of the vessel ; their mast is made of the same 
thorn, and the sails are formed from the byblus. 
These vessels are haled along by land, for un- 
less the wind be very favourable they can make 
no way against the stream. When they go with 
the current, they throw from the head of the 
vessel a hurdle made of tamarisk, fastened to- 
gether with reeds ; they have also a perforated 
stone of the weight of two talents, this is let 
fall at the stern, secured by a rope. The name 
of this kind of bark is baris, 4 which the above 



hurdle, impelled by the tide, draws- swiftly 
along. The stone at the stern regulates its 
motion. They have immense numbers of these 
vessels, and some of them of the burden of 
many thousand talents. 

XCVII. During the inundation of the Nile, 
the cities only are left conspicuous, appearing 
above the waters like the islands of the iEgean 
sea. As long as the flood continues, vessels 
do not confine themselves to the channel of the 
river, but traverse the fields and the plains. 
They who then go from Naucratis to Memphis, 
pass by the pyramids ; this, however, is not the 
usual course, which lies through the point of 
the Delta, and the city of Cercasorus. If from 
the sea and the town of Canopus, the traveller 
desires to go by the plains to Naucratis, he 
must pass by Anthilla 5 and Archandros. 

XCVI II. Of these places Anthilla is the 
most considerable : whoever may be sove- 
reign of Egypt, it is assigned perpetually as 
part of the revenues of the queen, and appro- 
priated to the particular purpose of providing 
her with sandals ; this has been observed 
ever since Egypt was tributary to Persia. I 
should suppose that the other city derives its 
name from Archander, the son of Pthius, son- 
in-law of Danaus, and grandson of Achaeus. 
There may probably have been some other 
Archander, for the name is certainly not 
Egyptian. 

VXCIX. All that I have hitherto asserted 
has been the result of my own personal 
remarks or diligent inquiry. I shall now 
proceed to relate what I learned from convers- 
ing with Egyptians, to which I shall occasion- 
ally add what I myself have witnessed. — 
Menes, the first sovereign of Egypt, as I was 
informed by the priests, effectually detached the 
ground on which Memphis 6 stands from the 



2 With their nets.~] — In the countries of the east, it is 
at present a common practice to cover their beds with 
nets, by way of protection from the flies and other in- 
sects. 

3 One rudder. ~\ — When Herodotus observes in this 
place, that these vessels had one rudder, it looks as if 
other sliips had two.— See Claudian, cens. Hor. vL 132 : 

Qualis piratica puppis 
Orba gubernaculis. 

Diod. 1. lxxv. p. 845, mentions live hundred ships which 
had one rudder in the stern and another at the prow. — 
Jorti?i. 

But Dr Jortin must have seen abundant proof in an- 
cient authors, that this was not usual : such might easily 
be produced. 

4 Baris.'] — Part of the ceremony in most of the ancient 



mysteries consisted in carrying about a kind of ship or 
boat ; which custom, upon due examination, will bo 
found to relate to nothing else but Noah and the deluge. 
The ship of Isis is well known. The name of this, and of 
all the navicular shrines, was Baris ; which is very re- 
markable, for it was the very name of the mountain, ac- 
cording to Nicolas Damascenus, on which the ark of 
Noah rested.— Bryant. 

5 Anthilla]— Was probably the same place with Gynse- 
copolis ; the superior excellence of its wines made it in 
after-times celebrated. — Ldrcher. 

6 Memphis.]— Authors are exceedingly divided about 
the site of ancient Memphis. The opinions of a few of 
the more eminent are subjoined. 

Diodorus Siculus differs from Herodotus with regard 
to the founder. "Uchoreus," says he, " built the city 
of Memphis, which is the most illustrious of all the cities 
of Egypt." 



102 



HERODOTUS. 



water. Before his time the river flowed en- 
tirely along the sandy mountain on the side of 
Africa. But this prince, by constructing a 
bank at the distance of a hundred stadia from 
Memphis, towards the south, diverted the 
course of the Nile, 1 and led it, by means of a 
new canal, through the centre of the mountains. 
And even at the present period, under the 
dominion of the Persians, this artificial channel 
is annually repaired, and regularly defended. 
If the river were here once to break its banks, 
the town of Memphis would be inevitably 
ruined. It was the same Menes who, upon the 
solid ground thus rescued from the water, first 
built the town now known by the name of 
Memphis, which is situate in the narrowest 
part of Egypt. To the north and the west of 
Memphis he also sunk a lake, communicating 
with the river, which, from the situation of the 
Nile, it was not possible to effect towards the 
east. He moreover erected ^on the same spot 
a magnificent temple in honour of Vulcan. 

C. The priests afterwards recited to me 
from a book the names of three hundred and 
thirty sovereigns (successors of Menes) ; in 
this continued series eighteen were Ethiopians, 2 

" It is very extraordinary," observes Pococke, " that 
the situation of Memphis should not be well known, 
which was so great and famous a city, and for so long a 
time the capital of Egypt." See what this writer says 
farther on the subject, vol. i. 39. 

Besides the temple of Vulcan, here mentioned, Mem- 
phis was famous for a temple of Venus. 

"Is it not astonishing," remarks Savary, "that the 
site of the ancient metropolis of Egypt, a city near seven 
leagues in circumference, containing magnificent temples 
and palaces, which art laboured to render eternal, should 
at present be a subject of dispute among the learned? 
Pliny," continues Savary, "removes the difficulty past 
doubt. The three grand pyramids seen by the watermen 
from all parts stand on a barren and rocky hill, between 
Memphis and the Delta, one league from the Nile, two 
from Mempliis, and near the village of Busiris." 

Mr Gibbon does not speak of the situation of ancient 
Mempliis with his usual accuracy and decision. 

" On the western side of the Nile, at a small distance 
to the east of the pyramids, and at a small distance to 
the south of the Delta, Memphis, one hundred and fifty 
furlongs in circumference, displayed the magnificence of 
ancient kings." 

D' Anville, the most accurate of all geographers, places 
it fifteen miles above the point of the Delta, which lie 
says corresponds exactly with the measurement of three 
schseni. — T. 

1 Diverted the course of the Nile.] — The course of this 
ancient bed is not unknown at present : it may be traced 
across the desert, passing west of the lakes of Natroun, 
by petrified wood, masts, and lateen yards, the wrecks 
of vessels by which it was anciently navigated. — Savary. 

2 Eighteen were Ethiopians] — These eighteen Ethio- 
pian princes prove that the throne was not always here- 
ditary in Egypt. — I, archer. 



and one a female native of the country, all the 
rest were men and Egyptians. The female 
was called Nitocris, which was also the name 
of the Babylonian princess. They affirm that 
the Egyptians having slain her brother, who 
was their sovereign, she was appointed his suc- 
cessor ; and that afterwards, to avenge his death, 
she destroyed by artifice a great number of 
Egyptians. By her orders a large subterran- 
eous apartment was constructed, professedly for 
festivals, but in reality for a different purpose. 
She invited to this place a great number of those 
Egyptians whom she knew to be the principal 
instruments of her brother's death, and then by 
a private canal introduced the river amongst 
them. They added, that to avoid the indigna- 
tion of the people, she suffocated herself in an 
apartment filled with ashes. 

CI. None of these monarchs, as my informers 
related, were distinguished by any acts of mag- 
nificence or renown, except Mosris, who was the 
last of them. Of this prince various monu- 
ments remain. He built the north entrance of 
the temple of Vulcan, and sunk a lake, the di- 
mensions of which I shall hereafter describe. 
Near this he also erected pyramids, whose mag- 
nitude, when I speak of the lake, I shall parti- 
cularize. These are lasting monuments of his 
fame; but as none of the preceding princes 
performed any thing memorable, I shall pass 
them by in silence. 

OIL The name of Sesostris, s who lived after 
them, claims our attention. According to the 
priests, he was the first who, passing the Ara- 
bian gulf in a fleet of long vessels, reduced 
under his authority the inhabitants bordering on 
the Red Sea. He proceeded yet farther, till 
he came to a sea, which on account of the num- 
ber of shoals was not navigable. On his return 
to Egypt, as I learned from the same authority, 
he levied a mighty army, and made a martial 
progress by land, subduing all the nations whom 
he met with on his march. Whenever he was 
opposed by a people who proved themselves 
brave, and who discovered an ardour for liberty, 

3 Sesostris.] — See Bouhier's Chronological Account of 
the kings of Egypt from Mceris to Cambyses, according 
to which Mceris died in the year of the world 3360, and 
was succeeded by Sesostris in 3361. 

Diodorus Siculus makes this prince posterior to Mceris 
by seven generations; but, as Larcher justly observes, 
this writer cannot be entitled to an equal degree of credit 
with Herodotus. Sesostris has been differently named. 
Tacitus calls him Ithainpses : Scaliger, both Rhamesses 
and Egyptus. He is named Sesostris in Diodorus Siculus ; 
Sesosis in Pliny, tkc.—T. 



EUTERPE. 



103 



he erected columns in their country, upon which 
he inscribed his name, and that of his nation, 
and how he had here conquered by the force of 
his arms ; but where he met with little or no 
opposition, upon similar columns 4 which he 
erected, he added the private parts of a woman, 
expressive of the pusillanimity of the people. 

CIII. Continuing his progress, he passed 
over from Asia to Europe, and subdued the 
countries of Scythia and Thrace. 5 Here I be- 
lieve he stopped, for monuments of his victory 
are discovered thus far, but no farther. On his 
return he came to the river Phasis ; but I am 
by no means certain whether he left B a detach- 
ment of his forces as a colony in this district, 
or whether some of his men, fatigued with their 
laborious service, remained here of their own 
accord. 

CIV- The Colchians certainly appear to be 
of Egyptian origin : which indeed, before I had 
conversed with any one on the subject, I had 
always believed. But as I was desirous of being 
satisfied, I interrogated the people of both 
countries : the result was, that the Colchians 
seemed to have better remembrance of the 
Egyptians, than the Egyptians of the Colchians. 
The Egyptians were of opinion that the Col- 
chians were descended of part of the troops of 
Sesostris. To this I myself was also inclined, 
because they are black, and have hair short and 
curling,- 7 which latter circumstance may not, 



4 Upon similar columns, fyc.]— Diodorus Siculus relates 
the same facts, with this addition, that upon the columns 
intended to commemorate the bravery of the vanquished, 
Sesostris added the private parts of a man. — T. 

Nous ignorans si les Hermes caracterises par la nature 
feminine, et eriges par Sesostris dans les pays qu'il avoit 
conquis sans resistance, avoient ete figures de la meme 
mauiere ; ou si, pour indique le sexe, ils avoient un tri- 
angle, par lequel les Egyptiens avoient coutume de le 
designer. — Winkelmann. 

5 Thrace.] — According to another tradition preserved 
in Valerius Flaccus, the Getae, the bravest and most up- 
right of the Thracians, vanquished Sesostris ; and it was 
doubtless to secure his retreat, that he left a detachment 
of his troops in Colchis. 

Cunabula gentis 
Colchidos hie ortusque tuens: ut prima Sesostris 
Intulerit rex bella Getis : ut calde suorum 
Territus, hos Thebas patriumque reducat ad amnem 
Phasilos hos imperat agnis, Colchosque vocari 
lmperet — Larcher. 

6 Whether he left, $c] — Pliny assures us, though I 
know not on what authority, that Sesostris was defeated 
by the Colchians. — Larcher. 

7 Hair short and curling.] — " That is," says Volney, 
in his remark on this passage, " that the ancient Egyp- 
tians were real negroes, of the same species with all the 
natives of Africa; and though, as might be expected, 
alter mixing for so many ages with the Greeks and Ro- 
mans, they have lost the intensity of their first colour, yet 



however, be insisted upon as evidence, because 
it is common to many other nations. But a se- 
cond and better argument is, that the inhabi- 
tants of Colchos, Egypt, and Ethiopia, are the 
only people who from time immemorial have 
used circumcision. The Phoenicians and the 
Syrians of Palestine 8 acknowledge that they 
borrowed this custom from Egypt. Those 
Syrians who live near the rivers Thermodon 
and Parthenius, and their neighbours the Ma- 
crones, confess that they learned it, and that 
too recently, from the Colchians. These are 
the only people who use circumcision, and who 
use it precisely like the Egyptians. As this 
practice can be traced both in Egypt and Ethi- 
opia to the remotest antiquity, it is not possible 
to say which first introduced it. The Egyp- 
tians certainly communicated it to the other 
nations by means of their commercial inter- 
course. The Phoenicians, who are connected 
with Greece, do not any longer imitate the 
Egyptians in this particular, their male children 
not being circumcised. 

CV. But the Colchians have another mark 
of resemblance to the Egyptians. Their manu- 
facture of linen y is alike and peculiar to those 
two nations ; they have similar manners, and 
the same language. The linen which comes 
from Colchis the Greeks call Sardonian ; 10 the 
linen of Egypt, Egyptian. 



they still retain strong marks of their original confor- 
mation." 

8 Syrians of Palestine.] — Mr Gibbon takes the oppor- 
tunity of this passage to make it appear, that under the 
Assyrian and Persian monarchies, the Jews languished 
for many ages the most despised portion of their slaves. 
" Herodotus," says the English historian, " who visited 
Asia whilst it obeyed the Persian empire, slightly men- 
tions the Jews of Palestine. " But this seems to be a par- 
tial quotation ; for taking into consideration the whole 
of the context, Herodotus seems precluded from men- 
tioning the Syrians of Palestine in this place otherwise 
than slightly.— T. 

9 Manufacture of linen.] — See chap, xxxii. of this 
book.— T. 

10 Sardonian.]— In the original, for 'Soc.fiovizov, Larcher 
recommends the reading of 'Sa.fiioc.vizov, which he justi- 
fies by saying that Sardis was a far more proper and 
convenient market for this kind of linen than Sardinia 

This latter country in ancient times had the character 
of being remarkably unhealthy. " Remember," says 
Cicero, writing to his brother, "though in perfect health, 
you are in Sardinia. " Martial also, 

Nullo fata loco possis excludere, cum mors 
Venerit, in medio Tibure, Sardinia est. 

This country also gave rise to many peculiar phrases : 
Sardi venales, risus Sardonicus, Sardonia tinctura, &c. 
The first is differently explained; Cicero, applying it to 
Gracchus, who after the capture of Sardinia wasted much 
time in selling his prisoners, makes it to signify any mat- 
ter tediously protracted. Others, applying it to the 



104 



HERODOTUS. 



CVL The greater part of the pillars which 
Sesostris erected in the places which he con- 
quered are no longer to be found. Some of 
them I myself have seen in Palestine of Syria, 
with the private members of a woman, and the 
inscriptions which I have before mentioned. In 
Ionia there are two figures of this king formed 
out of a rock ; one is in the way from Ephesus 
to Phocaea, the other betwixt Sardis and Smyrna. 
Both of them represent a man, five palms in 
height ; the right hand holds a javelin, the left 
a bow ; the rest of his armour is partly Egyp- 
tian and partly Ethiopian. Across his breast, 
from shoulder to shoulder, there is this inscrip- 
tion in the sacred characters of Egypt. " I con- 
quered this country by the force of my arms." 
Who the person is, here represented, or of what 
country, are not specified, both are told else- 
where. Some have been induced, on examina- 
tion, to pronounce this the figure of Memnon, 
but they must certainly be mistaken. 

CVII. The same priests informed me that 
Sesostris returned to Egypt with an immense 
number of captives of the different nations 
which he had conquered. On his arrival at the 
Pelusian Daphne, his brother, to whom he had 
confided the government in his absence, invited 
him and his family to take up their abode with 
him ; which, when they had done, he surrounded 
their apartments with combustibles, and set fire 
to the building. 1 As soon as Sesostris discov- 
ered the villany, he deliberated with his wife, 
who happened to be with him, what measures to 
pursue ; she advised him to place two of their 
six children across the parts which were burn- 
ing, that they might serve as a bridge for the 
preservation of themselves and the rest. This 
Sesostris executed ; two of the children conse- 



Asiatic Sardis, make it signify persons who are venal. 
The Sardonic laugh is that heneath which the severest 
uneasiness is concealed. " Sardinia," says Solinus, " pro- 
duces an herb which has this singular property, that 
whilst it destroys whoever eats it, it so contracts the 
features, and in particular of the mouth, into a grin, 
as to make the sufferer appear to die laughing. ' ' Of this 
herb Solinus relates other strange properties. Sardinia 
was also famous for a very beautiful colour, whence Sar- 
donia tinctura was made to signify a modest blush. See 
Pliny, Solinus, Hoffman, &c. — T. 

1 Set fire to the luilding.]—V>xo&ox:xx& Siculus relates 
the matter differently. The brother of Sesostris made 
him and his attendants drunk, and in the night set fire 
to his apartment. The guards being intoxicated, were 
unable to assist their master ; but Sesostris, imploring 
the interposition of the gods, fortunately escaped. He 
expressed his gratitude to the deities in general, and to 
Vulcan in particular, to whose kindness principally lie 
thought himself indebted.— T. 



quently perished, the remainder were saved 
with their father. 

CVIII. Sesostris did not omit to avenge 
himself on his brother : on his return to Egypt, 
he employed the captives of the different nations 
he had vanquished to collect those immense 
stones which were employed in the temple of 
Vulcan. They were also compelled to make 
those vast and numerous canals 2 by which 
Egypt is intersected. In consequence of their 
involuntary labours, Egypt, which was before 
conveniently adapted to those who travelled on 
horseback or in carriages, became unfit for both. 
The canals occur so often, and in so many 
winding directions, that to journey on horseback 
is disagreeable, in carriages impossible. The 
prince however was influenced by a patriotic 
motive: before his time those who inhabited 
the inland parts of the country, at a distance 
from the river, on the ebbing of the Nile suf- 
fered great distress from the want of water, of 
which they had none but from muddy wells. 

CIX. The same authority informed me, that 
Sesostris made a regular distribution of the 
i lands of Egypt. He assigned to each Egyp- 
! tian a square piece of ground ; and his revenues 
I were drawn from the rent which every indivi- 
dual annually paid him. Whoever was a 
sufferer by the inundation of the Nile, was 
. permitted to make the king acquainted with his 
loss. Certain officers were appointed to inquire 
into the particulars of the injury, that no man 
might be taxed beyond his ability. It may not 
be improbable to suppose that this was the 
origin of geometry, 3 and that the Greeks learned 

2 Nmnerous canals.] — Probably one reason why 
Sesostris opened canals, was to prevent these hurtful 
inundations, as well as to convey water to those places 
where they might think proper to have villages built, and 
to water the lands more conveniently, at such times as 
the waters might retire early ; for they might find by 
experience, after the canals were opened, that instead of 
apprehending inundations, they had greater reason, as at 
present, to fear a want of water. — Pococke. 

There are still eighty canals in Egypt like rivers, sev- 
eral of which are twenty, thirty, and forty leagues in 
length. — Savary. 

The same author adds, that the chain-buckets used in 
Egypt to disperse the water over the high lands gave to 
Archimedes, during his voyage in Egypt, the idea of his 
ingenious screw, which is still in use. 

A country where nothing is so seldom met with as a 
spring, and where rain is an extraordinary phenomenon, 
could only have been fertilized by the Nile. Accordingly, 
from times of the most remote antiquity, fourscore con- 
siderable canals were digged at the entrance of the king- 
dom, besides a great number of small ones, which distri- 
buted these waters all over Egypt.— Raynal. 

3 Origin of geometry.] — The natives of Thebes, above 



EUTERPE. 



105 



it from hence. As to the pole, the gnomon, 1 
and the division of the day 5 into twelve parts, 
the Greeks received them from the Babylo- 



all others, were renowned for their great wisdom. Their 
improvements in geometry are thought to have been 
owing to the nature of their country; for the land of 
Egypt being annually overflowed, and all property con- 
founded, they were obliged upon the retreat of the waters 
to have recourse to geometrical decision, in order to de- 
termine the limits of their possessions. — Bryant. 

4 The pole, the gnomon.] — The text is a literal transla- 
tion of the original, to which as it stands it will not be 
very easy to annex any meaning. My own opinion, 
from reflecting on the context, is, that it signifies a dial 
with its index. Wesseling, in his note on this passage, 
informs us from Pollux, that many considered troXov and 
wgoXoyiov as synonymous expressions. Scaliger is of the 
same opinion, to which Wesseling himself accedes. Sal- 
masius thinks differently, and says of this particular pas- 
sage, ne hoc quidem quidquam ad horologiorum usum 
facit. Larcher 's interpretation seems far-fetched. " He," 
says the learned Frenchman, "who wishes to form a 
solar quadrant must necessarily know the altitude of the 
pole." — When it is considered that the more ancient dials 
were divided by the first twelve letters of the alphabet, I 
cannot help adhering to the interpretation I have given 
of it.— T. 

5 Division of the flay.] — From tliis passage it appears, 
that in the time of Herodotus the day was divided into 
twelve parts : at the same time we may not conclude, 
with Leo, Allatius, and Wesseling, that to these twelve 
parts the name of hours was given. It is by no means 
certain when the twenty-four parts of the day were first 
distinguished by the name of hours, but it was doubtless 
very late; and the passages cited from Anacreon and 
Xenophon to prove the contrary ought not to be inter- 
preted by what we call hours. 

The passage in Anacreon, uio-owztioi? totf Jigais, means 
nothing more than the middle of the night. "Rvxtos 
cc/Aohycf), in Homer, which signifies an advanced time of 
the night, is explained by the scholiast 'h rov fAitrovvwcv 
&>§«., the very expression of Anacreon. The passage from 
Xenophon is not more decisive. — Larcher. 

Upon this subject we have the following curious note 
in the Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis : — Of the dials of the 
ancients we may form some ideafrom the following exam- 
ple : Palladius Rutilius, who lived about the fifth century, 
and who has left us a treatise on agriculture, has put at 
the end of every month a table, in which one sees the cor- 
respondence of the divisions of the day to the different 
lengths of the shadow of the gnomon. It must be observ- 
ed in the first place, that this correspondence is the same 
in the months equally distant from the solstice, January 
and December, February and November, &c. Secondly, 
that the length of the shadow is the same for the hours 
equally distant from the mid-day point. The following 
is the table for January. 

Hours. Feet. 

I. and XI. .... 29 

II. and X. - - - - 19 

III. and IX 15 

IV. and VIII. ... 12 

V. and VII. - 10 
VI. .... 9 

This dial seems to have been adapted for the climate of 
Rome. Similar dials were constructed for the climate of 
Athens. 



CX. Except Sesostris, no monarch of Egypt 
was ever master of Ethiopia. This prince 
placed as a monument 6 some marble statues 
before the temple of Vulcan : two of these 
were thirty cubits in height, and represented 
him and his queen; four others, of twenty 
cubits each, represented his four children. A 
long time afterwards, Darius, king of Persia, 
was desirous of placing before these a statue of 
himself, 7 but the high priest of Vulcan violently 
opposed it, urging that the actions of Darius 
were far less splendid than those of the Egyp- 
tian Sesostris. This latter prince had vanquish- 
ed as many nations as Darius, and had also 
subdued the Scythians, who had never yielded 
to the arms of Darius. Therefore, says he, it 
can never be just to place before the statues of 
Sesostris the figure of a prince, whose exploits 
have not been equally illustrious. They told 
me that Darius forgave this remonstrance. 8 

CXI. On the death of Sesostris, his son 
Pheron, 9 as the priests informed me, succeeded 
to his throne. This prince undertook no mili- 
tary expedition ; but by the action I am going to 
relate he lost the use of his eyes : — When the 
Nile was at its extreme height of eighteen cubits, 
and had Overflowed the fields, a sudden wind 
arose which made the waters impetuously swell; 
at this juncture the prince hurled a javelin into 
the vortex of the stream : he was in a moment 

6 Placed as a monument] — Larcher, in his version, 
adds in this place, " to commemorate the danger he had 
escaped." The text will not justify this version, though 
the learned Frenchman's opinion, that this is the implied 
meaning, rests on the positive assertion of Diodorus 
Siculus, who, relating the fact of the statues circumstan- 
tiallv, adds that they were erected by Sesostris in grati- 
tude to Vulcan, by whose interposition he escaped the 
treachery of his brother. — T. 

7 A statue of himself] — After a series of ages, •when 
Egypt was reduced under the power of Persia, Darius, 
the father of Xerxes, was desirous of placing an image of 
himself at Memphis, before the statue of Sesostris. This 
was strenuously opposed by the chief priest, in an as- 
sembly of his order, who asserted that the acts of Darius 
had not yet surpassed those of Sesostris. The king did 
not take tins freedom amiss, but was rather pleased with 
it ; saying, that if he lived as long as Sesostris, he would 
endeavour to equal him. — Diodorus Siculus. 

8 Forgave this remonstrance.] — It does not however 
appear from hence that Darius was ever in Egypt. The 
resistance of the chief priest might probably be told him, 
and he might forgive it. It appears by a passage in 
Aristotle, that Darius attacked and conquered this 
country ; if so, the priest of Vulcan might personally op- 
pose Darius. The authority of Aristotle is of no weight 
compared with that of our historian ; and probably, in 
that writer, instead of Darius we should read Xerxes. — 
Larcher. 

9 Pheron.] — This prince is erroneously supposed to be 
the first Egyptian Pharaoh.— T. 

o 



106 



HERODOTUS. 



deprived of sight, and continued blind for the 
space of ten years ; in the eleventh an oracle 
was communicated to him from Butos, intimat- 
ing that the period of his punishment was ex- 
pired, and that he should recover his sight by 
washing his eyes with the urine of a woman 
who had never known any man but her husband. 
Pheron first made the experiment with the 
urine of his own wife, and when this did not 
succeed he applied that of other women indis- 
criminately. Having at length recovered his 
sight, he assembled all the women, except her 
whose urine had removed his calamity, in a city 
which is to this day called Erythrebolos ;' all 
these, with the town itself, he destroyed by fire, 
but he married the female who had deserved his 
gratitude* On his recovery he sent magnificent 
presents to all the more celebrated temples ; to 
that of the Sun he sent two obelisks too remark- 
able to be unnoticed : each was formed of one 
solid stone, one hundred cubits high, and eight 
broad. 

CXII. The successor of Pheron, as the 
same priests informed me, was a citizen of 
Memphis, whose name in the Greek tongue 
was Proteus. 8 His shrine is still to be seen at 
Memphis, it is situated to the south of the tem- 
ple of Vulcan, and is very magnificently deco- 
rated. The Phoenicians of Tyre dwell in its 
vicinity, and indeed the whole of the place is 
denominated the Tyrian camp. In this spot, 
consecrated to Proteus, 8 there is also a small 

1 Erythrebolos. 1— Diodorus Siculus calls this place 
Heliopolis; and says that the woman, through whose 
means Pheron was cured of his blindness, was the wife 
of a gardener. — T. 

2 Proteus, .] — Proteus was an Egyptian title of the 
deity, under which he was worshipped both at Pharos 
and at Memphis. He was the same as Osiris and Cano- 
bus, and particularly the god of mariners, who confined 
his department to the sea. From hence I think we may 
unravel the mystery about the pilot of Menelaus, who is 
said to have been named Canopus, and to have given 
name to the principal sea-port in Egypt. — Bryant. 

No antique figure has yet been met with of Proteus : 
upon this circumstance Mr Spence remarks, that his 
character was far more manageable for poets, than for 
sculptors or painters. The former might very well de- 
scribe all the variety of shapes that he could put on, and 
point out the transition from one to the other, but the 
artists must have been content to show him either in his 
own natural shape, or in some one alone of all his vari- 
ous forms. Of this deity the best description is given in 
the Georgics of Virgil. — T. 

It is remarkable, that if we were to write the Egyp- 
tian name of Proteus, as given by the Greeks, in Phoeni- 
cian characters, we should make use of the same letters 
we pronounce Pharao ; the final o in the Hebrew is an 
h, which at the end of words frequently becomes t. — 
Volvey. 



temple, dedicated to Venus the stranger-. 3 this 
Venus I conjecture is no other than Helen, the 
daughter of Tyndaris, because she, I was told, 
resided for some time at the court of Proteus, 
and because this building is dedicated to Venus 
the stranger ; no other temple of Venus is dis- 
tinguished by this appellation. 

CXIII. To my inquiries on the subject 4 of 
Helen, these priests answered as follows : Paris 
having carried off Helen from Sparta, was re- 
turning home, but meeting with contrary winds 
in the iEgean, he was driven into the Egyptian 
sea. As the winds continued unfavourable, he 
proceeded to Egypt, and was driven to the 
Canopian mouth of the Nile, and to Tarichea : 
i in this place was a temple of Hercules, which 
! still remains ; if any slave fled to this for 
refuge, and in testimony of his consecrating 
himself to the service of the god, submitted to 
be marked with certain sacred characters, no 
one was suffered to molest him. This custom 
has been strictly observed, from its first institu- 
tion to the present period. The servants of 
Paris, aware of the privileges of this temple, 
fled thither from their master, and with the 
view of injuring Paris, became the suppliants 
of the divinity. They published many accusa- 
tions against their master, disclosing the whole 
affair of Helen, and the wrong done to Mene- 
laus : this they did not only in the presence of 
the priests, but also before Thonis, 5 the gover- 
nor of the district. 

CXIV. Thonis instantly despatched a mes- 
senger to Memphis, with orders to say thus to 
Proteus : " There is arrived here a Trojan, who 

3 Venus the Stranger.'} — It is doubtless this Venus to 
whom Horace alludes in the following verses : 

Oh quae beatam diva tenes Cyprum, et 
Memphim carentem Sithonia nive 
Regina. 

Strabo also speaks of this temple, and tells us that some 
believed it dedicated to the Moon. — T. 

4 Inquiries on the subject] — Upon no subject, ancient 
or modern, have writers been more divided, than about 
the precise period of the Trojan war. Lareher, after 
discussing this matter very fully, in his essay on chronol- 
ogy, is of opinion, and his arguments appear to me at 
least, satisfactory, that it took place about 1263 years be- 
fore the vulgar era. — T. 

5 Thonis.]— Some writers pretend that Thonis was 
prince of the Canopian mouth of the Nile, and that he 
was the inventor of medicine in Egypt. Before he saw 
Helen he treated Menelaus with great respect ; when he 
had seen her he made his court to her, and even endeav . 
oured to violate her person : Menelaus on hearing this 
put him to death. The city of Thonis, and Thoth, the 
first Egyptian month, take their names from him. 

This narrative seems less probable than that of Hero- 
dotus ; Theth, or the Mercury of the Egyptians, was 
much more ancient. — Lareher. 



EUTERPE. 



107 



has perpetrated an atrocious crime in Greece ; 
he has seduced the wife of his host, and has 
carried her away, with a great quantity of trea- 
sure; adverse winds have forced him hither; 
shall I suffer him to depart without molestation, 
or shall I seize his person and property ?" The 
answer which Proteus sent was thus conceived : 
" Whoever that man is who has violated the 
rights of hospitality, seize and bring him before 
me, that I may examine him." 

CXV. Thonis upon this seized Paris, and 
detaining his vessels, instantly sent him to 
Proteus, with Helen b and all his wealth : on 
their arrival Proteus inquired of Paris who he 
was, aad whence he came : Paris faithfully re- 
lated the name of his family and country, and 
from whence he last set sail. But when Pro- 
teus proceeded to make inquiries concerning 
Helen, and how he obtained possession of her 
person, Paris hesitated in his answers; his 
slaves who had deserted him explained and 
proved the particulars of his guilt ; in conse- 
quence of which Proteus made this determina- 
tion : " If I did not esteem it a very heinous 
crime to put any stranger to death, whom un- 
favourable winds have driven to my coast, I 
would assuredly, thou most abandoned man, 
avenge that Greek whose hospitality thou hast 
so treacherously violated. Thou hast not only 
seduced his wife, but, having violently taken 
her away, still criminally detainest her ; and, as 
if this were not enough, thou hast robbed and 
plundered him ! But as I can by no means pre- 
vail upon myself to put a stranger to death, you 
I shall suffer to depart ; the woman and your 
wealth I shall detain, till the Greek himself 
thinks proper to demand her. — Do you and 
your companions depart within three days from 
my coast, or expect to be treated as enemies." 

CXVL Thus, according to the narrative of 
the priests, did Helen come to the court of 
Proteus. I conceive that this circumstance 
could not be imknown to Homer; but as he 
thought it less ornamental to his poem, he for- 
bore to use it. That he actually did know it, 
is evident from that part of the Iliad where he 
describes the voyage of Paris ; this evidence he 

(5 This incident of the detention of Helen by Proteus, 
is the argument of one of the tragedies of Euripides. 

The poet supposes that Helen never was at Troy, but 
that Paris carried thither a cloud in her form : — On the 
death of Proteus, his son Theaclymenus prepared to make 
Helen his wife ; at this juncture Menelaus was driven 
on the coast, saw Helen again, and with her concerted 
and accomplished their return to Greece. — T. 



has no where retracted. He informs us, that 
Paris, after various wanderings, at length arriv- 
ed at Sidon, in Phoenicia ; it is in the Bravery 
of Diomed; 7 the passage is this: 

There lay the vestures of no vulgar art, 

Sidonian maids embroider'd every part ; 

When from soft Sidon youthful Paris bore; 

With Helen touching on the Tyrian shore. 

II. vi. 390. 

He again introduces this subject in the Odyssey : 
These drugs, so friendly to the joys of life, 
Bright Helen learn'd from Thone's imperial wife ; 
Who sway'd the sceptre where prolific Nile 
With various simples clothes the fatten'd soil, 
With wholesome herbage mix'd, the direful bane 
Of vegetable venom taints the plain. 

Od. iv. 315. 

Menelaus also says thus to Telemachus : 

Long on the Egyptian coast by calms confined, 
Heaven to my fleet refused a prosperous wind : 
No vows had we preferr'd, no victim slain, 
For this the gods each favouring gale restrain. 
Od. iv. 473. 

In these passages Homer confesses himself 
acquainted with the voyage of Paris to Egypt ; 
for Syria borders upon Egypt, and the Phoeni- 
cians, to whom Sidon belongs, inhabit part of 
Syria. 

CX VII. Of these the last passage confirms 
sufficiently the argument, which may be deduced 
from the former, that the Cyprian verses 8 were 



7 Bravery of Diomed.2 — The different parts of Homer's 
poems were known anciently by names taken from the 
subjects treated in them : Thus the fifth book of the Iliad 
was called the Bravery of Diomed ; and in like manner 
the eleventh the Bravery of Agamemnon ; the tenth the 
Night-watch, or the Death of Dolon, fyc. ; all of which 
titles are prefixed to the respective books in Clarke's and 
other editions from Eustathius : — See also JElian, Var. 
Hist. Book xiii. c. 14. This division was more ancient 
than that into books, and therefore does not always coin- 
cide with it : thus the second Iliad has two names, the 
Dream or the Trial, and the Catalogue; whereas four 
or five books of the Odyssey are supposed to be compris- 
ed under the name of the Story af Alcinous. Valcnaer 
erroneously supposed tliis to be a later division of the 
grammarians, and therefore endeavoured to explain 
away the expression of Herodotus, which evidently 
refers to it— T, 

8 Cyprian verses.] — On the subject of these verses the 
following sentence occurs in Athenseus. 

" The person who composed the Cyprian verses, whe- 
ther he was some Cyprian or Stasinus, or by whatever 
name he chooses to be distinguished," &c. From which 
it appears, that Athenseus had no idea of their being 
written by Homer. But we are told by JElian, in his 
Various History, that Homer certainly did compose these 
verses, and gave them as a marriage portion with his 
daughter. — See iElian, book ix. chap. 15, in the note to 
which, this subject is amply discussed, 
g The subject of this poem was the Trojan war after the 
birth of Helen. Venus caused this princess to be born, 
that she might be able to promise Paris an accomplished 



108 



HERODOTUS. 



never written by Homer These relate that 
Paris, in company with Helen, assisted by a 
favourable wind and sea, passed in three days 
from Sparta to Troy ; on the contrary, it is as- 
serted in the Iliad, that Paris, after carrying 
away Helen, wandered about to various places. 

C XVIII. I was desirous of knovraig whe- 
ther all that the Greeks relate concerning Troy 
had any foundation in truth ; and the same 
priests instructed me in the followingparticulars, 
which they learned from Menelaus himself. 
After the loss of Helen, the Greeks assembled 
in great numbers at Teucris, to assist Mene- 
laus ; they disembarked and encamped : they 
then despatched ambassadors to Troy, whom 
Menelaus himself accompanied. On their arrival 
they made a formal demand of Helen, and of 
the wealth which Paris had at the same time 
clandestinely taken, as well as general satisfac- 
tion for the injury. The Trojans then and 
afterwards uniformly persisted in declaring that 
they had among them neither the person nor 
the wealth of Helen, but that both were in 
Egypt; and they thought it hard that they 
should be made responsible for what Proteus 
king of Egypt certainly possessed. The Greeks 
believing themselves deluded, laid siege to Troy, 
and persevered till they took it. But when 
Helen was not to be found in the captured town, 
and the same assertions concerning her were 
continued, they at length obtained credit, and 
Menelaus himself was despatched to Proteus. 

CXIX. As soon as he arrived in Egypt he 
proceeded up the Nile to Memphis. On his relat- 
ing the object of his journey, he was honourably 
entertained ; Helen, who had been treated with 
respect, was restored to him, and with her, all 
his treasures. Inattentive to these acts of 
kindness, Menelaus perpetrated a great enor- 
mity ' against the Egyptians : the winds pre- 

beauty; to this Jupiter, by the advice of Memos, had 
consented, in order to destroy the human race again by 
the war of Troy, which was to take place on her account. 
As the author of this poem refers all the events of this 
war to Venus, goddess of Cyprus, the work was called 
by her name. " It is evident," says M. Larcher in con- 
tinuation, " that Herodotus would have told the name 
of the author, had he known it. " 

1 Great enormity.]— \t was Saturn, according to the 
poets and historians, who first introduced the detestable 
custom of human sacrifices. The Saturn of the heathens, 
according to the best writers, was the Abraham of 
Scripture. In the Memoirs of the Academy of Belles 
Lettres, &c. there are two curious dissertations on the 
subject of human sacrifices; the one asserting the truth 
of these on the authorities of Manethon, Sanchoniathon, 
Herodotus, Pausanias, Josephus, &c. &c. by M. l'Abbe 
de Boissy ; the other by M. Motrin, denying them alto- 



venting his departure, he took two children 2 of 
the people of the country, and with great bar- 
barity offered them in sacrifice. As soon as 
the circumstance was known, universal indig- 
nation was excited against him, and he was 
pursued ; but he fled by sea into Africa, and 
the Egyptians could trace him no further. Of 
the above facts, some they knew, as having 
happened among themselves, and others were 
the result of much diligent inquiry. 

CXX. This intelligence concerning Helen 
I received from the Egyptian priests, to which 
I am inclined to add, as my opinion, that if 
Helen had been actually in Troy, they would 
certainly have restored her to the Greeks, with 
or without the consent of Paris. Priam and 
his connections could never have been so in- 
fatuated, as to endanger the preservation of 
themselves and their children, merely that Paris 
might enjoy Helen ; but even if such had been 
their determination at first, still after having 
lost, in their different contests with the Greeks, 
many of their countrymen, and among these, if 
the poets may be believed, several of their 
king's own sons, I cannot imagine but that 
Priam, even if he had married her himself, 
would have restored Helen, if no other means 
had existed of averting these calamities. We 
may add to this, that Paris was not the imme- 
diate heir to the crown, for Hector was his 
superior both in age and virtue : Paris, there- 
fore, could not have possessed any remarkable 
influence in the state, neither would Hector 
have countenanced the misconduct of his bro- 
ther, from which he himself, and the rest of his 
countrymen, had experienced so many and such 



gether, from the reason of the thing itself, and from want 
of sufficient and satisfactory evidence. The principal 
arguments of both may be seen in the Choix des Me- 
moires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, &c. published in 
this country by Maty. 

2 Two children.] — This was doubtless to appease the 
winds. This kind of sacrifice was frequent in Greece, 
but detestable in Egypt. 

Sanguine placastis ventos et virgine caesa.— Virgil. 
See Book vii. chap. 191. — Larcher. 

In the early times of all religions, when nations were 
yet barbarous and savage, there was ever an aptness or 
tendency towards the dark part of superstition, which 
among many other horrors produced that of human sa- 
crifice. — Lord Shaftesbury. 

That the custom of human sacrifice, alike cruel ana 
absurd, gives way but very slowly to the voice of nature 
and of reason, is evident from its having been practised 
at so late a period by the enlightened people of Greece. 
Porphyry also informs us, that even in his time, who 
lived 233 years after the Christian era, human sacrifices 
were common in Arcadia and at Carthage. — T. 



EUTERPE. 



109 



great calamities. But the restoration of Helen 
was not in their power, and the Greeks placed 
no dependence on their assertions, which were 
indisputably true ; but all this, with the subse- 
quent destruction of Troy, might be ordained 
by Providence, to instruct mankind that the 
gods proportioned punishments to crimes. 

CXXI. The same instructors farther told me, 
that Proteus was succeeded by Rhampsinitus : 3 
he built the west entrance of the temple of 
Vulcan j in the same situation he also erected 
two statues, twenty- five cubits in height. That 
which faces the north the Egyptians call sum- 
mer, the one to the south winter : this latter is 
treated with no manner of respect, but they 
worship the former, and make offerings before 
it. This prince possessed such abundance of 
wealth, that so far from surpassing, none of his 
successors ever equalled him in affluence. For 
the security of his riches, he constructed a stone 
edifice, connected with his palace by a wall. 
The man whom he employed/ with a dishonest 
view so artfully disposed one of the stones, that 
two or even one person might remove it from 
its place. In this building, when completed, 
the king deposited his treasures. Some time 
afterwards the artist found his end approaching ; 
and having two sons, he called them both be- 
fore him, and informed them in what manner, 
with a view to their future emolument and pros- 
perity, he had built the king's treasury. He 
then explained the particular circumstance and 
situation of the stone, gave them minutely its 
dimensions, by observance of which they might 
become the managers of the king's riches. On 
the death of the father, the sons were not long 
before they availed themselves of their secret. 
Under the advantage of the night, they visited 
the building, discovered and removed the stone, 
and carried away with them a large sum of money. 
As soon as the king entered the apartment, he 
saw the vessels which contained his money 
materially diminished : he was astonished be- 
yond measure, for as the seals were unbroken, 
and every entrance properly secured, he could 
not possibly direct his suspicion against any 
one. This was several times repeated; the 
thieves continued their visits, and the king as 

3 Rhampsinitus.] — Diodorus Siculus calls him Rhem- 
phis. He gTeatly oppressed his subjects by his avarice 
and extortions : he amassed in gold and silver four hun- 
dred thousand talents ; a most incredible sum. — Lurcher. 

4 Th? man whom he employed.] — Pausanias relates a 
similar fable of Trophonius, whose cave became so fa- 
mous. — Larcher. 



regularly saw his money decrease. To effect a 
discovery, he ordered some traps to be placed 
round the vessels which contained his. riches. 
The robbers came as before ; one of them pro- 
ceeding as usual directly to the vessels, was 
caught in the snare : as soon as he was sensible 
of his situation, he called his brother, and ac- 
quainted him with it ; he withal entreated him 
to cut off his head without a moment's delay, 
as the only means of preventing his own detec- 
tion and consequent loss of life ; he approved 
and obeyed his advice, and replacing properly 
the stone, he returned home with the head of 
his brother. As soon as it was light the king 
entered the apartment, and seeing the body se- 
cured in the snare without a head, the building 
in no part disturbed, nor the smallest appearance 
of any one having been there, he was more as- 
tonished than ever. In this perplexity he com- 
manded the body to be hanged from the wall, 
and having stationed guards on the spot, he di- 
rected them to seize and bring before him who- 
ever should discover any symptoms of compas- 
sion or sorrow at sight of the deceased. The 
mother being much exasperated at this exposure 
of her son, threatened the surviving brother, 
that if he did not contrive and execute some 
means of removing the body, she would imme- 
diately go to the king, and disclose all the cir- 
cumstances of the robbery. The young man 
in vain endeavoured to alter the woman's deter- 
mination ; he therefore put in practice the fol- 
lowing expedient: — He got together some asses, 
which he loaded with flasks of wine ; he then 
drove them near the place where the guards 
were stationed to watch the body of his brother ; 
as soon as he approached, he secretly removed 
the pegs from the mouths of two or three of the 
skins, and when he saw the wine running about, 
he began to beat his head, and to cry out vehe- 
mently, with much pretended confusion and 
distress. The soldiers, perceiving the accident, 
instantly ran with vessels, and such wine as 
they were able to catch they considered as so 
much gain to themselves. At first, with great 
apparent anger, he reproached and abused them, 
but he gradually listened to their endeavours to 
console and pacify him : he then proceeded at 
leisure to turn his asses out of the road, and to 
secure his flasks. He soon entered into con- 
versation with the guards, and affecting to be 
pleased with the drollery of one of them, he 
gave them a flask of wine : they accordingly sat 
down to drink, and insisted upon his bearing 



110 



HERODOTUS. 



them company : he complied with their solici- 
tations, and a second flask was presently the 
effect of their civility to him. The wine had 
soon its effect, the guards became exceedingly 
drunk, and fell fast asleep ; under the advan- 
tage of the night, the young man took down the 
body of his brother, and in derision shaved the 
right cheeks of the guards : he placed the body 
on one of the asses, and returned home, having 
thus satisfied his mother. When the king 
heard of what had happened, he was enraged 
beyond measure ; but still determined on the 
detection of the criminal, he contrived this, 
which to me seems a most improbable ' part of 
the story: — He commanded his daughter to 
prostitute her person indiscriminately to every 
comer, upon condition that, before enjoyment, 
each should tell her the most artful as well as 
the most wicked thing he had ever done; if any 
one should disclose the circumstance of which 
he wished to be informed, she was to seize him, 
and prevent his escape. The daughter obeyed 
the injunction of her father ; the thief, knowing 
what was intended, prepared still farther to 
disappoint and deceive the king. He cut off 
the arm near the shoulder from a body recently 
dead, and concealing it under his cloak, he visit- 
ed the king's daughter: when he was asked 
the same question as the rest, he replied, " That 
the most wicked thing he had ever done was the 
cutting off the head of his brother, who was 
caught in a snare in the king's treasury ; the 
most artful thing, was his making the guards 
drunk, and by that means effecting the removal 
of his brother's body. 5 ' On hearing this she 
endeavoured to apprehend him, but he, favoured 
by the night, put out to her the dead arm, which 
she seizing was thus deluded, whilst he made 
his escape. On hearing this also, the king was 
equally astonished at the art and audacity of the 
man ; he was afterwards induced to make a 
proclamation through the different parts of his 
dominions, that if the offender would appear 
before him, he would not only pardon but re- 
ward him liberally. The thief, trusting to his 
word, appeared; Rhampsinitus was delighted 
with the man, and thinking his ingenuity beyond 
all parallel, gave him his daughter. The king 
conceived the Egyptians superior in subtlety to 

1 Most improbable.] — Herodotus, we may perceive 
from this passage, did not implicitly credit all the priests 
told him. Many other passages occur in the process of 
this work, to prove that our historian was by no means so 
credulous as has been generally imagined. — Larcher. 



all the world, but he thought this man superior 
even to the Egyptians. 

CXXII. After this event, they told me 
that the same king 2 descended alive beneath 
the earth, to what the Greeks call the infernal 
regions, where he played at dice with the god- 
dess Ceres, 3 and alternately won and lost. 4 On 
his return she presented him with a napkin 
embroidered with gold. This period of his 
return was observed by the Egyptians as a 
solemn festival, and has continued to the time 
of my remembrance ; whether the above, or 
some other incident, was the occasion of this 
feast, I will not take upon me to determine. 
The ministers of this solemnity have a vest 
woven within the space of the day, this is worn 
by a priest whose eyes are covered with a ban- 
dage. They conduct him to the path which 
leads to the temple of Ceres, and there leave 
him. They assert, that two wolves meet the 
priest thus blinded, and lead him to the temple, 
though at the distance of twenty stadia from 
the city, and afterwards conduct him back 
again to the place where they found him. 

CXXIII. Every reader must determine 
for himself with respect to the credibility of 
what I have related ; for my own part I heard 
these things from the Egyptians, and think it 
necessary to transcribe the result of my inqui- 
ries. The Egyptians esteem Ceres and Bac- 

2 The same king.]— The kings of Egypt had many 
names and titles, these names and titles have been 
branched out into persons, and inserted in the lists of 
the real monarchs. I have mentioned of Osiris, that he 
was exposed in an ark, and for a long time in a state of 
death ; the like is said of Orus, Adonis, Thamuz, and 
Talus, Tulus, or Thoulos. Lastly, it is said of Rhameses, 
whom Herodotus calls Rhampsinitus, that he descended 
to the mansions of death, and after some stay returned 
to light. I mention these things to show that the whole 
is one and the same history, and that all these names are 
titles of the same person. They have however been 
otherwise esteemed, and we find them accordingly in- 
serted in the lists of kings, by which means the chrono- 
logy of Egypt has been greatly embarrassed. — Bryant. 

3 Ceres.]— In the Greek Demeter. " The Egyptians," 
says Diodorus Siculus, " rated the earth as the common 
womb of all tilings, Meter, which the Greeks, by an easy 
addition, afterwards altered to Demeter." — T. 

4 Alternately won and lost.] — Valcnaer informs us in 
a note, that this circumstance of playing at dice with 
Ceres, and alternately conquering and being conquered, 
has been ingeniously explained to mean no more, quam 
Cererem almam et fautricem vel vicissim inimicam ex- 
periri, to find agricultural experiments sometimes suc- 
cessful and sometimes otherwise. I think there was 
probably something also allegorical and mysterious in 
the story — possibly there might be in this feast sometlu'ng 
similar to the Eleusinian mysteries, the particular men. 
tion of Ceres suggests that opinion.— T. 



EUTERPE. 



Ill 



elms as the great deities of the realms below ; 
they are also the first of mankind who have 
defended the immortality of the soul. 5 They 
believe, that on the dissolution of the body the 
soul immediately enters some other animal, 
and that after using as vehicles every species 



5 Immortality of the soul/]— The doctrine of the re- 
surrection was first entertained by the Egyptians ; and 
their mummies were embalmed, their pyramids were 
constructed, to preserve the ancient mansion of the soul 
during- a period of three thousand years. But the attempt 
is partial and unavailing : and it is with a more philoso- 
phic spirit that Mahomet relies on the omnipotence of 
the Creator, whose word can reanimate the breathless 
clay, and collect the innumerable atoms that no longer 
retain their form or substance. The intermediate state 
of the soul it is hard to decide ; and those who most 
firmly believe her immaterial nature are at a loss to un- 
derstand how she can think or act without the agency 
of the organs of sense. — Gibbon. 

The Platonic doctrine esteemed the body a kind of 
prison with respect to the soul. Somewhat similar to 
this was the opinion of the Marcionites, who called the 
death of the body the resurrection of the soul. — T. 

The soul, by reason of its anxiety and impotence, 
being unable to stand by itself, wanders up and down to 
seek out consolations, hopes, and foundations, to which 
she adheres and fixes. But it is wonderful to observe 
how short the most constant and obstinate maintainers 
of this just and clear persuasion of the immortality of 
the soul do fall, and how weak their arguments are when 
they go about to prove it by human reason. — Montaigne. 

To enumerate the various opinions which have pre- 
vailed concerning the soul of man, would be an under- 
taking alike arduous and unprofitable. Some of the an- 
cients considered it as part of the substance of God ; 
the doctrine of the propagation of souls prevailed, ac- 
cording to Bayle, or rather subsisted, to a very late pe- 
riod of the Christian era : Averhoes affirmed its mor- 
tality, and most of the pagan philosophers believed it to 
be material ; but the arguments for its immortality 
which are afforded us in the word of God at the same 
time animate our piety, and satisfy our reason. — T. 

I have observed so many marks of resemblance be- 
twixt the Egyptians and the Indians, that 1 can by no 
means persuade myself that they are the effect of chance. 
I love better to believe that India was civilized by those 
Egyptians who accompanied Bacchus or Sesostris in their 
expeditions. I am, therefore, not at all surprised at 
finding amongst the Indians Egyptian architecture, the 
division of the people into tribes, which never inter- 
mingle ; respect for animals, and for the cow in particu- 
hxx , the metempsychosis, &c. With regard to this last 
dogma, I am tempted to believe, that it did not originate 
in Egypt, that it indeed is not of very great antiquity, 
and that the soldiers of Sesostris broughtat with them on 
their return from their expedition. " I know," remarks 
Pausanias, "that the Chaldean and Indian magi have 
been the first who asserted the immortality of the soul," 
Besides Moses, who was anterior to that prince, had 
heard no mention of it ; if he did know it, how could 
he persuade himself that he was chosen to keep under the 
•aws of God, and their o\ra, a people always ready to 
rebel ? It is indeed known, that the immortality of the 
soul was not known to the Jews, but by the commerce 
which they had with the Assyrians, during the time of 
their captivity.— Larcher. 



of terrestrial, aquatic, and winged creatures, it 
finally enters a second time into a human body. 
They affirm that it undergoes all these changes 
in the space of three thousand years. This 
opinion some amongst the Greeks 6 have at 
different periods of time adopted as their own ; 
but I shall not, though I am able, specify their 
names. 

CXXIV. I was also informed by the same 
priests, that till the reign of Rhampsinitus, 
Egypt was not only remarkable for its abun- 
dance, but for its excellent laws. Cheops, who 
succeeded this prince, degenerated into the ex- 
tremest profligacy of conduct. 7 He barred the 
avenues to every temple, and forbade the Egyp- 
tians to offer sacrifices ; he proceeded next to 
make them labour servilely for himself. Some 
he compelled to hew stones in the quarries of 
the Arabian mountains, and drag them to the 
banks of the Nile; others were appointed to 
receive them in vessels, and transport them to 
a mountain of Libya. For this service a hun- 



6 So?ne amongst the Greeks.] — He doubtless means to 
speak of Pherecydes of Syros, and Pythagoras. — Larcher. 

Pherecydes was the disciple of Pittacus, and the master 
of Pythagoras, and also of Thales the Milesian. He lived 
in the time of Servius Tullius, and as Cicero tells us, 
primum dixit animos hominum esse sempiternos, first 
taught that the souls of men were immortal. His life is 
given at some length by Diogenes Laertius. — T. 

1 Profligacy of conduct.] — It is not easy to see what 
could induce M. de Pauw to attempt the vindication of 
this prince, and to reject as fabulous what Herodotus re- 
lates of his despotism, as if this were not the infirmity of 
these princes, and as if they did not all endeavour to 
establish it within their dominions. Egypt enjoyed good 
laws at the first, they were observed during some ages, 
and the people were consequently happy; but their 
princes endeavoured to free themselves from the restraints 
imposed upon them, and by degrees they succeeded. M. 
de Voltaire was justified in considering the construction 
of the pyramids as a proof of the slavery of the Egyp- 
tians; and it is with much justice he remarks, that it 
would not be possible to compel the English to erect 
similar masses, who are far more powerful than the 
Egyptians at that time were. This is perfectly true, and 
M. de Pauw, in attacking Voltaire, has wanderedfrom the 
question. He ought to have proved, that the kings of 
England were really able to compel their subjects to raise 
similar monuments, as Herodotus positively asserts of the 
princes of Egypt. He ought, I say, to have proved this, 
and not to have advanced that the cultivation of their lands 
cost the English nine times more labour than it does in 
Egypt ; and that their marine in one year occasions the de- 
struction of more people than the construction of all the 
pyramids would have done in a long series of ages. M. 
dePauw would not see that a spirit of ambition, a desire of 
wealth, &c. induce the English eagerly to undertake the 
most laborious enterprises ; that they are not obliged to 
do this ; and in one word, that it is optional with them ; on 
the contrary, the Egyptians were compelled by their 
sovereigns to labours the most painful, humiliating, and 
servile. — Larcher. 



112 



HERODOTUS. 



dred thousand men were employed, who were 
relieved every three months. Ten years were 
consumed in the hard labour of forming the 
road through which these stones were to be 
drawn ; a work, in my estimation, of no less 
fatigue and difficulty than the pyramid itself. ' 
This causeway 2 is five stadia in length, forty 



1 The pyramid itself. — For the satisfaction of the English 
reader, I shall in few words enumerate the different uses 
for which the learned have supposed the pyramids to hare 
been erected. Some have imagined that, by the hiero- 
glyphics inscribed on their external surface, the Egyptians 
wished to convey to the remotest posterity their national 
history, as well as their improvements in science and the 
arts. This, however ingenious, seems but little probable ; 
for the ingenuity which was equal to contrive, and the in- 
dustry which persevered to execute structures like the 
pyramids, could not but foresee, that however the build- 
ings themselves might from their solidity and form defy the 
effects of time, the outward surface, in such asituation and 
climate, could not be proportionably permanent; add to 
this, that the hieroglyphics were a sacred language, and 
obseurein them selves,and revealed but to a select number, 
might to posterity afford opportunity of ingenious conjec- 
ture, but were a very inadequate vehicle of historical 
facts. 

Others have believed them intended merely as observa- 
tories to extend philosophic and astronomical knowledge; 
butin defence of this opinion little can be said: the adjacent 
country is a flat and even surface ; buildings, therefore, of 
such a height, were both absurd and unnecessary; beside3 
that, for such a purpose, it would have been very prepos- 
terous to have constructed such a number of costly and 
massy piles, differing so little in altitude. 

To this may be added, that it does not appear, from an 
examination of the pyramids, that access to the summit 
was ever practicable during their perfect state. 

By some they have been considered as repositories for 
corn, erected by Joseph, and called the granaries of 
Pharaoh. The argument against this is very convincing, 
and is afforded us by Pliny. " In the building the largest 
of the pyramids 366,000 men," says he, "were employed 
twenty years together." This, therefore, will be found 
butillto correspond with the scriptural history of Joseph. 
The years of plenty which he foretold were only seven, 
which fact is of itself a sufficient answer to the above. 

It remains, therefore, to mention the more popular and 
the more probable opinion, which is, that they were in- 
tended for the sepulchres of the Egyptian monarchs. 
Instead of useful works, like Nature, great. 
Enormous cruel wonders crush'd the land, 
And round a tyrant's tomb, who none deserved, 
For one vile carcase perish'd countless lives Thomson. 

"When we consider the religious prejudices of the 
Egyptians, their opinion concerning the soul, the pride, 
the despotism and the magnificence of their ancient prin- 
ces, together with the modern discoveries with respect 
to the interior of these enormous piles, there seems to 
remain but little occasion for argument, or reason for 
doubt— T. 

2 Causeway.']— -The stones might be conveyed by the 
canal that runs about two miles north of the pyramids, 
and from thence part of the way by this extraordinary 
causeway. For at this time there is a causeway from 
that part, extending about a thousand yards in length, 
and twenty feet wide, built of hewn stone. The length 
of it agreeing so well with the account of Herodotus, is 



cubits wide, and its extreme height thirty-two 
cubits ; the whole is of polished marble, adorned 
with the figures of animals. Ten years, as I 
remarked, were exhausted in forming this 
causeway, not to mention the time employed in 
the vaults 3 of the hill 4 upon which the pyra- 
mids are erected. These he intended as a place 
of burial for himself, and were in an island 
which he formed by introducing the waters of 
the Nile. The pyramid itself was a work of 
twenty years : it is of a square form ; every front 
is eight plethra 5 long, and as many in height ; 

a strong confirmation that this causeway has been kept 
up ever since, though some of the materials of it may have 
been changed, all being now built with freestone. It is 
strengthened on each side with semicircular buttresses, 
about fourteen feet diameter, and thirty feet apart ; there 
are sixty-one of these buttresses, beginning from the 
north. Sixty feet farther it turns to the west for a little 
way, then there is a bridge of about twelve arches, 
twenty feet wide, built on piers that are ten feet wide. 
Above one hundred yards further there is such another 
bridge, beyond which the causeway continues about one 
hundred yards to the south, ending about a mile from 
the pyramids, where the ground is higher. The country 
over which the causeway is built, being low, and the 
water lying on it a great while, seems to be the reason 
for building this causeway at first, and continuing to keep 
it in repair. — Pococke. 

The two bridges described by Pococke are also men- 
tioned particidarly by Norden. The two travellers differ 
essentially in the dimensions which they give of the 
bridges they severally measured ; which induces M. Lar- 
cher reasonably to suppose that Pococke described one 
bridge, and Norden the other. — T. 

3 Vaults.] — The second pyramid has a fosse cut in the 
rock to the north and west of it, wluch is about ninety 
feet wide, and thirty feet deep. There are small apart- 
ments cut from it into the rock, &c. 

4 The hill] — The pyramids are not situated in plains, 
but upon the rock that is at the foot of the high moun- 
tains which accompany the Nile in its course, and which 
make the separation betwixt Egypt and Libya. It may 
have fourscore feet of perpendicular elevation above the 
horizon of the ground, that is always overflowed by the 
Nile. It is a Danish league in circumference. — Norden. 

5 Eight plethra.]— To this day the dimensions of the 
great pyramid are problematical. Since the time of 
Herodotus many travellers and men of learning have 
measured it ; and the difference of their calculations, far 
from removing, have but augmented doubt. I will give 
you a table of their admeasurements, which at least will 
serve to prove how difficult it is to come at truth. 





Height of the 


Width ot 




great pyramid. 


one side. 


Ancients. 


Feet. 


Feet. 


Herodotus 


.800 ... 


800 


Strabo 


625 . 


. 600 


Diodorus 


600 some inches 


700 


Pliny . 




. 708 


Moderns. 






Le Brun 


. 616 


704, 


Prosp. Alpinus 


625 . . 


. 750 


Thevenot 


. 520 . 


612 


Niebuhr 


440 ... 


. 710 


Greaves 


444 . 


648 



EUTERPE. 



113 



the stones are very skilfully cemented, and none 
of them of less dimensions than thirty feet. 

CX X V. The ascent of the pyramid was re- 
gularly graduated by what some call steps, and 
others altars. Having finished the first flight, 
they elevated the stones to the second by the 
aid of machines' 5 constructed of short pieces of 
wood; from the second, by a similar engine, 
they were raised to the third, and so on to the 
summit. Thus there were as many machines 
as there were regular divisions in the centre of 
the pyramid, though in fact there might only be 
one, which being easily manageable, might be 
removed from one range of the building to 
another, as often as occasion made it necessary : 
both modes have been told me, and I know not 
which best deserves credit. The summit of the 
pyramid was first of all finished, 7 descending 

Number of the layers or steps. 

Greaves, 207 

Maillet, 208 

Albert Lewenstein, .... 260 

Pococke, 212 

Belon, 250 

Thevenot, 208 

To me it seems evident that Greaves and Niebuhr are 
prodigiously deceived in the perpendicular height of the 
great pyramid. All travellers agree it contains at least 
two hundred and seven layers, which layers are from 
four to two feet high. The highest are at the base, and 
they decrease insensibly to the top. I measured several, 
which were more than three feet high, and I found none 
that were less than two, therefore the least mean height 
that can be allowed them is two feet and a half, which, 
according to the calculation of Greaves himself, who 
counted two hundred and seven, will give five hundred 
and seventeen feet six inches in perpendicular height. — 
Savary. 

6 Aid of machines.] — Mr Greaves thinks that tliis ac- 
count of Herodotus is full of difficulty. "How, in erect- 
ing and placing so many machines, charged with such 
massy stones, and those continually passing over the lower 
degrees, could it be avoided, but that they must either 
unsettle them, or endanger the breaking of some portions 
of them ? Which mutilations would have been like scars 
in the face of so magnificent a building." 

I own that I am of a different opinion from Mr Greaves; 
for such massy stones as Herodotus has described would 
not be discomposed by an engine resting upon them, and 
which, by the account of Herodotus, I take to be only 
the pulley. The account that Diodorus gives of raising 
the stones by imaginary x co f / - MTCO)l (heaps of earth,) en- 
gines not being then, as he supposes, invented, is too ab- 
surd to take notice of. And the description that Hero- 
dotus has given, notwithstanding all the objections that 
have been raised to it, and which have arisen principally 
from misrepresenting him, appears to me very clear and 
sensible. — Dr Te»ipte?nan's Notes to Norden. 

7 First of all finished,'] — The word in the text is 
tZtiroirfir,, which Larcher has rendered, " On commenca 
revetir et perfect ionner." 

Great doubts have arisen amongst travellers and the 
learned, whether the pyramid was coated or not. Pliny 
tells us, that at Busiris people lived who had the agility 



thence, they regularly completed the whole. 
Upon the outside were inscribed, in Egyptian 
characters, 8 the various sums of money expend- 
ed in the progress of the work, for the radishes, 
onions, and garlic consumed by the artificers. 
This, as I well remember, my interpreter in- 
formed me, amounted to no less a sum than one 
thousand six hundred talents. If this be true, 
how much more must it necessarily have cost for 
iron tools, food, and clothes for the workmen, 
particularly when we consider the length of 
time they were employed in the building itself, 
adding what was spent in the hewing and con- 
veyance of the stones, and the construction of 
the subterraneous apartments ? 

CXXVI. Cheops having exhausted his 
wealth, was so flagitious, that he prostituted his 
daughter, 9 commanding her to make the most 
of her person. She complied with her father's 
injunctions, but I was not told what sum she 
thus procured ; at the same time she took care 
to perpetuate the memory of herself; with 
which view she solicited every one of her lovers 
to present her with a stone. With these it is 
reported the middle of the three pyramids, 10 
fronting the larger one, was constructed, the 
elevation of which on each side was one hun- 
dred and fifty feet. 

CXXVII According to the Egyptians, 
this Cheops reigned fifty years. His brother 



to mount to the top of the pyramid. If it was graduated 
by steps, little agility Avould be requisite to do this ; if 
regularly coated, it is hard to conceive how any agility 
could accomplish it. 

Norden says, that there is not the least mark to be per- 
ceived to prove that the pyramid has been coated with 
marble. 

Savary is of a contrary opinion : "That it was coated," 
says he, " is an incontestable fact, proved by the remains 
of mortar, still found in several parts of the steps, mixed 
with fragments of white marble." Upon the whole it 
seems more reasonable to conclude that it was coated. 
— T. 

8 Egyptian characters.] — Probably in common charac- 
ters, and not in hieroglyphics. — Larcher. 

9 Prostituted his daughter.] — This account of the king's 
prostituting his daughter has been thought so full of 
horror, that many have doubted the truth of it ; but we 
have had in our own country an instance of as horrid a 
crime in a husband's prostituting his wife merely for his 
diversion, — See State Trials, the Case of M&roin Lord 
Audley. 

10 The middle of the three pyramids.]— -The acts of 
magnificence which the courtezans of antiquity were 
enabled to accomplish from the produce of their charms 
almost exceed belief. It is told of Lamia, the charming 
mistress of Demetrius Poliorcetes, that she elected at 
Sicyon a portico, so beautiful and superb, that an author 
named Pokmo wrote a book to describe it. — See Athc- 
nceus and the Letters of Alciphron.— T. 

P 



114 



HERODOTUS. 



Cliephren ' succeeded to his throne, and adopt- 
ed a similar conduct. He also built a pyramid, 
but this was less than his brother's, for I mea- 
sured them both ; it has no subterraneous cham- 
bers, nor any channel for the admission of the 
Nile > which in the other surrounds an island 
where the body of Cheops is said to be deposit- 
ed. 8 Of this latter pyramid, the first ascent is 
entirely of Ethiopian marble of divers colours, 
but it is not so high as the larger pyramid, near 
which it stands, by forty feet. This Chephren 
reigned fifty-six years ; the pyramid he built 
stands on the same hill with that erected by his 
brother j the hill itself is near one hundred feet 
high. 

C XXVIII. Thus for the space of one hun- 
dred and six years were the Egyptians exposed 
to every species of oppression and calamity, not 
having in all this period permission to worship 
in their temples. For the memory of these 
two monarchs, they have so extreme an aver- 
sion, that they are not very willing to mention 
their names. 3 They call their pyramids by the 
name of the shepherd Philitis, 4 who at that 
time fed his cattle in those places. 

CXXIX. Mycerinus, the son of Cheops, 
succeeded Chephren : as he evidently disap- 



1 His brother Chephren.]— Diodorus Siculus remarks, 
that some authors are of opinion, that it was not his 
brother who succeeded him, but his son Chabryis, or 
Chabryen. Probably, says M. Larcher, the same word 
differently written. 

2 Is said to be deposited.'] — The kings designed these 
pyramids for their sepulchres, yet it happened that their 
remains were not here deposited. The people were so 
exasperated against them, by the severe labours they had 
been compelled to endure, and were so enraged at the 
oppressive cruelty of their princes, that they threatened 
to take their bodies from their tombs, and cast them to 
the dogs. Both of them, therefore, when dying, ordered 
their attendants to bury them in some secret place. — 
Diodorus Siculus. 

3 Mention their names.] — Part of the punishment an- 
nexed in France to high-treason, and other enormous 
offences, is the irrevocable extinction of the family name 
of the convicted persons. 

This is probably the reason, observes M. Larcher, why 
historians are so much divided in opinion concerning the 
names of the princes who erected the pyramids. 

4 Philitis.] — Some of the pyramids in Egypt were 
styled the pyramids of the shepherd Philitis, and were 
said to have been built by people whom the Egyptians 
held in abomination ; from whence we may form a judg- 
ment of the persons by whom these edifices were erected. 
Many hills and places of reputed sanctity were denomi- 
nated from shepherds. Caucasus, in the vicinity of Col- 
chis, had its name conferred by Jupiter, in memory of 
Caucasus, a shepherd. Mount Cithaeron, in Bceotia, was 
called Asterius, but received the former name from one 
Cithaeron, a shepherd, supposed to have been there 
slain.— Bryant. 



proved of his father's conduct, he commanded 
the temples to be opened, and the people, who 
had been reduced to the extremest affliction, 
were again permitted to offer sacrifice at the 
shrines of their gods. He excelled all that went 
before him in his administration of justice. 
The Egyptians revere his memory beyond that 
of all his predecessors, not only for the equity 
of his decisions, 5 but because if complaint was 
ever made of his conduct as a judge, he con- 
descended to remove and redress »the injury." 
Whilst Mycerinus thus distinguished himself by 
his exemplary conduct to his subjects, he lost 
his daughter and only child, the first misfortune 
he experienced. Her death excessively afflicted 
him ; and wishing to honour her funeral with 
more than ordinary splendour, he inclosed her 
body in a heifer 7 made of wood, and richly orna- 
mented with gold. 8 

CXXX. This heifer was not buried \ it re- 
mained even to my time in the palace of Sais, 
placed in a superb hall. Every day costly aro- 
matics were burnt before it ; and every night it 
was splendidly illuminated; in an adjoining 



5 Equity of his decisions.]— It appears as well from 
this paragraph as the remainder of the chapter, that the 
kings administered justice to their subjects in person. 
It is not, therefore, very easy to see what could induce 
M. Pauw to assert that the sovereigns of Egypt had not 
the power of deciding in any civil cause. — Larcher. 

6 Redress the injury.]— Diodorus Siculus relates the 
same fact; and says, that lie expended large sums of 
money in making compensation to such as he thought 
injured by judicial decisions.— T. 

7 In an heifer.] — The Patrica were not only rites of 
Mithres, but also of Osiris, who was in reality the same 
deity. We have a curious inscription to this purpose, 
and a representation which was first exhibited by the 
learned John Price in his observations upon Apuleius. 
It is copied from an original which he saw at Venice, 
and there is an engraving from it in the edition of Hero- 
dotus by Gronovius, as well as in that by Wesseling, 
but about the purport of it they are strangely mistaken. 
They suppose it to relate to a daughter of Mycerinus, 
the son of Cheops. She died, it seems, and her father 
was so affected with her death, that he made a bull of 
wood, which he gilt, and hi it interred his daughter. 
Herodotus says he saw the bull of Mycerinus, and that 
it alluded to tliis history. But notwithstanding the 
authority of this great author, we may be assured, that 
it was an emblematical representation, and an image of 
the sacred bull, Apis and Mnevis. — Bryant. 

8 Gold.]— The prophet Isaiah threatening the people 
of Israel for their blind confidence in Egypt, says, " Ye 
shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of 
silver, and the ornaments of thy molten images of gold." 
Winkelmann, speaking of the antiquity of art in Egypt, 
says, " Les figures taillees originairement en bois, et les 
statues jettees en fonte, ont toutes leur denomination 
particuliere dans la langue Hebraique : par la suite des 
tems les premieres furent dorees ou revctues de lames 
d'or."— T. 



EUTERPE. 



115 



apartment are deposited statues of the different 
concubines of Mycerinus, as tbe priests of Sais 
informed me. These are to the number of 
twenty, they are colossal figures, made of wood, 
and in a naked state, but what women they are 
intended to represent, I presume not to deter- 
mine : I merely relate what I was told. 

CXXXI. Of this heifer, and these colossal 
figures, there are some who speak thus : My- 
cerinus, they say, conceived an unnatural pas- 
sion for his daughter, and offered violence to 
her person. She having, in the anguish of her 
mind, strangled herself, her father buried her 
in the manner we have described. The mother 
cut off the hands of those female attendants 
who assisted the king in his designs upon his 
daughter, and therefore these figures are marked 
by the same imperfections as distinguished the 
persons they represent when alive. The whole 
of this story, 9 and that in particular which relates 
to the hands of these figures, to me seems very 
preposterous. I myself saw the hands lying on 
the ground, merely, as I thought, from the 
effect of time. 

CXXXII. The body of this heifer is cov- 
ered with a purple cloth, 10 whilst the head and 
neck are very richly gilt : betwixt the horns 
there is a golden star ; it is made to recline on 
its knees, and is about the size of a large cow. 
Every year it is brought from its apartment ; 
at the period when the Egyptians flagellate 
themselves in honour of a certain god, whom 
it does not become me to name, this heifer is 
produced to the light : it was the request, they 
say, of the dying princess to her father, that she 
might once every year behold the sun, 

CXXXIII. Mycerinus after the above met 
with a second calamity ; an oracle from the 
city Butos informed him that he should live six 
years, but die in the seventh ; the intelligence 
astonished him, and he sent a message in return 
to reproach the goddess " with injustice ; for 



9 The whole of this story.]— In the old version of Hero- 
dotus before quoted, this passage is rendered thus : " But 
this is as true as the man in the moone, for* that a man 
with halfe an eye may clearly perceive that their hands 
fel off for very age, by reason that the wood, through 
long continuance of time, was spaked and perished." — 
Herodotus his second Booke entituled Euterpe. 

10 With a purple cloth.]—" The Egyptians," says Plu- 
tarch, " have a custom in the month Athyr, of ornament- 
ing a golden image of a bull, which they cover with a 
black robe of the finest liuen. This they do in commemora- 
tion of Isis, and her grief for the loss of Orus." 

11 To reproach the goddess.]-- Instead of ?*> ^Valcnaer 
proposes to read t~ Oiu: " No god," says he, " had an 
oracle at Butos, but the goddess called by the Greeks 



that his father and his uncle, who had been in- 
jurious to mankind, and impious to the gods, 
had enjoyed each a length of life of which he 
was to be deprived, who was distinguished for 
his piety. The reply of the oracle told him, 
that his early death was the consequence of the 
conduct for which he commended himself; he 
had not fulfilled the purpose of the fates, who 
had decreed that for the space of one hundred 
and fifty years Egypt should be oppressed ; of 
which determination the two preceding monarchs 
had been aware, but he had not. As soon as 
Mycerinus knew that his destiny was immut- 
able, he caused an immense number of lamps 
to be made, by the light of which when even- 
ing approached, he passed his hours in the fes- 
tivity of the banquet : 12 he frequented by day 
and by night the groves and streams, and what- 
ever place he thought productive of delight ; 
by this method of changing night into day, and 
apparently multiplying his six years into twelve, 
he thought to convict the oracle of falsehood. 

CXXXI V. This prince also built a pyra- 
mid, 13 but it was not by twenty feet so high as 
his father's : it was a regular square on every 
side, three hundred feet in height, and as far 
as the middle of Ethiopian stone. Some of 
the Greeks erroneously believe this to have 
been erected by Rhodopis H the courtesan, but 



Latona, the nurse of Apollo the son of Isis, who had an 
oracle at Butos held in the highest estimation." — T. 

12 Of the banquet] — JElian records many examples 
similar to this of Mycerinus, in his Various History, 
book ii. chap. 41. 

13 Built a pyramid.] — " If," says Diodorus Siculus, 
speaking of this pyramid, " it is less in size and extent 
than the others, it is superior to them in the costliness 
of the materials, and excellence of the workmanship." 

14 Rhodopis.] — The following account of this Rhodopis 
is from Strabo. 

It is said that this pyramid was erected by the lovers 
of Rhodopis, by Sappho called Doricha : she was the mis- 
tress of her brother Charaxus, who carried to Naucratis 
Lesbian wine, in which article he dealt ; others call her 
Rhodope. It is reported of her, that one day when she 
was in the bath, an eagle snatched one of her slippers 
from an attendant, and carried it to Memphis. The king 
was then sitting in his tribunal ; the eagle, settling above 
his head, let fall the slipper into his bosom : the prince, 
astonished at this singular event, and at the smallness of 
the slipper, ordered a seaich to be made through the 
country for the female to whom it belonged. Having 
found her at Naucratis, she was presented to the king, 
who made her his wife : when she died, she was buried 
in the manner we have described. 

Diodorus Siculus says, that this pyramid was believed 
to have been erected to the memory of Rhodopis, at the 
expense of some governors who had been her admirers. 

Perizonius, in his notes on iElian, says that there were 
two of this name ; one a courtesan, who afterwards be- 
came the wife of Psammitiehus ; the other the fellow- 
slave of iEsop, who lived in the time of Amasis.— T. 



116 



HERODOTUS. 



they do not seem to me even to know who this 
Rhodopis was ; if they had, they never could 
have ascribed to her the building of a pyramid 
produced at the expense of several thousand 
talents : ' besides this, Rhodopis lived at a 
different period, in the time, not of Mycerinus, 
but Amasis, and many years after the monarchs 
whoerected the pyramids. Rhodopis was born 
in Thrace, the slave of Iadmon, the son of 
Hephaestopolis the Samian : she was the fellow- 
servant of iEsop, who wrote fables, 8 and was 
also the slave of Iadmon ; all which may be 
thus easily proved : The Delphians, in compli- 



1 Several thousand talents.] — Demetrius Poliorcetes 
compelled the Athenians to raise him immediately the 
sum of two hundred and fifty talents, which he sent to 
his mistress Lamia, saying it was for soap. When I in- 
form the reader that she spent this immense sum in a 
feast given to her lord, what is here related of Rhodopis 
may seem less incredible. — T. 

2 Msop, who wrote fables.]— This name is so familiar, 
that it may at first sight seem superfluous and inconsist- 
ent to say any thing on the subject ; but possibly every 
English reader may not know, that the fables which go 
under his name were certainly not of his composition ; 
indeed but little concerning him can be ascertained as 
fact. Plutarch assures us, that Croesus sent iEsop to 
the oracle of Delphi; that iEsop and Solon were to- 
gether at the court of Croesus ; that the inhabitants of 
Delphi put him to death, and afterwards made atone- 
ment to Ms memory ; and finally, Socrates versified his 
fables. Plato, who would not admit Homer into his 
commonwealth, gave iEsop an honourable place in them; 
at least such is the expression of Fontaine. 

It remains to do away one absurd and vulgar preju- 
dice concerning him. Modern painters and artists have 
thought proper to represent Bacchus as a gross, vulgar, 
and bloated personage ; on the contrary, all the ancient 
poets and artists represented him as a youth of most exqui- 
site beauty. A similar error has prevailed with respect 
to iEsop : that it is an error, Bentley's reasoning must be 
very satisfactory to whoever gives it the attention which 
it merits. "In Plato's feast," says he, "they are very 
merry upon Socrates' face, which resembled old Silenus. 
iEsop was one of the guests, but nobody presumes to 
jest on his ugliness." Philostratus has given, in two 
books, a description of a gallery of pictures; one is 
iEsop, with a chorus of animals about him ; he is paint- 
ed smiling and looking thoughtfully on the ground, but 
not a word on his deformity : the Athenians erected a 
statue in his honour. If he had been deformed, continues 
Bentley, a statue had been no more than a monument of 
Ids ugliness, it would have been kinder to his memory 
to have let it alone. But after all, the strongest argu- 
ment to prove that he was not of a disagreeable form, is 
that he must have been sold into Samos by a trader in 
slaves. It is well known that these people brought up 
the most handsome youths they could procure. If we 
may judge of him from his companion and contubernalis, 
we must believe him a comely person. Rhodopis was 
the greatest beauty of her age even to a proverb— 
uvotvQ 6jU.oioc. z.a.1 Vdhwxt; 'h xxXv). 

The compilers of the Eucyclopaedia Britannica have 
given into the vulgar error, and scruple not to pronounce 
iEsop a person of striking deformity. — T. 



ance with the directions of the oracle, had 
desired publicly to know if any one required 
atonement to be made for the death of iEsop ; 
but none appeared to do this, except a grandson 
of Iadmon, bearing the same name. 

CXXXV. Rhodopis was first carried to 
Egypt by Xanthus of Samos, whose view was 
to make money by her person. Her liberty 
was purchased for an immense sum by Charax- 
us 3 of Mytilene, son of Scamandronymus, and 
brother of Sappho the poetess ; thus becoming 
free, she afterwards continued in Egypt, where 
her beauty procured her considerable wealth 
though by no means adequate to the construction 
of such a pyramid ; the tenth part of her riches 
whoever pleases may even now ascertain, and 
they will not be found so great as has been re- 
presented. Wishing to perpetuate her name 
in Greece, she contrived what had never before 
been imagined, as an offering for the Delphic 
temple : she ordered a tenth part of her property 
to be expended in making a number of iron spits, 
each large enough to roast an ox; they were 
sent to Delphi, where they are now to be seen 4 
behind the altar presented by the Chians. The 
courtesans of Naucratis 5 are generally beautiful ; 
she of whom we speak was so universally cele- 
brated that her name is familiar to every Greek. 
There was also another courtesan, named Archi- 
dice, 6 well known in Greece, though of less 

3 Charaxus.] — Sappho had two other brothers, Eury- 
gius and Larychus, or rather Larichus, as it is written 
in Athenseus, the Dorians being partial to terminations 
in ichos. — Larcher. 

Athenaeus asserts, that the courtesan of Naucratis, be- 
loved by Charaxus, and satirised by Sappho, was called 
Dorica. The same author adds, that Herodotus calls her 
Rhodopis from ignorance ; but the opinion of Herodotus 
is confirmed by Strabo. — Larcher. 

4 WJiere they are now to be seen.] — They were not to 
be seen in the time of Plutarch ; in his tract assigning 
the reasons why the Pythian ceased to deliver her oracles 
in verse, Brasidias, whose office it was to show the cu- 
riosities of the place, points out the place where they for- 
merly stood. — T. 

5 The courtesans of Naucratis.] — " Howbeit such 
arrant honest women as are fishe for everye man, have 
in no place the like credite as in the city of Naucrates. 
Forsomuch as this stalant of whom we speake, had her 
fame so bruted in all places, as almost there was none in 
Greece that had not heard of the fame of Rhodope ; after 
whome there sprang up also another as good as ever 
ambled, by name Archidice, &c." — Herodotus his second 
boolce, entituled Euterpe. 

6 Archidice.]— Of this courtesan the following anecdote 
is related by iElian : She demanded a great sum of money 
of a young man who loved her ; the bargain broke off, 
and the lover withdrew re infecta : he dreamed in the 
night that he lay with the woman, which cured his pas- 
sion. Archidice, on learning this, pretended that the 
young man ought to pay her, and summoned him before 



EUTERPE. 



117 



repute than Rhodopis. Charaxus, after giving 
Rhodopis her liberty, returned to Mytilene, 
and was severely handled 7 by Sappho in some 
satirical verses : — but enough has been said on 
this subject. 

CXXX VI. After Mycerinus, as the priests 
informed me, Asychis reigned in Egypt; he 
erected the east entrance to the temple of Vul- 
can, which is far the greatest and most magni- 
ficent. Each of the above-mentioned vestibules 
is elegantly adorned with sculpture, and with 
paintings, but this is superior to them all. In 
this reign, when commerce was checked and 
injured from the extreme want of money, an 
ordinance passed, that any one might borrow 
money, giving the body of his father as a pledge ; 
by this law the sepulchre of the debtor became 
in the power of the creditor ; for if the debt 
was not discharged he could neither be buried 
with his family, nor in any other vault, nor was 
he suffered to inter one of his descendants. 
This prince, desirous of surpassing all his pre- 
decessors, left as a monument of his fame a 
pyramid of brick, with this inscription on a piece 
of marble. — " Do not disparage my worth by 
comparing me to those pyramids composed of 
stone ; I am as much superior to them as Jove 
is to the rest of the deities ; I am formed of 
bricks, 8 which were made of mud adhering to 
poles drawn from the bottom of the lake." — 
This was the most memorable of this king's 
actions. 

the judges : the judge ordered the man to put the sum 
of money required in a purse, and to move it so that its 
shadow might fall on Arehidice ; Ms meaning was, that 
the young man's pleasure was but the shadow of a real 
one. The celebrated Lamia condemned this decision as 
unjust ; the shadow of the purse, she observed, had not 
cured the courtesan's passion for the money, whereas 
the dream had cured the young man's passion for the 
woman. 

7 Severely handled. ]— The Greek word f*'v may apply 
either to Charaxus or Rhodopis ; the application appeals 
most obvious to the former. — T. 

8 Formed of bricks.] — Mr Greaves asserts, that all the 
pyramids were made of stone, of course he did not pene- 
trate far enough into Egypt to see the one here mention- 
ed; it is situated about four leagues from Cairo, and is 
noticed both by Norden and Pocockc. — T. 

As to what concerns the works on which the Israelites 
were employed in Egypt, I admit that I have not been 
able to find any ruins of bricks burnt in the fire. There 
is indeed a wall of that kind which is sunk very deep in 
the ground, and is very long, near to the pyramids, and 
adjoining to the bridges of the Saracens, that are situated 
in the plain ; but it appears too modern to think that the 
bricks of which it is formed were made by the Israelites. 
All that I have seen elsewhere of brick building, is com- 
posed of the large kind of bricks hardened in the sun, 
such as those of the brick pyramid.— Norden, 



CXXX VII. He was succeeded by an in- 
habitant of Anysis, whose name was Anysis, 
and who was blind. In his reign Sabacus 9 
king of Ethiopia overran Egypt with a nume- 
rous army ; Anysis fled to the morasses, and 
saved his life, but Sabacus continued master of 
Egypt for the space of fifty years. Whilst he 
retained his authority, he made it a rale not to 
punish any crime with death, but according to 
the magnitude of the offence, he condemned the 
criminal to raise the ground near the place to 
which he belonged ; by which means the situa- 
tion of the different cities became more and 
more elevated; they were somewhat raised un- 
der the reign of Sesostris by the digging of the 
canals, but they became still more so under the 
reign of the Ethiopian. This was the case with 
all the cities of Egypt, but more particularly with 
the city of Bubastis. There is in this city a tem- 
ple, which well deserves our attention ; there 
may be others larger as well as more splendid, 
but none which have a more delightful situation. 
Bubastis in Greek is synonymous with Artemis 
or Diana. 10 

CXXXVIII. This temple, taking away 
the entrance, forms an island ; two branches of 
the Nile meet at the entrance of the temple, 
and then separating flow on each side entirely 
round it: each of these branches is one hun- 
dred feet wide, and regularly shaded with trees ; 
the vestibule is forty cubits high, and orna- 
mented with various figures, none of which are 
less than six cubits. The temple is in the cen- 
tre of the town, and in every part a conspicuous 
object : its situation has never been altered, 
though every part of the city has been elevated ; 
a wall ornamented with sculpture surrounds the 
building : in the interior part a grove of lofty 
trees shades the temple, in the centre of which 
is the statue of the goddess : the length and 
breadth of the temple each way is one stadium. 
There is a paved way which leads through the 
public square of the city, from the entrance of 



9 Sabacus.']— This event happened in the beginning of 
the reign of Hezekiah. Prideaux, on the authority of 
Syncellus, says he took Bocchoris, and burned him alive ; 
but it is more generally believed that Bocchoris was an- 
terior to Sabacus : this last is the person mentioned hi the 
book of Kings, by the name of So.— T. 

10 Artemis or Diana.]— Bubastiswas a virgin, presided 
at childbirths, and was the symbol of the moon. This re- 
semblance with their Diana Caused the Greeks to name 
her the Diana of the Egyptians : yet the similitude was 
far from perfect, for with the latter she was not the god- 
dess of the mountains, the woods, and the chace. This 
diuvrence probably caused Juvenal to say, 

Oi>pida tola canem venerantur, nemo Dianam.— Larchtr. 



118 



HERODOTUS. 



this temple to that of Mercury, l which is about 
thirty stadia in length. 

CXXXIX. The deliverance of Egypt from 
the Ethiopian was, as they told me, effected by 
a vision, which induced him to leave the coun- 
try : a person appeared to him in a dream, ad- 
vising him to assemble all the priests of Egypt, 
and afterwards cut them in pieces. This vision 
to him seemed to demonstrate, that in conse- 
quence of some act of impiety, which he was 
thus tempted to peipetrate, his ruin was at hand, 
from heaven or from man. Determined not to 
do this deed, he conceived it more prudent to 
withdraw himself; particularly as the time of 
his reigning over Egypt was, according to the 
declaration of the oracles, now to terminate. 
During his former residence in Ethiopia, the 
oracles of his country a had told him, that he 
should reign fifty years over Egypt : this period 
being accomplished, he was so terrified by the 
vision, that he voluntarily withdrew himself. 

CXL. Immediately on his departure 3 from 
Egypt, the blind prince quitted his place of re- 
fuge, and resumed the government : he had 
resided for the period of fifty years in a soli- 
tary island, which he himself had formed of 
ashes and of earth. He directed those Egyp- 
tians who frequented his neighbourhood for the 

1 Mercury. ]-T\\e Egyptian Mercury was named Thoth 
or Theuth. Thoth with the Egyptians was the inven- 
tor of the sciences ; and as Mercury with the Greeks 
presided over the sciences, this last people called Thoth 
in their tongue by the name of Hermes or Mercury : 
they had also given the name of Mercury to Anubis, on 
account of some fancied similitude betwixt those deities. 
" It is not," says Plutarch, " a dog properly so called, 
which they revere under the name of Mercury, it is his 
vigilance and fidelity, the instinct which teaches him to 
distinguish a friend from an enemy, that wliich (to use 
the expression of Plato) makes this animal a suitable em- 
blem to the god the immediate patron of reason. 

Servius on Virgil has a remark to the same effect— 
Larcher. 

This deity also with the Romans was esteemed the pa- 
tron of arts, and the protector of learned men. See the 
ode addressed to him by Horace, beginning with 
Mercuri, (nam te docilis magistro 
Movit Amphion lapides eanendo,) 
Tuque testudo, resonare septem 
Callida nervis, &c. 

Where he is not only represented as the patron, but the 
teacher of music : Learned men also were called Viri 
Mercuriales. 

Nisi Faunus ictum 

Dextra levasset, Mercurialium 

Custos virorum. — Horace. 

2 The oracles of his country, .] — The oracles in Ethiopia 
were the oracles of Jupiter. — T. 

3 On his departure.] — Diodorus Siculus says, that after 
the departure of Sabachus there was an anarchy of two 
years, which was succeeded by the reign of twelve kings, 
who at their joint expense constructed the labyrinth. 



purpose of disposing of their corn, to bring 
with them, unknown to their Ethiopian mas- 
ter, ashes for his use. Amyrtasus was the first 
person who discovered this island, which all the 
princes who reigned during the space of seven 
hundred years 4 before Amyrtaeus were unable 
to do : it is called Elbo, and is on each side ten 
stadia in length. 

CXLI. The successor of this prince was 
Sethos, a priest of Vulcan ; 5 he treated the 
military of Egypt with extreme contempt, and 
as if he had no occasion for their services. 
Among other indignities, he deprived them of 
their arurae, 6 or fields of fifty feet square, which, 
by way of reward, his predecessors had given 
each soldier ; the result was, that when Senna- 
cherib, king of Arabia and Assyria, attacked 
Egypt with a mighty army, the warriors whom 
he had thus treated, refused to assist him. In 
this perplexity the priest retired to the shrine 
of his god, before which he lamented his dan- 
ger and misfortunes : here he sunk into a pro- 
found sleep, and his deity promised him in a 
dream, that if he marched to meet the Assyri- 
ans he should experience no injury, for that, he 
would furnish him with assistance ; the vision 
inspired him with confidence ; he put himself 



4 Seven hundred years.]— M. Larcher is of opinion, 
that this is a mistake, crept into the manuscript of Hero- 
dotus from a confusion of the numeral letters by copyists. 
— T. 

5 Priest of Vulcan.] — The following account is given 
by M. Larcher, from Plato, Plutarch, and Diodorus 
Siculus. 

A prince cannot reign in Egypt if he be ignoranfr of 
sacred affairs. If an individual of any other class comes 
accidentally to the crown, he must immediately be ad- 
mitted of the sacerdotal order. "The kings," says Plu- 
tarch, " must be either of the order o^ priests or soldiers, 
these two classes being distinguished, the one by their 
wisdom, the other by their valour. When they have 
chosen a warrior for king, he is instantly admitted into 
the order of priests, who instruct him in their mysterious 
philosophy. The priests may censure the prince, give 
Mm advice, and regulate his actions. By them is fixed 
the time when he may walk, bathe, or visit his wife. 

"Such privileges as the above," says M. Larcher, "must 
necessarily inspire them with contempt for the rest of the 
nation, and must have excited a spirit of disgust in a 
people not blinded by superstition." Sethos however 
experienced how dangerous it was to follow the maxims 
of the priesthood only. 

6 Arurae.] — Arura? is a Greek word, which signifies 
literally a field ploughed for corn, and is sometimes used 
for the corn itself. It was also an Egyptian measure. 
"Egypt," says Strabo, "was divided into prefectures, 
which again were divided into toparchiae, and these into 
other portions, the smallest of which were termed «.°ov- 
§«'• Suidas says it was a measure of fifty feet : from 
this word is derived, arvum, aro, $c. See Hoffman on 
this ivord 



EUTERPE. 



119 



at the head of his adherents, and marched to 
Pelusium, the entrance of Egypt : not a sol- 
dier accompanied the party, which was entirely 
composed of tradesmen 7 and artizans. On their 
arrival at Pelusium, so immense a number of 
mice 8 infested by night the enemy's camp, that 
their quivers and bows, together with what se- 
cured their shields to their arms, were gnawed in 
pieces. In the morning the Arabians, finding 
themselves without arms, fled in confusion, and 
lost great numbers of their men. There is now 
to be seen in the temple of Vulcan a marble 
statue of this king, having a mouse in his hand, 
and with this inscription : " Whoever thou art, 
learn from my fortune to reverence the gods." 
CXLII. Thus according to the information 
of the Egyptians and their priests, from the 
first king to this last, who was priest of Vulcan, 



7 Tradesmen.] — The Egyptians were divided into 
three classes ; those of rank, who with the priests occu- 
pied the most distinguished honours of the state ; the 
military, who were also husbandmen ; and artizans, who 
exercised the meaner employments. The above is from 
Diodorus Siculus, who speaks probably of the three prin- 
cipal divisions : Herodotus mentions seven classes. — 
Larcher. 

8 Immense a number of mice.] — The Babylonish Tal- 
mud hath it that this destruction upon the army of the 
Assyrians was executed by lightning, and some of the 
Targums are quoted for saying the same thing ; but it 
seemeth most likely, that it was effected by bringing on 
them the hot wind, which is frequent in those parts, and 
often when it lights among a multitude destroys great 
numbers of them in a moment, as it frequently happens 
in those vast caravans of the Mahometans who go their 
annual pilgrimages to Mecca ; and the words of Isaiah, 
which threatened Sennacherib with a blast that God 
would send upon him, seem to denote this thing. 

Herodotus gives us some kind of a disguised account 
of this deliverance from the Assyrians, in a fabulous ap- 
plication of it to the city of Pelusium, instead of Jerusa- 
lem, and to Sethos the Egyptian, instead of Hezekiah. 

It is particularly to be remarked, that Herodotus calls 
the king of Assyria Sennacherib as the Scriptures do, 
and the time in both doth also well agree ; which plainly 
shows that it is the same fact that is referred to by Hero- 
dotus, although much disguised in the relation ; which 
may be easily accounted for, when we consider that it 
comes to us through the hands of such as had the greatest 
aversion both to the nation and to the religion of the 
Jews, and therefore would relate nothing in such a man- 
ner as would give reputation to either.— Prideaux's 
Connection. 

M. Larcher, in a note of five pages on the above, says 
little more than our countryman, except that he adopts, 
with respect to the destruction of the army of Sennache- 
rib, the opinion of Josephus, whose words are these : 

" Sennacherib, on his return from the Egyptian war, 
found his army which he had left under Rabshakeh, al- 
most quite destroyed by a judicial pestilence, which swept 
away, in officers and common soldiers, the first night 
they sat down before the city, one hundred and eighty- 
five thousand men."— T. 



| a period of three hundred and forty-one genera- 
tions had passed, in which there had been as 
many high priests, and the same number of 
kings. Three generations are equal to one 
hundred years, and therefore three hundred gen- 
erations are the same as ten thousand years ; the 
forty-one generations that remain make one 
thousand three hundred and forty years. Dur- 
ing the above space of eleven thousand three 
hundred and forty years, they assert that no 
divinity appeared in a human form ; but they 
do not say the same of the time anterior to this 
account, or of that of the kings who reigned 
afterwards. During the above period of time 
the sun, 9 they told me, had four times deviated 
from his ordinary course, having twice risen 
where he uniformly goes down, and twice gone 
down where he uniformly rises. This however 
had produced no alteration in the climate of 
Egypt ; the fruits of the earth, and the pheno- 
mena of the Nile, had always been the same, 
nor had any extraordinary or fatal diseases oc- 
curred. 

CLXIII. When the historian Hecataeus 10 



9 The sun, #c.]— See Spenser's Fairy Queen, book v. 
stanza 8 : 

And if to these Egyptians, wizards old, 

Which in star-read were went to have insight, 

Faith may be given, it is by them told, 

That since the time they first took the sun's height, 

Four times his place he shifted hath in sight, 

And twice hath risen where he now doth west, 

And wested twice where he ought rise aright. 

10 When the historian Hecatceus.] — Athenaeus relates 
the same circumstance as from Hecataeus, which may 
serve to confirm the assertion of Porphyry, that Herodo- 
tus took great part of his second book, with very slight 
alteration, from Hecataeus. If this fact be once allowed, 
Herodotus will lose the character that he has long sup- 
ported, of an honest man, and a faithful historian. But 
it appears from Athenaeus himself, that the work which 
in latter ages passed under the name of Hecataeus the 
Milesian, was not universally acknowledged for genuine ; 
and Callimachus, who employed much of his time and 
pains in distinguishing genuine from spurious authors, 
attributes the supposed work of Hecataeus to another 
and a later writer. But what is perhaps even a stronger 
proof in our author's favour is, that he is never charged 
with the crime of theft by Plutarch, whose knowledge 
of this plagiarism, if it had ever existed, cannot be ques- 
tioned, when we consider his extensive and accurate 
learning j and whose zeal to discover it cannot be doubt- 
ed, when we reflect that he has written a treatise ex- 
pressly to prove the malignity of Herodotus, though in 
fact it only proves his own. Could Plutarch miss such 
an opportunity of taxing Herodotus ? Could he have 
failed of saying, that this historian was at once so mali- 
cious and so ungrateful as to speak with disrespect and 
contempt of the author to whom he was obliged for a 
considerable portion of his own history ? Our materials 
for an account of Hecataeus are at best but scanty, lie 
was a native of Miletus, and son of one JEgisander ; he 



120 



HERODOTUS. 



was at Thebes, he recited to the priests of 
Jupiter the particulars of his descent, and en- 
deavoured to prove that he was the sixteenth 
in a right line from some god. They addressed 
him in reply, as they afterwards did myself, 
who had said nothing on the subject of my 
family. They introduced me into a spacious 
temple, and displayed to me a number of figures 
in wood ; this number I have before specified, 
for every high priest places here during his life 
a wooden figure of himself. The priests enu- 
merated them before me, and proved, as they 
ascended from the last to the first, that the son 
followed the father in regular succession. When 
Hecataeus, in the explanation of his genealogy, 
ascended regularly, and traced his descent in 
the sixteenth line from a god, they opposed a 
similar mode of reasoning to his, and absolutely 
denied the possibility of a human being's de- 
scent from a god. They informed him that each 
of these colossal figures was a Piromis, 1 de- 
scended from a Piromis ; and they further prov- 
ed, that without any variation this had uniformly 
occurred to the number of three hundred and 
forty-one, but in his whole series there was no 
reference either to a god or a hero. Piromis 
in the Egyptian language means one " beauti- 
ful and good." 

CXLIV. From these priests I learned, that 
the individuals whom those figures represented, 
so far from possessing any divine attributes, 
had all been what we have described. But in 



was one of the very first writers of prose, with Cadmus 
and Pherecydes of Scyros. Salmasius contends that he 
was older than Pherecydes but younger than Eumelus. 
The most ample account of him is found in Vossius. He 
certainly wrote a book of genealogies ; and the sentence 
with which fee commences his history is preserved in 
Demetrius Phalereus : it is to this effect, " What follows 
is the recital of Hecataeus of Miletus : I write what seems 
to me to be true. The Greeks in my opinion have relat- 
ed many things contradictory and ridiculous." — T. 

1 Piromis.~\ — There are many strange and contradic- 
tory opinions about this passage, which, if I do not de- 
ceive myself, is very plain, and the purport of it is this : 
— " After the fabulous accounts, there had been an un- 
interrupted succession of Piromis after Piromis, and the 
Egyptians referred none of these to the dynasties of either 
the gods or heroes, who were supposed first to have pos- 
sessed the country." — From hence I think it is mani- 
fest that Piromis signifies a man. — Bryant. 

M. Lacroze observes, that Brama, which the Indians 
of Malabar pronounce Biroumas, in the Sanscreet or 
sacred language of India, signifies the same as Piromis ; 
and that Piromia, in the language of the inhabitants of 
Ceylon, means also at this day a man. Quaere, is this 
similitude the effect of chance, or of the conquests of Se- 
eostris, who left colonies in various parts of Asia ? — Lur- 
cher, 



the times which preceded, immortal beings 8 
had reigned in Egypt, that they had communica- 
tion with men, and had uniformly one superior ; 
that Orus, 3 whom the Greeks call Apollo, was 
the last of these ; he was the son of Osiris, and, 
after he had expelled Typhon 4 , himself suc- 
ceeded to the throne : it is also to be observed, 
that in the Greek tongue Osiris is synonymous 
with Bacchus, 

CXLV. The Greeks consider Hercules, 
Bacchus, and Pan, as the youngest of their 
deities : but Egypt esteems Pan as the most 
ancient of the gods, and even of those eight 5 

2 Immortal being •*.]— M. Larcher says, that all gov- 
ernments were at first theocratic, and after wards became 
monarchic and democratic. In the theocratic form the 
priests governed alone, who also preserved a considerable 
influence in monarchies and republics. What prevents 
our supposing that Egypt was governed many thousand 
years by priests; and that this government, in reality 
theocratic, was named from that deity to whom the high 
priest who enjoyed the sovereign authority attached 
himself ? 

3 Orus.]— According to Plutarch, the Egyptians held 
two principles, one good, the other evil. The good prin- 
ciple consisted of three persons, father, mother, and son ; 
Osiris was the father, Isis the mother, and Orus the son. 
The bad principle was Typhon : Osris, strictly speaking, 
was synonymous with reason; Typhon the passions, 
etXoyos, without reason. — T. 

The notion of a Trinity, more or less removed from 
the purity of the Christian faith, is found to have 
been a leading principle in all the ancient schools of 
philosophy, and in the religions of almost all nations ; and 
traces of an early popular belief of it appear even in the 
abominable rites of idolatrous worship. The worship of 
a Trinity is traced to an earlier age than that of Plato or 
Pythagoras, or even of Moses. — Bishop Horsley. 

4 Typhon.] — Typhon, as the principle of evil, was al- 
ways inclined to it ; all bad passions, diseases, tempests, 
and earthquakes, were imputed to him. Like the un- 
tutored Indians and savages, the Egyptians paid adora- 
tion to Typhon from fear ; they consecrated to him the 
hippopotamus, the crocodile, and the ass. According to 
Jablonski, the word Typhon is derived from Then a 
wind, and phou pernicious. 

To Osiris is ascribed the introduction of the vine : 
"and where," says Mr Bryant, "that was not adapted 
to the soil, he showed the people the way to make wine 
of barley."— T. 

The Greeks considered Osiris the same person as Bac- 
chus, because they discovered a great resemblance be- 
tween the fables related of Bacchus and the traditions of 
the Egyptians concerning Osiris. Learned men of mo- 
dern times have behoved that Isuren, one of the three 
divinities to whom the Indians now pay adoration, is the 
ancient Osiris, but this remains to be proved. — Larcher. 

The three Indian deities are Brama, Vishnou, and 
Seeva ; where Larcher found Isuren, I cannot imagine. 

5 Even of those eight.]— The ark, according to the 
traditions of the Gentile word, was prophetic, and 
was looked upon as a kind of temple or place of 
residence of the deity. In the compass of eight per- 
sons it comprehended all mankind; which eight per- 
sons were thought to be so highly favoured by heaven, 



EUTERPE. 



121 



who are accounted the first. Hercules was 
among those of the second rank in point of 
antiquity, and one of those called the twelve 
gods. Bacchus was of the third rank, and 
among those whom the twelve produced. I 
have before specified the number of years which 
the Egyptians reckon from the time of Hercules 
to the reign of Amasis ; from the time of Pan 
a still more distant period is reckoned ; from 
Bacchus, the youngest of all, to the time of 
Amasis, is a period, they say, of fifteen thou- 
sand years. On this subject the Egyptians 
have no doubts, for they profess to have always 
computed the years, and kept written accounts 
of them with the minutest accuracy. From 
Bacchus, who is said to be the son of Semele, 
the daughter of Cadmus, 6 to the present time 
is one thousand six hundred years ; from Her- 
cules, the reputed son of Alcmena, is nine 
hundred years ; and from Pan, whom the 
Greeks call the son of Penelope and Mercury, 
is eight hundred years, before which time was 
the Trojan war. 

CXLVI. Upon this subject I have given 
my own opinion, leaving it to my readers to 
determine for themselves. If these deities had 
been known in Greece, and then grown old, 
like Hercules the son of Amphitryon, Bacchus 
the son of Semele, and Pan the son of Pene- 
lope, it might have been asserted of them, that 
although mortals they possessed the names of 
those deities known in Greece in the times 
which preceded. Of Bacchus the Greeks 
affirm, that as soon as he was born 7 Jove in- 



that they were looked up to by their posterity with great 
reverence, and came at last to be reputed deities. Hence 
in the ancient mythology of Egypt there were precisely 
eight gods ; of these the sun was chief, and was said first 
to have reigned. Some made Hephaistus the first king 
of that country ; whilst others supposed it to have been 
Pan. There is no real inconsistency in these accounts ; 
they were all tliree titles of the same deity, the sun.— 
Bryant. 

Herodotus says, eight of the first sort ; he also tells us 
that Orus, the Apollo of the Greeks, was the last god 
that reigned : what then can Mr Bryant mean by say- 
ing he was the first ? 

6 Daughter of Cadmus.~\ — The son of Cadmus is sup- 
posed to have lived at the time of the Trojan war j his 
daughter Semele is said to have been sixteen hundred 
years before Herodotus, by that writer's own account : 
— She was at this rate prior to the foundation of Argos, 
and many centuries before her father, near a thousand 
years before her brother. — Bryant. 

7 As soon as he was bom.]— Upon this subject I 
have somewhere met an opinion to the following effect : 
when the ancients spoke of the nativity of their gods, we 
are to understand the time in which their worship was 
first introduced : when mention is made of their mar- 



closed him in his thigh, and carried him to 
Nysa, 8 a town of Ethiopia beyond Egypt : with 
regard to the nativity of Pan they have no tra- 
dition among them ; from all which I am con- 
vinced, that these deities were the last known 
among the Greeks, and that they date the 
period of their nativity from the precise time 
that their names came amongst them : — the 
Egyptians are of the same opinion. 

C XL VII. I shall now give some account 
of the internal history of Egypt ; to what I 
learned from the natives themselves, and the 
information of strangers, I shall add what I 
myself beheld. At the death of their sovereign, 
the priest of Vulcan, the Egyptians recovered 
their freedom ; but as they could not live with- 
out kings, they chose tw T elve, among whom they 
divided the different districts of Egypt. These 
princes connected themselves w T ith each other 
by intermarriages, engaging solemnly to promote 
their common interest, and never to engage in 
any acts of separate policy. The principal 
motive of their union w r as to guard against the 
declaration of an oracle, which had said, that 
whoever among them should offer in the temple 
of Vulcan a libation from a brazen vessel, should 
be sole sovereign of Egypt; and it is to be 
remembered that they assembled indifferently in 
every temple. 

CXLVIII. It was the resolution of them 
all, to leave behind them a common monument 
of their fame : — With this view, beyond the lake 
Mceris, near the city of crocodiles, 9 they con- 
structed a labyrinth, 10 which exceeds I can truly 



riage, reference is to be made to the time when the wor- 
sliip of one was combined with that of another. Some 
of the ancients speak of the tombs of their gods, and that 
of Jupiter in Crete was notorious, the solution of which 
is, that the gods sometimes appeared on earth, and after 
residing for a time amongst men, returned to their native 
skies j the period of their return was that of their sup- 
posed deaths. 

The following remark is found in Cicero's Tusculan 
Questions : " Ipsi illi majoruni gentium dii qui habentur 
nine a nobis in coelum profecti reperiuntur ;" — The gods 
of the popular religions were all but deceased mortals 
advanced from earth to heaven. — T. 

8 He derived his name of Aiomiro? from his father, and 
the place where he was brought up. 

6 City of crocodiles.] — We are ignorant of the real 
name of this city j it is very probable that it was called from 
the word Champsis, which according to our author was 
the Egyptian term for crocodile. — Larcher. 

10 A labyrinth.] — Diodorus says this was built as a sep- 
ulchre for Mendes j Strabo, that it was near the sepulchre 
of the king that built it, which was probably Imandes. 
Pomponius Mela speaks of it as built by Psammiticlms ; 
but as Menes or Imandes is mentioned by several, pos- 
sibly he might be one of the twelve kings of greatest 

Q 



122 



HERODOTUS. 



say, all that has been said of it ; whoever will I 
take the trouble to compare them, will find all 
the works of Greece much inferior to this, both 
in regard to the workmanship and expense. 
The temples of Ephesus and Samos may justly 
claim admiration, and the pyramids may indi- 
vidually be compared to many of the magnificent 
structures of Greece, but even these are inferior 
to the labyrinth. It is composed of twelve 
courts, all of which are covered ; their entrances 
are opposite to each other, six to the north and 
six to the south ; one wall incloses the whole ; 
the apartments are of two kinds, there are fifteen 
hundred above the surface of the ground, and 
as many beneath, in all three thousand. Of 
the former I speak from my own knowledge 
and observation, of the latter from the informa- 



influence and authority, who might have the chief order- 
ing- and direction of this great building, and as a peculiar 
honour might have his sepulchre apart from the others. 

It was such an extraordinary building, that it was said 
Daedalus came to Egypt on purpose to see it, and built 
the labyrinth in Crete for king Minos on the model of 
this. See a minute description of the labyrinth and tem- 
ple of the labyrinth by Pococke. 

Amidst the ruins of the town of Caroun, the attention 
is particularly fixed by several narrow, low, and very 
long cells, which seem to have had no other use than of 
containing the bodies of the sacred crocodiles: these 
remains can only correspond with the labyrinth. Strabo, 
Herodotus, and Ptolemy, all agree in placing the labyrinth 
beyond the city Arsinoe towards Libya, and on the bank 
of the lake Mceris, which is the precise situation of these 
ruins. 

Strabo's account of this place does not exactly accord 
with that of Herodotus, but it confirms it in general : 
Strabo describes winding and various passages so artfully 
contrived, that it was impossible to enter any one of the 
palaces, or to leave it when entered, without a guide. — 
Savary. 

The architect who should be employed to make a plan 
of the labyrinth, from the description of Herodotus, 
would find himself greatly embarrassed. We cannot form 
an idea of the parts winch composed it ; and as the apart- 
ments were then so differently formed from ours, what 
was not obscure in the time of our author, is too much 
so for us at present. M. Larcher proceeds in an attempt 
to describe its architecture ; and informs the reader, that 
lie conceives the courts must have been in the style of 
the hotel de Soubise. 

There were anciently four celebrated labyrinths; one 
in Egypt, a second in Crete, a third at Lemnos, and a 
fourth erected by Porsenna in Tuscany. That at Lemnos 
is described in very high terms by Pliny. 

Labyrinth, in its original sense, means any perplexed 
and twisted place. Suidas adds Xtytrcci Ss esn toiv <pXuctqaw, 
and it is used of prating silly people : in its figurative 
sense it is applied to any obscure or complicated ques- 
tion, or to any argument which leaves us where we first 
set out. 

The construction of the labyrinth has been imputed to 
many different persons, on which account the learned 
have supposed, that there were more labyrinths than one. 
That this was not the case is satisfactorily proved by 
Larcher in a very elaborate note. — T. 



tion I received. The Egyptians who had the 
care of the subterraneous apartments would not 
suffer me to see them, and the reason they 
alleged was, that in these were preserved the 
sacred crocodiles, and the bodies of the kings 
who constructed the labyrinth : of these there- 
fore I presume not to speak; but the upper 
apartments I myself examined, and I pronounce 
them among the greatest efforts of human in- 
dustry and art. The almost infinite number of 
winding passages through the different courts, 
excited my warmest admiration : from spacious 
halls I passed through smaller apartments, and 
from them again to large and magnificent courts, 
almost without end. The ceilings and walls 
are all of marble, the latter richly adorned with 
the finest sculpture : around each court are 
pillars of the whitest and most polished marble : 
at the point where the labyrinth terminates 
stands a pyramid one hundred and sixty cubits 
high, having large figures of animals engraved 
on its outside, and the entrance to it is by a 
subterraneous path. 

CXLIX. Wonderful as this labyrinth 
is, the lake Moeris, 1 near which it stands, is 



1 The lake Mceris.'] — That the reader may compare 
what modern writers and travellers have said on this 
subject, I shall place before them, from Larcher, Pococke, 
Norden, Sarvary, &c. what to me seems most worthy cf 
attention. 

1 shall first remark that Herodotus, Diodorus and 
Pomponius Mela, differ but little in opinion concerning 
its extent : according to the former it was four hundred 
and fifty miles in circumference, the latter says it was 
five hundred ; the former assert also that in some places 
it was three hundred feet deep. The design of it was 
probably to hinder the Nile from overflowing the coun- 
try too much, which was effected by drawing off such a 
quantity of water, when it was apprehended that there 
might be an inundation sufficient to hurt the land. The 
water, Pococke observes, is of a disagreeable muddy taste 
and almost as salt as the sea, which quality it probably 
contracts from the nitre that is in the earth, and the salt 
which is every year left in the mud 

The circumference of the lake at present is no more 
than fifty leagues. Larcher says we must distinguish 
betwixt the lake itself, and the canal of communication 
from the Nile ; that the former was the work of nature, 
the latter of art. This canal, a most stupendous effort of 
art, is still entire ; it is called Bahr Yousoph, the river of 
Joseph, according to Savary forty leagues in length- 
There were two other canals with sluices at their 
mouths, from the lake to the river ; which were alternate- 
ly shut and opened when the Nile increased or decreased. 
This work united every advantage, and supplied the de- 
ficiencies of a low inundation, by retaining water which 
would uselessly have been expended in the sea. It was 
still more beneficial when the increase of the Nile was 
too great, by receiving that superfluity which would 
have prevented seed-time. 

Were the canal of Joseph cleansed, the ancient mounds 



EUTERPE. 



123 



still more extraordinary ; the circumference of 
this is three thousand six hundred stadia or 
sixty schaeni, which is the length of Egypt 
about the coast. This lake stretches itself 
from north to south, and in its deepest parts is 
two hundred cubits ; it is entirely the produce 
of human industry, which indeed the work 
itself testifies, for in its centre may be seen 
two pyramids, each of which is two hundred 
cubits above and as many beneath the water ; 
upon the summit of each is a colossal statue 
of marble, in a sitting attitude . The precise 
altitude of these pyramids is consequently four 
hundred cubits ; these four hundred cubits, or 
one hundred orgyiae, are adapted to a stadium 
of six hundred feet; an orgyia is six feet, or 
four cubits, for a foot is four palms, and a 
cubit six. 

The waters of the lake are not supplied by 
sp lings ; the ground which it occupies is of itself 
remarkably dry, but it communicates by a secret 
channel with the Nile ; for six months the lake 
empties itself into the Nile, and the remaining 
six the Nile supplies the lake. During the six 
months in which the waters of the lake ebb, 
the fishery 2 which is here carried on furnishes 
the royal treasury with a talent of silver 3 every 
day ; but as soon as the Nile begins to pour its 
waters into the lake, it produces no more than 
twenty minse. 

CL. Of this lake the inhabitants affirm, 
that it has a subterraneous passage inclining 
inland towards the west of the mountains above 
Memphis, where it discharges itself into the 
Lybian sands. I was anxious to know what 
became of the earth, 4 which must somewhere 



repaired; and the sluices restored, this lake might again 
serve the same purposes. — The pyramids described by 
Herodotus no longer subsist, neither are they mentioned 
by Strabo. 

When it is considered that this was the work of an 
individual, and that its object was the advantage and 
comfort of a numerous people, it must be agreed, with 
M. Savary, that Mceris, who constructed it, performed a 
far more glorious work than either the pyramids or the 
labyrinth.— T. 

2 The fishery.']— Diodorus Siculus informs us, that in 
this lake were found twenty-two different sorts of fish, 
and that so great a quantity were caught, that the im- 
mense number of hands perpetually employed in salting 
them were hardly equal to the work. — T. 

3 Talent of silver. ] — The silver which the fishery of 
this lake produced was appropriated to find the queen 
with clothes and perfumes. — Larcher. 

4 What became of the earth. ]— Herodotus, when he 
viewed this lake, might well be surprised at the account 
they gave him, that it was made by art ; and had reason 
to ask them what they did with the earth they dug out. 
But he seems to have too much credulity in being eatis- 



have necessarily been heaped up in digging 
this lake : as my search after it was fruitless, 
I made inquiries concerning it of those who 
lived nearer the lake. I was the more willing to 
believe them, when they told me where it was 
carried, as I had before heard of a similar ex- 
pedient used at Nineveh, an Assyrian city. 
Some robbers, who were solicitous to get pos- 
session of the immense treasures of Sardana- 
palus king of Nineveh, which were deposited 
in subterraneous apartments, began from the 
place where they lived to dig under ground, 
in a direction towards them. Having taken 
the most accurate measurement, they continued 
their mine to the palace of the king ; as night 
approached they regularly emptied the earth 
into the Tigris, which flows near Nineveh, and 
at length accomplished their purpose. A plan 
entirely similar was executed in Egypt, except 
that the work was here carried on not by night 
but by day; the Egyptians threw the earth 
into the Nile, as they dug it from the trench ; 
thus it was regularly dispersed, and this, as 
they told me, was the process of the lake's 
formation. 

CLI. These twelve kings were eminent for 
the justice of their administration. Upon a 
certain occasion they were offering sacrifice in 
the temple of Vulcan, and on the last day of 
the festival were about to make the accustomed 
libation ; 5 for this purpose the chief priest 
handed to them the golden cups used on these 
solemnities, but he mistook the number, and 
instead of twelve gave only eleven. Psammiti- 
chus, e who was the last of them, not having a 

fied when they told him that they carried the earth to 
the Nile, and so it was washed away by the river ; for it 
was very extraordinary to carry such a vast quantity of 
earth above ten miles from the nearest part of the lake, 
and fifty or sixty from the further parts, even though 
they might contrive water-carriage for a great part of 
the way. This I should imagine a thing beyond belief, 
even if the lake were no larger than it is at present, that 
is, it may be fifty miles long and ten broad.— Pococke. 

5 To make the accustomed libation.]— As the kings 
were also priests, they did not before the time of Psam- 
mitichus drink wine ; and if sometimes they made liba- 
tions to the gods with this liquor, it was not that they 
believed it agreeable to them, but that they considered it 
as the blood of the gods who had formerly fought against 
them : they thought that their bodies, incorporated with 
the earth, had produced the vine.— Plutarch, de Iside # 
Osiride. 

6 Psammitichus.]— In the eight-and-twentieth year of 
the reign of Manasseh, the twelve confederated kings of 
Egypt, after they had jointly reigned there fifteen year-, 
falling out among themselves, expelled Psammitichu-s 
one of their number, out of his share which he had 
hitherto had with them hi the government of the king- 



124 



HERODOTUS. 



cup took off his helmet, 1 which happened to be 
of brass, and from this poured his libation. 
The other princes wore helmets in common, 
and had them on the present occasion, so that 
the circumstance of this one king having and 
using his was accidental and innocent. Ob- 
serving, however, this action of Psammitichus, 
they remembered the prediction of the oracle, 
" that he among them who should pour a liba- 
tion from a brazen vessel, should be sole 
monarch of Egypt." They minutely investi- 
gated the matter, and being satisfied that this 
action of Psammitichus was entirely the effect 
of accident, they could not think him worthy of 
death ; they nevertheless deprived him of a 
considerable part of his power, and confined 
him to the marshy parts of the country, for- 
bidding him to leave this situation, or to com- 
municate with the rest of Egypt. 

CLII. This Psammitichus had formerly fled 
to Syria, from Sabacus the Ethiopian, who 
had killed his father Necos; when the Ethio- 
pian, terrified by the vision, had abandoned his 
dominions, those Egyptians who lived near 
Sais had solicited Psammitichus to return. 
He was now a second time driven into exile 
amongst the fens, by the eleven kings, from 
this circumstance of the brazen helmet. He 
felt the strongest resentment for the injury, 
and determined to avenge himself on his perse- 
cutors ; he sent therefore to the oracle of La- 
tona, at Butos, 8 which has among the Egyp- 



dom, and drove him into banishment ; whereupon flying 
into the fens near the sea he lay hid there, till having 
gotten together, out of the Arabian free-booters and the 
pirates of Caria and Ionia, such a number of soldiers as 
with the Egyptians of his party made a considerable 
army, he marched with it against the other eleven ; and 
having overthrown them in battle, slew several of them, 
and drove the rest out of the land, and thereon seizing 
the whole kingdom to himself reigned over it in great 
prosperity fifty-and-four-years. — Prideaux. 

1 His helmet.~\ — It is certain that the ancients made 
use of their helmets on various occasions ; whenever any 
thing was to be decided by lots, the lots were cast into a 
helmet ; and as they appear very obvious for such a 
purpose, so many instances in ancient writers occur of 
soldiers drinking out of them, as we may now do oc- 
casionally out of our hats. — T. 

2 Latona, at Butos.] — This goddess, one of the eight 
most ancient divinities of the country, was called Buto, 
and particularly honoured in the city of tbat name ; she 
had been the nurse of Apollo and Diana, that is to say, 

, of Orus and Bubastis, whom she had preserved from the 
fury of Typhon ; the mole was sacred to her. Antoninus 
Xiberalis says, that she assumed the form of this little 
am in al to elude the pursuit of Typhon. Plutarch says, that 
the Egyptians rendered divine honours to the mole on 
account of its blindness ; darkness, according to them, 
being more ancient than light. M. Larcher adds as a 



tians the highest character for veracity. He was 
informed that the sea should avenge his cause, 
by producing brazen figures of men. He was 
little inclined to believe that such a circum- 
stance could ever occur ; but some time after- 
wards, a body of Ionians and Carians, 3 who 
had been engaged in a voyage of plunder, were 
compelled by distress to touch at Egypt ; they 
landed in brazen armour. Some Egyptians 
hastened to inform Psammitichus in his 
marshes of this incident ; and as the messenger 
had never before seen persons so armed, he 
said, that some brazen men had arisen from 
the sea, and were plundering the country. 
He instantly conceived this to be the accom- 
plishment of the oracle's prediction, and enter- 
ed into alliance with the strangers, engaging 
them by splendid promises to assist him ; with 
them and his Egyptian adherents he vanquished 
the eleven kings. 

CLIII. After he thus became sole sovereign 
of Egypt, he built at Memphis the vestibule of 
the temple of Vulcan, which is towards the 
south ; opposite to this he erected an edifice 
for Apis, in which he is kept when publicly 
exhibited : it is supported by colossal figures 
twelve cubits high, which serve as columns ; 
the whole of the building is richly decorated 
with sculpture. Apis in the language of 
Greece, is Epaphus. 

CLI V. In acknowledgment of the assistance 
he had received, Psammitichus conferred on 
the Ionians and Carians certain lands, which 
were termed the camp, immediately opposite 
to each other, and separated by the Nile ; he 
fulfilled also his other engagements with them, 
and intrusted to their care some Egyptian 
children, to be instructed in the Greek lan- 
guage, from whom come those who in Egypt 
act as interpreters. This district, which is 
near the sea, somewhat below Bubastis, at the 
Pelusian mouth of the Nile, was inhabited by 

remark upon the observation of Plutarch, whatindeedthe 
researches of natural historians have made manifest, that 
the mole is not blind, but has eyes, though very minute. 

3 Ionians and Carta??*.]— See Prideaux 's note in the 
preceding chapter.— T. 

Psammitichus destroyed Tementhes king of Egypt. 
The god Ammon had cautioned Tementhes, who con- 
sulted him, to beware of cocks. Psammitichus being 
intimately acquainted with Pignes the Carian, learned 
from him that the Carians were the first who wore 
crests upon their helmets ; he instantly comprehended 
the meaning of the oracle, and engaged the assistance of 
a large body of Carians : these he led towards Memphis, 
and fixed his camp near the temple of Isis ; here he en- 
gaged and conquered Ms adversary.— Polyanus. 



EUTERPE. 



125 



the Ionians and Carians for a considerable 
time. At a succeeding period Amasis, to 
avail himself of their assistance against the 
Egyptians, removed them to Memphis. Since 
the time of their first settlement in Egypt, 
they have preserved a constant communication 
with Greece, so that we have a perfect know- 
ledge of Egyptian affairs from the reign of Psam- 
mitichus. They were the first foreigners whom 
the Egyptians received among them : within my 
remembrance, in the places which they formerly 
occupied, the docks for their ships, and vestiges 
of their buildings, might be seen. 

CL V. Of the Egyptian oracle I have spoken 
already, but it so well deserves attention, that 
I shall expatiate still farther on the subject. It 
is sacred to Latona, and, as I have before said, 
in a large city called Butos, at the Sebennitic 
mouth of the Nile, as approached from the sea. 
In this city stands a temple of Apollo and 
Diana ; that of Latona, whence the oracular 
communications are made, is very magnificent, 
having porticos forty cubits high. What most 
excited my admiration, was the shrine of the 
goddess; 4 it was of one solid stone, 5 having 
equal sides ; the length of each was forty cubits ; 
the roof was of another solid stone, no less than 
four cubits in thickness. 



4 Shrine of the goddess.] — This enormous rock, two 
hundred and forty feet in circumference, was brought 
from a quarry in the isle of Philae, near the cataracts, on 
rafts, for the space of two hundred leagues, to its des- 
tined place, and without contradiction was the heaviest 
weight ever moved by human power. Many thousand 
workmen, according to history, were three years em- 
ployed in taking it to its place of destination. — Savary. 

5 One solid sto?ie.] — About this isle (Elephantine) 
there are several smaller islands, as two to the west, and 
four to the south, which are high above the water, and 
also several large rocks of red granite. Two of them 
appear to have been worked as quarries, as well as the 
south end of Elephantine. Out of one of these islands 
probably that entire room was cut of one stone, that was 
carried to Sais, taking, it may be, the advantage of the 
situation of the rock, so as to have only the labour of 
separating the bottom of it from the quarry, and having 
first probably hollowed the stone into a room of the di- 
mensions described when I spoke of Sais. — Pococke. 

The grand and sublime ideas which the ancients en- 
tertained on subjects of architecture, and other monu- 
ments of art, almost exceed our powers of description. 
This before us is a most extraordinary effort of human 
industry and power ; but it appears minute and trifling, 
compared with an undertaking of a man named Stesicra- 
tes, proposed to Alexander, and recorded by Plutarch. 
He offered to convert mount Athos into a statue of that 
prince. This would have been in circumference no less 
than one hundred and twenty miles, in height, ten. The 
left arm of Alexander was to be the base of a city, capable 
of containing ten thousand inhabitants. The right arm 
was to hold an urn, from which a river was to empty 
itself into the sea — T. 



CLVI. Of all the things which here excite 
attention, this shrine is, in my opinion, the 
most to be admired. Next to this is the island 
of Chemmis, which is near the temple of Lato- 
na, and stands in a deep and spacious lake, the 
Egyptians affirm it to be a floating island : 6 I 
did not witness the fact, and was astonished to 
hear that such a thing existed. In this island 
is a large edifice sacred to Apollo, having three 
altars, and surrounded by palms, the natural 
produce of the soil. There are also great va- 
rieties of other plants, some of which produce 
fruit, others are barren. The circumstance of 
this island's floating the Egyptians thus explain : 
it was once fixed and immoveable, when Lato- 
na, who has ever been esteemed one of the 
eight primary divinities, dwelt at Butos. Hav- 
ing received Apollo in trust from Isis, she 
consecrated and preserved him in this island, 
which, according to their account, now floats. 
This happened when Typhon, earnestly endea- 
vouring to discover the son of Osiris, came 
hither. Their tradition says, that Apollo and 
Diana were the offspring of Bacchus and Isis, 
and that Latona was their nurse and preserver. 
Apollo, Ceres, and Diana, the Egyptians re- 
spectively call Isis, Orus, and Bubastis. From 
this alone, iEschylus, 7 son of Euphorion, took 
his account, the first poet who represented 
Diana as the daughter of Ceres, and referred 
to this the circumstance of the island's floating. 

CLVIL Psammitichus reigned in Egypt 
fifty-four years, twenty- nine of which he con- 
sumed in the siege of a great city of Syria, 
which he afterwards took j the name of this 
place was Azotus. 8 I know not that any town 
ever sustained so long and obstinate a siege. 



6 Floating island."] — I am ignorant whether Chemmis 
has ever been a floating island. The Greeks pretend that 
Delos floated. I am persuaded they only invented that 
fable from the recital of Egyptians settled amongst them ; 
and that they attributed to Delos, the birth-place of 
Apollo, what the Egyptians related of Chemmis, the 
place of retreat to their Apollo. A rock two thousand 
toises long could not float upon the waves; but the 
Greeks, who dearly loved the marvellous, did not ex- 
amine things so closely. — Larcher. 

7 JEschylus.] — Tliis was doubtless in some piece not 
come down to us. Pausanias says also, that iEschylus, 
son of Euphorion, was the first who communicated to 
the Greeks the Egyptian history j that Diana was the 
daughter of Ceres, and not of Latona.— Larcher. 

The same remark is made by Valcnaer, in Wesseling's 
edition of Herodotus. But all are united in the opinion, 
that Pausanias made his remark from this passage of He- 
rodotus.— T. 

8 Azotus.] — The modern name of this place is Ezdoud, 
of which Volney remarks, that it is now famous only for 
it* scorpions. It was one of the five satrapies of the 



126 



HERODOTUS. 



CLVIII. Psammitichus had a son, whose 
name was Necos, by whom he was succeeded 
in his authority. This prince first commenced 
that canal ' leading to the Red Sea, which 
Darius, king of Persia, afterwards continued. 
The length of this canal is equal to a four days' 
voyage, and it is wide enough to admit two 
triremes abreast. The water enters it from 
the Nile, a little above the city Bubastis: it 
terminated in the Red Sea, not far from Patu- 
mos, an Arabian town. They began to sink 
this canal in that part of Egypt which is nearest 
Arabia. Contiguous to it is a mountain which 
stretches towards Memphis, and contains quar- 
ries of stone. Commencing at the foot of this, 
it extends from west to east, through a consi- 
derable tract of country, and where a mountain 
opens to the south, is discharged into the Ara- 
bian gulf. From the northern to the southern, 
or, as it is generally called, the Red Sea, the 
shortest passage is over Mount Casius, which 
divides Egypt from Syria, from whence to the 
Arabian gulf are a thousand stadia. The way 
by the canal on account of the different circum- 
flexions, is considerably longer. In the prose- 
Philistines, who kept here the idol of their god Dagon. 
Its scriptural name was Ashdod. When the Philistines 
took the ark from the Jews, they placed it in the temple 
of Dagon, at Ashdod. See 1 Samuel, chap. v. 2, 3. 

"When the Philistines took the ark of God, they 
brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. 

" And when they of Ashdod arose early on the mor- 
row, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth 
before the ark of the Lord," &c. 

This place is also mentioned in the Acts. Philip, hav- 
ing baptized the eunuch of Candace, was caught away 
by the Spirit of the Lord, and found' at Azotus. There 
is still in this place an old structure, with fine marble 
pillars, which the inhabitants say was the house which 
Samson pulled down. — T. 

1 That canal.~\ — The account given by Diodorus Sicu- 
lus is this : — The canal reaching from the Pelusian mouth 
of the Nile to the Sinus Arabicus and the Red Sea, was 
made by hands. Necos, the son of Psammitichus, was 
the first that attempted it, and after him Darius the Per- 
sian carried on the work something farther, but left it at 
length unfinished ; for he was informed by some, that in 
thus digging through the isthmus he would cause Egypt 
to be deluged, for they showed him that the Red Sea was 
higher than the land of Egypt. Afterwards Ptolemy the 
Second finished the canal, and in the most proper place 
contrived a sluice for confining the water, which was 
opened when they wanted to sail through, and was im- 
mediately closed again, the use of it answering extremely 
well the design. The river flowing through this canal is 
called the Ptolemaean, from the name of its author. 
Where it discharges itself into the sea it has a city named 
Arsinoe. Of tins canal Norden remarks, that he was 
unable to discover the smallest trace, either in the town 
of Kieni, or the adjacent parts. Indeed I am myself 
Btrongly inclined to believe that no such junction ever 
took place. 



cution of this work, under Necos, no less than 
one hundred and twenty thousand Egyptians 
perished. He at length desisted from his un- 
dertaking, being admonished by an oracle, that 
all his labour would turn to the advantage of a 
barbarian ; and it is to be observed, that the 
Egyptians term all barbarians who speak a 
language different from their own. 

CLIX. As soon as Necos discontinued his 
labours with respect to the canal, he turned all 
his thoughts to military enterprizes. He built 
vessels of war, both on the Northern Ocean, 
and in that part of the Arabian gulf which is 
near the Red Sea. Vestiges of his naval un- 
dertakings are still to be seen. His fleets were 
occasionally employed, but he also by land con- 
quered the Syrians in an engagement near the 
town of Magdolum, a and after his victory ob- 
tained possession of Cadytis, 3 a Syrian city. 
The vest which he wore when he got this vic- 
tory he consecrated to Apollo, and sent to the 
Milesian Branchidse. After a reign of seven- 
teen years, he died, leaving the kingdom to his 
son Psammis. 

CLX. During the reign of this prince, some 
ambassadors arrived in Egypt from the Eleans. 
This people boasted that the establishment of 
the Olympic games possessed every excellence, 
and was not surpassed even by the Egyptians, 
though the wisest of mankind. On their ar- 
rival, they explained the motives of their jour- 
ney ; in consequence of which the prince called 
a meeting of the wisest of his subjects : at this 
assembly the Eleans described the particular 
regulations they had established ; and desired 
to know if the Egyptians could recommend any 
improvement. After some deliberation, the 
Egyptians inquired whether their fellow citi- 
zens were permitted to contend at these games. 
They were informed in reply, that all the 
Greeks without distinction were suffered to 
contend. The Egyptians observed that this 
must of course lead to injustice, for it M T as 
impossible not to favour their fellow-citizens 

2 Magdolum. ] — The battle here mentioned was against 
Josias, king of Judah. It did not take place at Magdo- 
lum, a place in Lower Egypt, but at Magiddo. The re- 
semblance of the names deceived Herodotus. — LarcAer. 

3 Cadytis."^— The city of Cadytis could be no other than 
Jerusalem. Herodotus afterwards describes this to be a 
mountainous city in Palestine, of the bigness of Sardis. 
There could be no other equal to Sardis, but Jerusalem. 
It is certain from Scripture, that after this battle Necos 
did take Jerusalem, for he was there when he made Je- 
hoiakim king. — See Prideaux, Connect, i. 56 — 7. 

D'Anville also considars Cadytis as Jerusalem, though 
some authors dissent. 



EUTERPE. 



127 



in preference to strangers. If, therefore, the 
object of their voyage to Egypt was to render 
their regulations perfect, they should suffer on- 
ly strangers to contend in their games, and par- 
ticularly exclude the Eleans. 

CLXI. Psammis reigned but six years ; he 
made an expedition to Ethiopia, and died soon 
afterwards. He was succeeded by his son 
Apries, * who, next to his grandfather Psam- 
mitichus, was fortunate 5 beyond all his prede- 
cessors, and reigned five-and-twenty years. 6 
He made war upon Sidon, and engaged the 
king of Tyre in battle by sea. I shall briefly 
mention in this place the calamities which 
afterwards befell him ; but I shall discuss them 
more fully 7 when I treat of the Libyan affairs. 
Apries having sent an army against the Cyren- 
eans, received a severe check. This misfortune 
the Egyptians ascribed to his own want of con- 
duct : and imagining themselves marked out for 
destruction, revolted from his authority. They 
supposed his views were, by destroying them, 
to secure his tyranny over the rest of their 
country. The friends, therefore, of such as 
had been slain, with those who returned in 
safety, openly rebelled. 

CLXII. On discovery of this, Apries sent 
Amasis to soothe the malcontents. Whilst 
this officer was persuading them to desist from 
their purpose, an Egyptian standing behind him 
placed an helmet on his head, s saying that by 
this act he had made him king. The sequel 
proved that Amasis was not averse 9 to the 
deed ; for as soon as the rebels had declared 

4 Apries."] — This is the same who in Scripture is called 
Pharaoh Hophra. It was at tliis period that Ezekiel 
was carried to Jerusalem, and shown the different kinds 
of idolatry then practised by the Jews, which makes up 
the subjcet of the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th chapters of his 
prophecies. — See Prideaux. 

5 Was fortunate. 1— Herodotus in this place seemingly 
contradicts himself: how could he be termed most for- 
tunate, who was dethroned and strangled by his sub- 
jects ? He probably, as M. Larcher also observes, means 
to be understood of the time preceding the revolt.— T. 

6 Five-and-twenty years.]— Diodorus Siculus says he 
reigned twenty-two years ; Syncellus, nineteen. 

7 Discuss them more fully.]— This refers to book the 
fourth, chap. clix. of our author ; but Herodotus proba- 
bly forgot the engagement here made, for no particulars 
of the misfortunes of Apries are there mentioned.— T- 

8 Helmet on his head.— The helmet in Egypt was the 
distinction of royalty. 

9 Was not averse.]— Diodorus Siculus relates, that 
Amasis, so far from making any great effort to bring 
back those who had abandoned Apries according to the 
orders he had received from his master, encouraged 
them to persist in their rebellion, and joined himself fo 
them. 



him king, he prepared to march against Apries ; 
on intelligence of this event, the king sent Pa- 
tarbemis, one of the most faithful of those who 
yet adhered to him, with directions to bring 
Amasis alive to his presence. Arriving where 
he was, he called to Amasis. Amasis was on 
horseback, and lifting up his leg, he broke 
wind, and bade him carry that to his master. 
Patarbemis persisted in desiring him to obey 
the king ; this, Amasis replied, he had long de- 
termined to do, that Apries should have no 
reason to complain of him, for he would soon 
be with him, and bring others also. Of the 
purport of this answer Patarbemis was well 
aware; taking, therefore, particular notice of 
the hostile preparations of the rebels, he re- 
turned, intending instantly to inform the king 
of his danger. Apries, when he saw him, 
without hearing him speak, as he did not bring 
Amasis, ordered his nose and ears to be cut off. 
The Egyptians of his party, incensed at this 
treatment of a man much and deservedly re- 
spected, immediately went over to Amasis. 

CLXIII. Apries on this put himself at the 
head of his Ionian and Carian auxiliaries, who 
were with him to the amount of thirty thou- 
sand men, and marched against the Egyptians. 
Departing from Sais, where he had a magnifi- 
cent palace, he proceeded against his subjects ; 
Amasis also prepared to meet his master and 
the foreign mercenaries. The two armies met 
at Momemphis, and made ready for battle. 

CLXIV. The Egyptians are divided into 
seven classes. 10 These are the priests, the mi- 
litary, herdsmen, swineherds, tradesmen, inter- 
preters, and pilots. They take their names 
from their professions. Egypt is divided into 
provinces, and the soldiers, from those which 
they inhabit, are called Calasiries and Hermo- 
tybies. 
• CLXV. The Hermotybian district contains 
Busiris, Sais, Chemmis, Papremis, the island 
of Prosopis, and part of Natho ; which places, 



10 Seven classes.] — I have remarked on this subject, 
chap. cxli. from Diodorus, that the division of the Egyp- 
tians was in fact but into three classes, the last of which 
was subdivided into others. 

The Indians are divided into four principal casts, each 
of which is again subdivided.— Br amins, the military, la- 
bourers, and artizans. — T. 

It is observable of the Iberians, that tbey were divided 
into different casts, each of which had its proper function. 
The rank and office of every tribe were hereditary a»id 
unchangeable. This rule of invariable distinction pre- 
vailed no where else except in India and in Egypt,— 
Bryant. 



128 



HERODOTUS. 



at the highest calculation, furnish one hundred 
and sixty thousand Hermotybians. These, 
avoiding all mercantile employments, follow the 
profession of arms. * 

CLXVI. The Calasirians inhabit Thebes, 
Bubastis, Apthis, Tanis, Mendes, Sebennis, 
Athribis, Pharbaethis, Thmuis, Onuphis, Any- 
sis, and Mycephoris, which is an island oppo- 
site to Bubastis. In their most perfect state 
of population, these places furnish two hundred 
and fifty thousand men. Neither must these 
follow mechanic employments, but the son re- 
gularly succeeds the father a in a military life. 



1 Profession of arms."] — With the following remark of 
M. Larcher, the heart of every Englishman must be in 
unison. To hear a native of France avow an abhorrence 
of despotism, and a warm attachment to liberty, has, till 
within a late period, been a most unusual circumstance. 
On the subject of standing armies, nothing, perhaps, has 
been written with greater energy and effect than by Mr 
Moyle. 

" Every country," says M. Larcher, " which encour- 
ages a standing army of foreigners, and where the pro- 
fession of arms is the road to the highest honours, is 
either enslaved, or on the point of being so. Foreign 
soldiers in arms, are never so much the defenders of the 
citizens, as the attendants of the despot. Patriotism, that 
passion of elevated souls, which prompts us to noble ac- 
tions, weakens and expires. The interest which forms 
an union betwixt the prince and his subjects, ceases to 
be the same, and the real defence of the state can no 
longer be vigorous. Of this Egypt is a proof : its despots, 
not satisfied with the national troops, always ready for 
service, had recourse to foreign mercenaries. They were 
depressed, and passed with little difficulty under the do- 
minion of the Persians, afterwards under that of Greece 
and of Rome, of the Mamelukes, and the Turks. The 
tyrant coiild not be loved by his slaves, and without the 
love of his subjects, the prince totters on his throne, and 
is ready to fall when he thinks his situation the most 
secure." 

"Amongst men," says iEschines, "there are three sorts 
of governments, monarchic, oligarchic, and republican. 
Monarchies and oligarchies are governed by the caprice 
of those who have the management of affairs, republics 
by established laws. Know then, Oh Athenians ! that a 
free people preserve their liberty and lives by the laws, 
monarchies and oligarchies by tyranny and a standing 
army." 

To the above I cannot resist the inclination I have to 
add from Mr Moyle the underwritten. 

"The Israelites, Athenians, Corinthians, Achaians, 
Lacedaemonians, Thebans, Samnites, and Romans, none 
of them, when they kept their liberty, were ever known 
to maintain any soldier in constant pay within their cities, 
or ever suffered any of their subjects to make war their 
profession, well knowing that the sword and sovereignty 
always march hand in hand." — T. 

2 Regularly succeeds the father. ] — We know very well, 
that nothing is more injurious to the police or municipal 
constitution of any city or colony, than the forcing of a 
particular trade ; nothing more dangerous than the over- 
peopling any manufacture, or multiplying the traders and 
dealers of whatever vocation, beyond their natural pro- 
portion, and the public demand. Now it happened of 
old in Egypt, the mother land of superstition, that the 



CLXVII. I am not able to decide whether 
the Greeks borrowed this last-mentioned cus- 
tom from the Egyptians, for I have also seen it 
observed in various parts of Thrace, Scythia, 
Persia, and Lydia. It seems, indeed, to be an 
established prejudice, even among nations the 
least refined, to consider mechanics and their 
descendants in the lowest rank of citizens, and 
to esteem those as the most noble who were of 
no profession, annexing the highest degrees of 
honour to the exercise of arms. This idea pre- 
vails throughout Greece, but more particularly 
at Lacedaemon ; the Corinthians, however, do 
not hold mechanics in disesteem. 

CLXVI II. The soldiers and the priests are 
the only ranks in Egypt which are honourably 
distinguished ; these each of them receive from 
the public a portion of ground of twelve acres, 
free from all taxes. Each acre contains a hun- 
dred Egyptian cubits, which are the same as so 
many cubits of Samos. Besides this, the mili- 
tary enjoy in their turn other advantages: one 
thousand Calasirians and as many Hermoty- 
bians are every year on duty as the king's guards; 
whilst on this service, in addition to their as- 
signments of land, each man has a daily allow- 
ance of five pounds of bread, two of beef, with 
four arusteres 3 of wine. 

CLXIX. Apries with his auxiliaries, and 
Amasis at the head of the Egyptians, met and 
fought at Momemphis. The mercenaries dis- 
played great valour, but, being much inferior in 
number, were ultimately defeated. Of the per- 
manence of his authority, Apries is said to have 
entertained so high an opinion, that he con- 
ceived it not to be in the power even of a deity 
to dethrone him. He was, however, conquered 
and taken prisoner ; after his captivity he was 
conducted to Sais, to what was formerly his 
own, but then the palace of Amasis. He was 
here confined for some time, and treated by 

sons of certain artists were by law obb"ged always to iol- 
lowthe same calling with their father.— See Lord Shaftes- 
bury's Miscellaneous Reflections. 

Before the invention of letters, mankind may be said 
to have been perpetually in their infancy, as the arts of 
one age or country generally died with their possessors. 
Whence arose the policy which still continues in Indos- 
tan, of obliging the son to practise the profession of his 
father.— See notes to a poem, called The Loves of the 
Plants, p. 58. 

The resemblance between the ancient Egyptians and 
the Hindoos is manifest from various circumstances. 
See Dr Robertson's Disquisition on India, Appendix I. 
on the four orders ..of the Hindoos. 

3 Arusteres.] — Hesychius makes the word a^va-rr^ sy- 
nonymous with*«Tua.»j, n Inch is a measure somewhat less 
than a pint.— T. 



EUTERPE. 



129 



Amasis with much kindness and attention. But 
the Egyptians soon began to reproach him for 
preserving a person who was their common 
enemy, and he was induced to deliver up Apries 
to their power. They strangled, 4 and after- 
wards buried him in the tomb of his ancestors, 
which stands in the temple of Minerva, on the 
left side of the vestibule. In this temple the 
inhabitants of Sais buried all the princes who 
were of their province, but the tomb of Amasis 
is more remote from the building than that of 
Apries and his ancestors. 

CLXX. In the area before this temple 
stands a large marble edifice, magnificently 
adorned with obelisks, in the shape of palm- 
trees, with various other ornaments ; in this 
are two doors, forming an entrance to the monu- 
ment. They have also at Sais the tomb of a 
certain personage, whom I do not think myself 
permitted to specify. It is behind the temple 
of Minerva, and is continued the whole length 
of the wall of that building. Around this are 
many large obelisks, near which is a lake, whose 
banks are lined with stone ; it is of a circular 
form, and, as I should think, as large as that of 
Delos, which is called Trochoeides. 

CLXXI. Upon this lake are represented 
by night the accidents which happened to him 
whom I dare not name : the Egyptians call 
them their mysteries. 5 Concerning these, at 
the same time that I confess myself sufficiently 



4 They strangled, fyc] — It is to this prince, whom, as 
I have before mentioned, the Scriptures denote by the 
name of Pharaoh Hophra, that the following passages 
allude. 

" The land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste, and 
they shall know that I am the Lord : because he hath said, 
The river is mine, and I have made it. 

" Behold, therefore, I am against thee, and against thy 
rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste 
and desolate." Ezekiel xxix. 9, 10. 

" Thus saith the Lord, I will give Pharaoh Hophra, 
king of Egypt, into tl>3 hand of his enemies, and into the 
hand of them that seek his life." Jeremiah xliv. 9. 

See also Jeremiah xliii. xliv. xlv. Ezekiel xxix. xxx. 
xxxi. xxxii. In the person of Apries all these prophe- 
cies were accomplished. See also Prideaux, Connect, i. 
39.— T. 

" Apryes was perswaded that neither God nor the divell 
poulde have joynted his nose of the empyre."— Herodotus 
his second booke, entituled Euterpe. 

5 Their mysteries.] — How very sacred the ancients 
deemed their mysteries, appears from the following pas- 
sage of Apollonius Rhodius. 

To Samothrace, Electra's isle, they steer, 
That there initiated in rights divine 
Safe might they sail the navigable brine. 
But, muse, presume not of those rites to tell: 
Farewell, dread isle, dire deities, farewell ! 
Let not my verse those mysteries explain, 
To name is impious, to reveal profane. 



informed, I feel myself compelled to be silent. 
Of the ceremonies also in honour of Ceres, 
which the Greeks call Thesmophoria," I may 
not venture to speak, further than the obliga- 
tions of religion will allow me. They were 
brought from Egypt by the daughters of Danaus, 
and by them revealed to the Pelasgian women. 
But when the tranquillity of the Peloponnese 
was disturbed by the Dorians, and the ancient 
inhabitants expelled, these rites were insensibly 
neglected or forgotten. The Arcadians, who 
retained their original habitations, were the only 
people who preserved them. 

CLXXII. Such being the fate of Apries, 
Amasis, who was of the city of Siuph, in the 
district of Sais, succeeded to the throne. At 
the commencement of his reign the Egyptians, 
remembering his plebeian origin, 7 held him in 
contempt; but his mild conduct and political 
sagacity afterwards conciliated their affections. 
Among other valuables which he possessed, 



6 Thesmophoria.]— These mysteries were celebrated 
at stated seasons of the year, with solemn shows, and a 
great pomp of machinery, which drew a mighty concourse 
to them from all countries. L. Crassus, the great orator, 
happened to come two days after they were over, and 
would gladly have persuaded the magistrates to renew 
them ; but not being able to prevail, left the city in dis- 
gust. This shows how cautious they were of making 
them too cheap. The shows are supposed to have repre- 
sented heaven, hell, elysium, purgatory, and all that 
related to the future state of the dead : being contrived 
to inculcate more sensibly, and exemplify the doctrines 
delivered to the initiated. As they were a proper subject 
for poetry, so they are frequently alluded to by the ancient 
poets. This confirms also the probability of that ingenious 
comment which the author of the Divine Legation has 
given in the sixth book of the iEneid, where Virgil, as 
he observes, in describing the descent into hell, is but 
tracing out in their genuine order the several scenes of 
the Eleusinian shows.— Middleton's Life of Cicero. 

These feasts were celebrated in honour of Ceres, with 
respect to her character as a lawgiver : 

Prima Ceres unco glebam dimovit aratro; 
Prima dedit fruges, alimentaque raitia terris ,- 
Prima dedit leges. Cereris sumus omnia munus. 

06^6?, according to Hesychius, signifies a divine law, 
vof/.o; 3-6/Off. 

The men were not allowed to be present, and only 
women of superior rank. The sacred books were carried 
by virgins. According to Ovid, they continued nine days, 
during which time the women had no connection with 
their husbands. 

Festa pise Cereris celebrabant annua matres 
Ilia, quibus nivea velatoe corpora veste 
Primitias frugum dant spicea serta suarum : 
Perque novem noctes Venerem tactusque viriles 
In vetitis numerant — 

7 Plebeian origin.] — We are told in Athenaeus, that 
the rise of Amasis was owing to his having presented 
Apries on hisbirth-day with a beautiful chaplet of flowers. 
The king was so delighted with this mark of his attention 
that he invited him to the feast, and received him amongst 
the number of his friends. — T. 



11 



130 



HERODOTUS. 



was a gold vessel, in which he and his guests 
were accustomed to spit, make water, and wash 
their feet : of the materials of this he made a 
statue of some god, which he placed in the 
most conspicuous part of the city. The 
Egyptians assembling before it, paid it divine 
honours : on hearing which the king called them 
together, and informed them that the image they 
thus venerated was made of a vessel of gold 
which he and they had formerly used for the 
most unseemly purposes. He afterwards ex- 
plained to them the similar circumstances of 
his own fortune, who, though formerly a ple- 
beian, was now their sovereign, and entitled to 
their reverence. By such means he secured 
their attachment, as well as their submissive 
obedience to his authority. 

CL XXIII. The same prince thus regulated 
his time : from the dawn of the day to such 
time as the public square of the city was filled 
with people, he gave audience to whoever re- 
quired it. The rest of the day he spent at the 
table ; where he drank, laughed, and diverted 
himself with his guests, indulging in every spe- 
cies of licentious conversation. Upon this 
conduct some of his friends remonstrated : — 
" Sir," they observed, " do you not dishonour 
your rank by these excessive and unbecoming 
levities ? From your awful throne you ought 
to employ yourself in the administration of pub- 
lic affairs, and by such conduct increase the 
dignity of your name, and the veneration of 
your subjects. Your present life is most un- 
worthy of a king." " They," replied Amasis, 
" who have a bow, bend it only at the time they 
want it ; when not in use, they suffer it to be 
relaxed, it would otherwise break, and not be 
of service when exigence required. It is pre- 
cisely the same with a man ; if without some 
intervals of amusement, he applied himself con- 
stantly to serious pursuits, he would impercep- 
tibly lose his vigour both of mind and body. 
It is the conviction of this truth which influen- 
ces me in the division of my time." 

CLXXIV. Of this Amasis ' it is asserted, 

1 This Amasis."] — The conduct of this prince may pro- 
perly be compared to that of our English Harry, who, 
when young, gave himself up to all manner of excesses, 
but who, when he succeeded to the crown, supported his 
honours with the truest dignity. The subsequent beha- 
viour of Amasis to the oracles, in like manner, may be 
contrasted with that of the English monarch to the lord 
chief justice, who committed him to prison for striking 
him : 

You did commit me: 
For which I do commit Into your hand 
Th* unstain'd sword, that you hare used to bear, 



that whilst he was in a private condition he 
avoided every serious avocation, and gave him- 
self entirely up to drinking and jollity. If at 
any time he wanted money for his expensive 
pleasures, he had recourse to robbery. By 
those who suspected him as the author of their 
loss, he was frequently, on his protesting him- 
self innocent, carried before the oracle by 
which he was frequently condemned, and as 
often acquitted. As soon as he obtained the 
supreme authority, such deities as had pronoun- 
ced him innocent, he treated with the greatest 
contumely, neglecting their temples, and never 
offering them either presents or sacrifice ; this 
he did by way of testifying his dislike of their 
false declarations. Such, however, as decided 
on his guilt, in testimony of their truth and 
justice, he reverenced as true gods, with every 
mark of honour and esteem. 

CLXXV. In honour of Minerva this prince 
erected at Sais a magnificent portico, exceeding 
every thing of the kind in size and grandeur. 
The stones of which it was composed were of 
a very uncommon size and quality, and deco- 
rated with a number of colossal statues and an- 
drosphynges 2 of enormous magnitude. To re- 



With this remembrance, that you use the same 

With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit, 

As you have done 'gainst me. There is my hand. 

2 AndrospyJmges.] — This was a monstrous figure, with 
the body of a lion, and face of a man. The artists of 
Egypt, however, commonly represented the sphinx with 
the body of a Hon, and the face of a young woman. 
These were generally placed at the entrance of temples, 
to serve as a type of the enigmatic nature of the Egyp- 
tian theology. — Larcher. 

" Les sphinx des Egyptiens ont les deux sexes, e'est 
a dire, qu'ils sont femelles par devant, ayant une tete de 
femme, et males derriere, ou les testicules sont apparen- 
tes. C'est une remarque personne n'avoit encore faite : 

" II resulte de l'inspection de quelques monumens que 
les artistes Grecs donnoient aussi des natures composees 
a ces etres mixtes, et qu'ils faisoient meme des sphinx 
barbu, comme le prouve un bas relief en terre cuite, con- 
serve a la Farnesina. Lorsque Horodote nomme les 
sphinx des androsphynges, il a voulu designer par cette 
expression la duplicite de leur sexe. Les sphinx qui 
sont aux quatre faces de la pointe de l'obelisque du soleil, 
sont remarquables par leur mains d'hommes armees 
d'ongles crochus, commes les griffes des betes feroces." — 
Winkelmann. 

Dr Pococke observes, that this sphinx is cut out of a 
solid rock. This extraordinary monument is said to have 
been the sepulclire of Amasis, though I think it is men- 
tioned by none of the ancient authors, except Pliny. 

M. Maillet is of opinion, that the union of the head 
of a virgin with the body of a lion, is a symbol of what 
happens in Egypt when the sun is in the signs of Leo and 
Virgo, and the Nile overflows. — See Nor den's Travels. 

Opposite the second pyramid, eastward, is the enor- 
mous sphinx, the whole body of which is buried in the 
sand, the top of the back only to be seen, which is abo.e 



EUTERPE. 



131 



pair this temple he also collected stones of an 
amazing thickness, part of which he brought 
from the quarries of Memphis, and part from 
the city of Elephantine, which is distant from 
Sais a journey of about twenty days. But 
what, in my opinion, is most of all to be ad- 
mired, was an edifice which he brought from 
Elephantine, constructed of one entire stone. 
The carriage of it employed two thousand men, 
all of whom were pilots, an entire period of 
three years. The length of this structure on 
the outside is twenty-one cubits, it is fourteen 
wide, and eight high ; in the inside the length 
of it is twenty- two cubits and twenty digits, 
twelve cubits wide, and five high. It is placed 
at the entrance of the temple ; the reason it 
was carried no further is this : the architect, re- 
flecting upon his long and continued fatigue, 
sighed deeply, which incident Amasis con- 
strued as an omen, and obliged him to desist. 
Some, however, affirm that one of those em- 
ployed to move it by levers, was crushed by it, 
for which reason it was advanced no farther. 

CLXXVI. To other temples also, Amasis 
made many and magnificent presents. At 
Memphis, before the temple of Vulcan, he 
placed a colossal recumbent figure, which was 
seventy-five feet long. Upon the same pedi- 
ment are two other colossal figures, formed out 
of the same stone, and each twenty feet high. 
Of the same size, and in the same attitude, 
another colossal statue may be seen at Sais. 
This prince built also at Memphis the temple 
of Isis, the grandeur of which excites universal 
admiration. 

CLXXVII. With respect to all those ad- 
vantages which the river confers upon the soil, 
and the soil on the inhabitants, the reign of 
Amasis was fortunate for the Egyptians, who 
under this prince could boast of twenty thou- 
sand cities 8 well inhabited. Amasis is further 



a hundred feet long, and is of a single stone, making part 
of the rock on which the pyramids rest. Its head rises 
about seven-and-twenty feet above the sand. Mahomet 
has taught the Arabs, to hold all images of men or ani- 
mals in detestation, and they have disfigured the face 
with their arrows and lances. 

M. Pauw says, these sphinxes, the body of which 
is half a virgin, half a lion, are images of the deity, whom 
they represent as an hermaphrodite. — Savary. 

3 Twenty thousand cities.'] — This country was once 
the most populous of the known world, and now it does 
not appear inferior to any. In ancient times it had 
eighteen thousand as well considerable towns as cities, 
as may be seen by the sacred registers. In the time of 
Ptolemy Lagus there were three thousand, which still 
remain. In a general account once taken of the inhab- 



remarkable for having instituted that law which 
obliges every Egyptian once in the year to ex- 
plain to the chief magistrate of his district, the 
means by which he obtains his subsistence. 
The refusal to comply with this ordinance, or 
the not being able to prove that a livelihood 
was procured by honest means, was a capital 
offence. This law Solon * borrowed from 
Egypt, and established at Athens, where it 
still remains in force, experience having proved 
its wisdom. 

CLXXVI II. This king was very partial 
to the Greeks, and favoured them upon every 
occasion. Such as wished to have a regular 
communication with Egypt, he permitted to 
have a settlement at Naucratis. To others, 
who did not require a fixed residence, as being 
only engaged in occasional commerce, he as- 
signed certain places for the construction of 
altars, and the performance of their religious 
rites. The most spacious and celebrated 
temple which the Greeks have, they call Hel- 
lenium. It was built at the joint expense of 
the Ionians of Chios, Teos, Phocea, and Cla- 
zomenae; of the Dorians of Rhodes, Cnidus, 
Halicarnassus, and Phaselis ; of the ^Eolians 
of Mitylene only. Hellenium is the common 
property of all these cities, who also appoint 
proper officers for the regulation of their com- 
merce : the claims of other cities to these dis- 
tinctions and privileges is absurd and false. 
The ^Eginetae, it must be observed, construct- 
ed by themselves a temple to Jupiter, as did 
the Samians to Juno, and the Milesians to 
Apollo. 

CLXXIX. Formerly Naucratis was the 
sole emporium of Egypt j whoever came to 



itants, they amounted to seven millions, and there are 
no less than three millions at present. — Diodorus Siculits. 

Ancient Egypt supplied food to eight millions of in- 
habitants, and to Italy and the neighbouring provinces- 
like wise. At present the estimate is not one half. I do 
not think, with Herodotus and Pliny, that this kingdom 
contained twenty thousand cities in the time of Amasis : 
but the astonishing ruins every where to be found, and 
in uninhabited places, prove they must have been thrice 
as numerous as they are. — Savary. 

It is impracticable to form a just estimate of the popu- 
lation of Egypt. Nevertheless, as it is known that the 
number of towns and villages does not exceed two thou- 
sand three hundred, and the number of inhabitants in 
each of them, one with another, including Cairo itself, is 
not more than a thousand, the total cannot be more than 
two millions three hundred thousand. — Volney. 

4 This law Solon] — It should rather seem that this 
law was established in Athens by Draco, and that Solon 
commuted the punislunent of death to that of infamy, 
against all those who had tluice offended. 



132 



HERODOTUS. 



any other than the Canopian mouth of the 
Nile, was compelled to swear that it was en- 
tirely accidental, and was in the same vessel 
obliged to go thither. Naucratis was held in 
such great estimation, that if contrary winds 
prevented a passage, the merchant was obliged 
to move his goods on board the common boats 
of the river, and carried them round the Delta 
to Naucratis. 

CLXXX. By some accident the ancient 
temple of Delphi was once consumed by fire, 
and the Amphictyons voted a sum of three 
hundred talents to be levied for the purpose of 
rebuilding it. A fourth part of this was as- 
signed to the Delphians, who, to collect their 
quota, went about to different cities, and ob- 
tained a very considerable sum from Egypt. 
Amasis presented them l with a thousand 
talents of alum. The Greeks who resided in 
Egypt made a collection of twenty minae. 

CLXXXI. This king made a strict and 
amicable confederacy with the Cyrenians ; to 
cement which, he determined to take a wife of 
that country, either to show his particular at- 
tachment to the Cyrenians, or his partiality to 
a woman of Greece. She whom he married is 
reported by some to have been the daughter of 
Battus, by others of Arcesilaus, or, as some 
say, of Critobulus. She was certainly descend- 
ed of an honourable family, and her name was 
Ladice. When the nuptials came to be con- 
summated, the king found himself afflicted with 
an imbecility which he experienced with no 
other woman. The continuance of this induced 
him thus to address his wife : " You have cer- 
tainly practised some charm to my injury ; ex- 
pect not therefore to escape, but prepare to un- 
dergo the most cruel death." When the woman 
found all expostulations ineffectual, she vowed, 
in the temple of Venus, " that if on the follow- 
ing night her husband should be able to enjoy 
her, she would present a statue to her at Cyrene. " 
Her wishes were accomplished, Amasis found 
his vigour restored, and ever afterwards distin- 
guished her by the kindest affection. Ladice 



1 Amasis presented the?n.~] — Different species of ani- 
mals were the deities of the different sects among the 
Egyptians ; and the deities being in continual war, en- 
gaged their votaries in the same contention. The wor- 
shippers of dogs could not long remain in peace with the 
adorers of cats and wolves. But where that reason took 
not place, the Egyptian superstition was not so incom- 
patible as is commonly imagined, since we learn from 
Herodotus, that very large contributions were given by 
Amasis towards rebuilding the temple of Delphi. — 
Hume. 



performed her vow, and sent a statue to Venus; 
it has remained to my time, and may be seen 
near the city of Cyrene. This same Ladice, 
when Cambyses afterwards conquered Egypt, 
was, as soon as he discovered who she was, sent 
back without injury to Cyrene. 

CLXXXII. Numerous were the marks of 
liberality which Amasis bestowed on Greece. 
To Cyrene he sent a golden statue of Minerva, 
with a portrait of himself. 2 To the temple of 



2 Portrait of himself.'} — The art of painting was pro- 
bably known in Egypt in the first ages, but they do not 
seem to have succeeded in this art better than in sculp- 
ture. Antiquity does not mention any painter or sculp- 
tor of Egypt, who had acquired celebrity. — Savary. 

At what period we may venture to date the first ori- 
gin of painting, is a subject involved in great difficulty. 
Perhaps we are not extravagant in saying, that it was 
known in the time of the Trojan war. The following 
note is to be found in Servius, Annot. ad Eneid. ii. ver. 
392. " Scutis Graecorum Neptunus, Trojanorum fuit 
Minerva depicta." 

With respect to the Egyptians, it is asserted by Tacitus, 
that they knew the art of designing before they were ac- 
quainted with letters. " Prima per figuras animalium 
Egyptii sensus mentis effingebant, et antiquisshna rnonu- 
menta memoriae humanae impressa saxis cernuntur. 
Annal. lib. x. cap. 14 

It is ingeniously remarked by Webb, in favour of the 
antiquity of painting, that when the Spaniards first ar- 
rived in America, the news was sent to the emperor in 
painted expresses, they not having at that time the use 
of letters. 

Mr Norden says, that in the higher Egypt to this day 
may be seen amongst the ruins of superb edifices, mar- 
bles artificially stained, so exquisitely fresh in point of 
colour, that they seem recently dismissed from the hand 
of the artist. Winkelmann says, that in the Egyptian 
mummies which have been minutely examined, there are 
apparent the six distinct colours of white, black, blue, 
red, yellow, and green ; but these, in point of effect, are 
contemptible, compared with the columns alluded to 
above, seen and described by Norden. Pococke also tells 
us, that in the ruins of the palaces of the kings of Thebes, 
the picture of the king is painted full length on stone. 
Both the sides and ceilings of the room in which this 
is to be seen are cut with hieroglyphics of birds and 
beasts, and some of them painted, being as fresh as if they 
were but just finished, though they must be above two 
thousand years old. 

The ancient heathens were accustomed to paint their 
idols of a red colour, as appears from the following ex- 
tract from the Wisdom of Solomon : 

"The carpenter carved it diligently when he had 
nothing else to do, and formed it by the skill of his un- 
derstanding, and fashioned it to the image of a man, or 
made it like some vile beast, laying it over with ver- 
million, and with paint colouring it red, and covering 
every spot therein." 

It seems rather a far-fetched explanation, to say that 
this was done because the first statues were set up in 
memory of warriors, remarkable for shedding much blood. 
Yet it is so interpreted in Harmer's Observations on 
Passages of Scripture. Of ancient painting the relics are 
indeed but few j but those extolled by Pococke and Nor- 
den, and the beautiful specimens which have at different 



EUTERPE. 



133 



Minerva at Lindus he gave two marble statues, 
with a linen corselet, which well deserves in- 
spection. Two figures of himself, carved in 
wood, he presented to the temple of Juno at 
Samos ; they were placed immediately behind 
the gates, where they still remain. His kind- 



times been dug up at Herculaneum, are sufficient to show 
that the artists possessed extraordinary excellence. That 
in particular of Chiron and Achillea, which many ingen- 
ious men have not scrupled to ascribe to Parrhasius, is 
said to be remarkably beautiful. 

The great founder of the art of painting in ancient 
Greece was Zeuxis, as was Michael Angelo amongst the 
moderns.— T. 



ness to Samos was owing to the hospitality 3 
which subsisted between him and Polycrates, 
the son of iEaces. He had no such motive of 
attachment to Lindus, but was moved by the 
report that the temple of Minerva there was 
erected by the daughters of Danaus, when they 
fled from the sons of Egyptus — Such was the 
munificence of Amasis, who was also the first 
person that conquered Cyprus, and compelled 
it to pay him tribute. 



3 Hospitality. ,] — That tie among the ancients, which 
was ratified by particular ceremonies, and considered as 
the most sacred of all engagements : nor dissolved ex- 
cept with certain solemn forms, and for weighty reasons. 



HERODOTUS. 



BOOK III. 



THALIA. 1 



I. Against this Amasis, Cambyses, the 
son of Cyrus, led an army, composed as well 
of his other subjects, as of the Ionic and iEolic 
Greeks. His inducements were these : by an 
ambassador whom he despatched for this pur- 
pose into Egypt, he demanded the daughter of 
Amasis, which he did at the suggestion of a 
certain Egyptian who had entertained an en- 
mity against his master. This man was a phy- 
sician, and when Cyrus had once requested of 
Amasis the best medical advice which Egypt 

1 Thalia.]— On the commencement of his observa- 
tions on this book, M. Larcher remarks, that the names 
of the Muses were only affixed to the books of Herodotus 
at a subsequent and later period. Porphyry does not 
distinguish the second book of our historian by the name 
of Euterpe, but is satisfied with calling it the book which 
treats of the affairs of Egypt. Athenaeus also says, the 
first or the second book of the histories of Herodotus. 

I am nevertheless rather inclined to believe that these 
names were annexed to the books of Herodotus from 
the spontaneous impulse of admiration which was ex- 
cited amongst the first hearers of them at the Olympic 
games. 

According to Pausanias, there were originally no more 
than three Muses, whose names were Melete, Mneme, 
and Aoide. Their number wa3 afterwards increased to 
nine, their residence confined to Parnassus, and the 
direction or patronage of them, if these be not improper 
terms, assigned to Apollo. Their contest for superiority 
with the nine daughters of Evippe, and consequent vic- 
tory', is agreeably described by Ovid. Met. book v. Their 
order and influence seem in a great measure to have 
been arbitrary. The names of the books of Herodotus 
have been generally adopted as determinate with respect 
to their order. This was, however, without any assign- 
ed motive, perverted by Ausonius, in the subjoined 
epigram : 

Clio gesta canens, transacts tempora reddit. 
Melpomene tragico proclamat mcesta boatu. 
Comica lascivo gaudet sermone Thalia. 
Dulciloquos calamos Euterpe flatibus urget. 
Terpsichore affectus cithaiis movet, imperat, auget. 
Plectra gerens Erato saltat pede. carmine vultu. 
Carmina Calliope libris heroica mandat. 
Uranie coeli motus scrutatur et astra. 
Signat cuncta manu, loquitur Polyhymnia gestu. 
Mentis Apollineso vis has movet undique mnsas. 
In medio residens complectitur omnia Phoebus — T. 



could afford for a disorder in his eyes, the king 
had forced him, in preference to all others, from 
his wife and family, and sent him into Persia. 
In revenge for which treatment this Egyptian 
instigated Cambyses to require the daughter of 
Amasis, that he might either suffer affliction 
from the loss of his child, or by refusing to 
send her, provoke the resentment of Camby- 
ses. Amasis both dreaded and detested the 
power of Persia, and was unwilling to accept, 
though fearful of refusing the overture. But 
he well knew that his daughter was meant to be 
not the wife but the concubine of Cambyses. 
and therefore he determined on- this mode of 
conduct : Apries, the former king, had left an 
only daughter : her name was Nitetis, 2 and she 
was possessed of much elegance and beauty. 
The king, having decorated her with great 
splendour of dress, sent her into Persia as his 
own child. Not long after, when Cambyses 
occasionally addressed her as the daughter of 
Amasis, " Sir," said she, " you are greatly mis- 
taken, and Amasis has deceived you ; he has 
adorned my person, and sent me to you as his 
daughter, but Apries was my father, whom he 
with his other rebellious subjects dethroned and 
put to death. " This speech and this occasion 



2 Nitetis.] — Cambyses had not long been king, ere he 
resolved upon a war with the Egyptians, by reason of 
some offence taken against Amasis their king. Hero- 
dotus tells us it was because Amasis, when he desired of 
him one of his daughters to wife, sent him a daughter of 
Apries instead of his own. But this could not be true, 
because Apries having being dead about forty years 
before, no daughter of his could be young enough to be 
acceptable to Cambyses. — So far Prideaux ; but Larcher 
endeavours to reconcile the apparent improbability, by 
saying that there is great reason to suppose that Apries 
lived a prisoner many years after Amasis dethroned him 
and succeeded to his power ; and that there is no impos- 
sibility in the opinion that Nitetis might, therefore, be 
no more than twenty or twenty-two years of age when 
she was sent to Cambyses. — T. 



136 



HERODOTUS. 



immediately prompted Cambyses in great wrath, 
to commence hostilities against Egypt. — Such 
is the Persian account of the story. 

II. The Egyptians claim Cambyses as their 
own, by asserting that this incident did not 
happen to him, but to Cyrus, 1 from whom, and 
from this daughter of Apnes, they say he was 
born. 3 This, however, is certainly not true. 
The Egyptians are of all mankind the best 
conversant with the Persian manners, and they 
must have known that a natural child could 
never succeed to the throne of Persia, whilst 
a legitimate one was alive. And it was equally 
certain that Cambyses was not born of an 
Egyptian woman, but was the son of Cassan- 
dane, the daughter of Pharnaspe, of the race 
of the Achsemenides. This story, therefore, 
was invented by the Egyptians, that they might 
from this pretence claim a connection with the 
house of Cyrus. 

III. Another story also is asserted, which 
to me seems improbable. They say that 
a Persian lady once visiting the wives of 
Cyrus, saw standing near their mother the 
children of Cassandane, whom she compli- 
mented in high terms on their superior excel- 
lence of form and person. " Me," replied 
Cassandane, " who am the mother of these 
children, Cyrus neglects and despises, all his 
kindness is bestowed on this Egyptian female. *' 
This she said from resentment against Nitetis. 
They add that Cambyses, her eldest son, in- 
stantly exclaimed, " Mother, as soon as I am a 
man, I will effect the utter destruction of 
Egypt." 3 These words, from a prince who 



1 But to Cyrus.] — They speak with more probability, 
who say it was Cyrus, and not Cambyses, to whom this 
daughter of Apries was sent. — Prideaux. 

2 They say he was born.] — Polyaenus, in his Strata- 
gemata, relates the affair in this manner : — Nitetis, who 
was in reality the daughter of Apries, cohabited a long 
time with Cyrus as the daughter of Amasis. After 
having many children by Cyrus, she disclosed to him 
who she really was ; for though Amasis was dead, she 
wished to revenge herself on his son Psammenitus. 
Cyrus acceded to her wishes, but died in the midst of 
his preparations for an Egyptian war. This, Cambyses 
was persuaded by his mother to undertake, and re- 
venged on the Egyptians the cause of the family of 
Apries. — T. 

3 I will effect the utter destruction of Egypt] — Lite- 
rally, I will turn Egypt upside down. 

M. Larcher enumerates, from Athenaeus, the various 
and destructive wars which had originated on account 
of women ; he adds, what a number of illustrious fam- 
ilies had, from a similar cause, been utterly extinguish- 
ed. The impression of this idea, added to the vexations 
which he had himself experienced in domestic life, pro- 



was then only ten years of age, surprised and 
delighted the woman ; and as soon as he became 
a man, and succeeded to the throne, he remem- 
bered the incident, and commenced hostilities 
against Egypt. 

IV. He had another inducement to this 
undertaking. Among the auxiliaries of Ama- 
sis was a man named Phanes, a native of Hali- 
carnassus, and greatly distinguished by his 
mental as well as military accomplishments. 
This person being, for I know not what rea- 
son, incensed against Amasis, fled in a vessel 
from Egypt to have a conference with Cam- 
byses. As he possessed great influence 
amongst the auxiliaries, and was perfectly 
acquainted with the affairs of Egypt, Amasis 
ordered him to be rigorously pursued, and for 
this purpose equipped, under the care of the 
most faithful of his eunuchs, a three-banked 
galley. The pursuit was successful, and Pha- 
nes was taken in Lydia, but he was not carried 
back to Egypt, for he circumvented his guards, 
and by making them drunk effected his escape. 
He fled instantly to Persia : Cambyses was 
then meditating the expedition against Egypt, 
but was deterred by the difficulty of marching 
an army over the deserts, where so little water 
was to be procured. Phanes explained to the 
king all the concerns of Amasis ; and to ob- 
viate the above difficulty, advised him to send 
and ask of the king of the Arabs a safe pas- 
sage through his territories. 

V. This is indeed the only avenue by which 
Egypt can possibly be entered. The whole 
country, from Phcenicia to Cadytis, a city 
which belongs to the Syrians of Palestine, and 
in my opinion equal to Sardis, together with 
all the commercial towns as far as Jenysus, 4 

bably extorted from our great poet, Milton, the follow- 
ing energetic lines : 

Oh, why did God, 
Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven, 
With spirits masculine, create at last 
This novelty on earth, this fair defect 
Of nature, and not fill the world at once 
With men as angels, without feminine, 
Or find some other way to generate 
Mankind ? This mischief had not then befall'n, 
And more that shall befall, innumerable 
Disturbances on earth through female snares ! — T. 

4 Jenysus.] — Stephanus Byzantinus calls this city 
Inys, for that is manifestly the name he gives it, if we 
take away the Greek termination. But Herodotus from 
whom he borrows, renders it Jenis. It would have been 
more truly rendered Dorice Janis, for that was nearer 
to the real name. The historian, however, points it out 
plainly by saying, that it was three days' journey from 
mount Casius, and that the whole way was through the 
Arabian desert. — Bryant. 



THALIA. 



137 



belong to the Arabians. This is also the case 
with that space of land which from the Syrian 
Jenysus extends to the lake of Serbonis, from 
the vicinity of which mount Casius 5 stretches 
to the sea. At this lake, where, as was re- 
ported, Typhon was concealed, Egypt com- 
mences. This tract, which comprehends the 
city Jenysus, mount Casius, and the lake of 
Serbonis, is of no trifling extent ; it is a three 
days' journey over a very dry and parched 
desert. 

VI. I shall now explain what is known to 
very few of those who travel into Egypt by sea. 
Twice in every year there are exported from 
different parts of Greece to Egypt, and from 
Phoenicia in particular, wine secured in earthen 
jars, not one of which jars is afterwards to be 
seen. I shall describe to what purpose they are 
applied : the principal magistrate of every town 
is obliged to collect all the earthen vessels im- 
ported to the place where he resides, and send 
them to Memphis. The Memphians fill them 
with water, 6 and afterwards transport them to 
the Syrian deserts. Thus all the earthen ves- 
sels carried into Egypt, and there carefully col- 
lected, are continually added to those already 
in Syria. 

Mr Bryant is certainly mistaken with respect to the 
situation of this place. It was an Arabian town, on this 
side lake Serbonis compared with Syria, on the other 
compared with Egypt. When Herodotus says that this 
place was three days' journey from mount Casius, he 
must be understood as speaking of the Syrian side ; if 
otherwise, Cambyses could not have been so embarrassed 
from want of water, &c— See Larcher farther on this 
subject. 

5 Mount Casius.2 — This place is now called by sea- 
men mount Tenere ; here anciently was a temple sacred 
to Jupiter Casius ; in this mountain also was Pompey 
the great buried, ae some affirm, being murdered at its 
foot. This, however, is not true, his body was burnt on 
the shore by one of his freedmen, with the planks of an 
old fishing -boat, and his ashes being conveyed to Rome, 
were deposited privately by his wife Cornelia in a vault 
of his Alban villa. — See Middleton 's Life of Cicero. — T. 

6 With water. .] — The water of the Nile never becomes 
impure, whether reserved at home, or exported abroad. 
On board the vessels which pass from Egypt to Italy, 
this water, which remains at the end of the voyage, is 
good, whilst what they happen to take in during their 
voyage corrupts. The Egyptians are the only people we 
know who preserve this water in jars, as others do wine. 
They keep it three or four years, and sometimes longer, 
and the age of this water is with them an increase of its 
value, as the age of wine is elsewhere. — Aristides Orat. 
Egyptian. 

Modern writers and travellers are agreed about the 
excellence of the water of the Nile ; but the above as- 
sertion, with respect to its keeping, wants to be corro- 
borated. Much the same is eaid respecting the water of 
the Thames. 



VII. Such are the means which the Persians 
have constantly adopted to provide themselves 
with water in these deserts, from the time that 
they were first masters of Egypt. But as, at 
the time of which we speak, they had not this 
resource, Cambyses listened to the advice of his 
Halicarnassian guest, and solicited of the Ara- 
bian prince a safe passage through his territories ; 
which was granted, after mutual promises of 
friendship. 

VIII. These are the ceremonies which the 
Arabians observe when they make alliances, of 
which no people in the world are more tena- 
cious. 7 On these occasions some one connect- 
ed with both parties stands betwixt them, and 
with a sharp stone opens a vein of the hand, 
near the middle finger, of those who are about 
to contract. He then takes a piece of the vest 
of each person, and dips it in their blood, with 
which he stains several stones purposely placed 
in the midst of the assembly, invoking during 
the process Bacchus and Urania. When this 
is finished, he who solicits the compact to be 
made, pledges his friends for the sincerity of 
his engagements to the stranger or citizen, or 
whoever it may happen to be ; and all of them 
conceive an indispensable necessity to exist, of 
performing what they promise. Bacchus and 
Urania are the only deities whom they venerate. 
They cut off their hair round their temples, 
from the supposition that Bacchus wore his in 
that form ; him they call Urotalt ; Urania, 
Alilat. 8 

IX. When the Arabian prince had made 
an alliance with the messengers of Cambyses, 
he ordered all his camels to be laden with camel- 
skins filled with water, and to be driven to the 
deserts, there to wait the arrival of Cambyses 
and his army. Of this incident the above seems 
to me the more probable narrative. There is 
also another, which, however I may disbelieve, 



7 Tenacious.'] — How faithful the Arabs are at this day, 
when they have pledged themselves to be so, is a topic of 
admiration and of praise with all modern travellers. 
They who once put themselves under their protection 
have nothing afterwards to fear, for their word is sacred. 
Singular as the mode here described of forming alliances 
may appear to an English reader, that of taking an oath 
by putting the hand under the thigh, in use among the 
patriarchs, was surely not less so. 

" Abraham said unto the eldest servant of his house 
that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand 
under my thigh." Gen.xxiv. 2.—T. 

8 Alilat.'] — According to Selden, in his treatise de Diis 
Syris, the Mitra of the Persians is the same with the 
Alitta or Alilat of the Arabians. In this term Alilat we 
doubtless recognise the ai.t.au of the modern Arabians. 

S 



138 



HE RODOTUS. 



I think I ought not to omit. In Arabia is a 
large river called Corys, which loses itself in 
the Red Sea: from this river the Arabian is 
said to have formed a canal of the skins of 
oxen and other animals sewed together, which 
was continued to the above-mentioned deserts, 
where he also sunk a number of cisterns to re- 
ceive the water so introduced. From the river 
to the desert is a journey of twelve days ; and 
they say that the water was conducted by three 
distinct canals into as many different places. 

X. At the Pelusian mouth of the Nile 
Psammenitus, the son of Amasis, was encamp- 
ed, and expected Cambyses in arms. Amasis 
himself after a reign of forty-four years, died 
before Cambyses had advanced to Egypt, and 
during the whole enjoyment of his power he 
experienced no extraordinary calamity. At his 
death his body was embalmed, and deposited in 
a sepulchre which he had erected for himself in 
the temple of Minerva. 1 During the reign of 
his son Psammenitus, Egypt beheld a most re- 
markable prodigy ; there was rain at the Egyp- 
tian Thebes, a circumstance which never hap- 
pened before, and which, as the Thebans them- 
selves assert, has never occurred since. In the 
higher parts of Egypt it never rains, but at 
that period we read it rained at Thebes in dis- 
tinct drops. a 

XL The Persians having passed the de- 
serts, fixed their camp opposite to the Egyp- 
tians, as with the design of offering, them battle. 
The Greeks and Carians, who were the con- 
federates of the Egyptians, to show their re- 
sentment against Phanes, for introducing a 
foreign army against Egypt, adopted this ex- 
pedient : his sons, whom he had left behind, 
they brought into the camp, and in a con- 
spicuous place, in the sight of their father, they 
put them one by one to death upon a vessel 
brought thither for that purpose. When they 
had done this, they filled the vase which had 
received the blood with wine and water; 
having drank which, 3 all the auxiliaries imme- 



1 Temple of Minerva.]— This is not expressed in the 
original text, but it was evident that it is in the temple 
of Minerva, from chap, clxix. of the second book.— T. 

2 In distinct drops.]— Herodotus is perhaps thus par- 
ticular, to distinguish rain from mist. 

It is a little remarkable that all the mention which 
Herodotus makes of the ancient Thebes, is in this pas- 
sage, and in this slight manner. In book ii. chap. xv. 
he informs us that all Egypt was formerly called 
Thebes.— T. 

3 Having drank which.] — They probably swore at the 
same time to avenge the treason of Phanes, or perish. 



diately engaged the enemy. The battle was 
obstinately disputed, but after considerable loss 
on both sides, the Egyptians fled. 

XIL By the people inhabiting the place 
where this battle was fought a very surprising 
thing was pointed out to my attention. The 
bones of those who fell in the engagement 
were soon afterwards collected, and separated 
into two distinct heaps. It was observed of 
the Persians, that their heads were so ex- 
tremely soft as to yield to the slight impres- 
sion even of a pebble ; those of the Egyptians, 
on the contrary, were so firm, that the blow of 
a large stone could hardly break them. The 
reason which they gave for this was very satis- 
factory—the Egyptians from a very early age 
shave their heads, 4 which by being constantly 
exposed to the action of the sun, become firm 
and hard ; this treatment also prevents bald- 
ness, very few instances of which are ever to 
be seen in Egypt. Why the skulls of the 
Persians are so soft may be explained from 
their being from their infancy accustomed to 
shelter them from the sun, by the constant use 
of turbans. I saw the very same fact at Pa- 
premis, after examining the bones of those 
who, under the conduct of Achsemenes, 5 son of 
Darius, were defeated by Inarus, the African. 
XIII. The Egyptians after their defeat 
fled in great disorder to Memphis. Cambyses 
despatched a Persian up the river in a Mity- 
lenian vessel to treat with them ; but as soon 
as they saw the vessel enter Memphis, they 
rushed in a crowd from the citadel, destroyed 

The blood of a human victim mixed with wine accom- 
panied the most solemn forms of execration among the 
ancients. Catiline made use of this superstition to bind 
his adherents to secrecy : " He carried round," says 
Sallust, "the blood of a human victim, mixed with 
wine ; and when all had tasted it, after a set form of ex- 
ecration (sicut iu solennibus sacris fieri consuevit) he 
imparted his design." — T. 
j 4 Shave their heads.] — The same custom still subsists : 
I have seen every where the children of the common 
people, whether running in the field, assembled round 
the village, or swimming in the waters, with their 
heads shaved and bare. Let us but imagine the hard- 
ness a skull must acquire thus exposed to the scorching 
sun, and we shall not be astonished at the remark of 
Herodotus. — Savary. 

5 Achcemenes.] — Herodotus and Dindorus Sieulussay, 
that it was Achsemenes, the brother of Xt-rxes, and 
uncle of Artaxerxes, the same who before had the 
government of Egypt in the beginning of the reign of 
Xerxes, that had the conduct of this war ; but herein 
they were deceived by the similitude of names ; for it 
appears by Ctesias, that he was the son of Hamestris, 
whom Artaxerxes sent with his army into Egypt. — 
Prideaux. 



THALIA. 



139 



the vessel, tore the crew in pieces, 6 and after- 
wards carried them into the citadel. Siege 
was immediately laid to the place, and the 
Egyptians were finally compelled to surrender. 
Those Africans who lived nearest to Egypt, 
apprehensive of* a similar fate, submitted with- 
out contest, imposing a tribute on themselves, 
and sending presents to thd Persians. Their 
example was followed by the Cyreneans and 
Barceans, who were struck with the like pan- 
ic. The African presents Cambyses received 
very graciously, but he expressed much resent- 
ment at those of the Cyreneans, as I think, on 
account of their meanness. They sent him 
rive hundred minae of silver, which, as soon as 
he received, with his own hands he threw 
amongst his soldiers. 

XIV. On the tenth day after the surrender 
of the citadel of Memphis, Psammenitus, the 
Egyptian king, who had reigned no more than 
six months, was by order of Cambyses igno- 
miniously conducted, with other Egyptians, to 
the outside of the walls, and by way of trial of 
his disposition, thus treated : His daughter, in 
the habit of a slave, was sent with a pitcher to 
draw water ; she was accompanied by a num- 
ber of young women clothed in the same garb, 
and selected from families of the first distinc- 
tion. Tbey passed, with much and loud 
lamentation, before their parents, from whom 
their treatment excited a correspondent vio- 
lence of grief. But when Psammenitus be- 
held the spectacle, he merely declined his 
eyes upon the ground ; when this train was 
gone by, the son of Psammenitus, with two 
thousand Egyptians of the same age, were made 
to walk in procession with ropes round their 
necks, and bridles in their mouths. These were 
intended to avenge the death of those Mitylen- 
ians who, with their vessel, had been torn to pieces 
at Memphis. The king's counsellors had de- 
termined that for every one put to death on that 
occasion, ten of the first rank of the Egyptians 
should be sacrificed. Psammenitus observed 
these as they passed, but although he perceived 
thathisson was going to be executed, and whilst 
all the Egyptians around him wept and lament- 
ed aloud, he continued unmoved as before. 
When this scene also disappeared, he beheld a 



6 Tore the craw in pieces.~\ — They were two hundred 
in number, this appears from a following paragraph, 
where we find that for every Mitylenian massacred on 
this occasion ten Egyptians were put to death, and that 
two thousand Egyptians thus perished. —Lurcher. 



| venerable personage, who had formerly partaken 
of the royal table, deprived of all he had pos- 
sessed, and in the dress of a mendicant asking 
charity through the different ranks of the army. 
This man stopped to beg an alms of Psam- 
menitus, the son of Amasis, and the other noble 
Egyptians who were sitting with him ; which, 
when Psammenitus beheld, he could no longer 
suppress his emotions, but calling on his friend 
by name, wept aloud, ' and beat his head. This 
the spies, who were placed near him to observe 
his conduct on each incident, reported to Cam- 
byses j who, in astonishment at such behaviour, 
sent a messenger, who was thus directed to 
address him. " Your lord and master, Cam- 
by ses, is desirous to know why, after beholding 
with so much indifference your daughter treated 
as a slave, and your son conducted to death, you 
expressed so lively a concern for that mendicant, 
who, as he has been informed, is not at all re • 
lated to you ;" Psammenitus made this reply : 
" Son of Cyrus, my domestic misfortunes were 
too great to suffer me to shed tears 8 but it was 
consistent that I should weep for my friend, 
who, from a station of honour and of wealth, 
is in the last stage of life reduced to penury." 
Cambyses heard and was satisfied with his an- 
swer. The Egyptians say that Croesus, who 
attended Cambyses in this Egyptian expedition, 
wept at the incident. The Persians also who 
were present were exceedingly moved, and Cam- 
byses himself yielded so far to compassion, that 

7 Wept aloud.] — A very strange effect of grief is relat- 
ed by Mr Gibbon, in the story of Gelimer, king of the 
Vandals, when after an obstinate resistance he was 
obliged to surrender himself to Belisarius. "The first 
public interview," says our historian, " was in one of the 
suburbs of Carthage ; and when the royal captive ac- 
costed his conqueror, he burst into a fit of laughter. The 
crowd might naturally believe that extreme grief had 
deprived Gelimer of his senses; but in this mournful 
state unseasonable mirth insinuated to more intelligent 
observers that the vain and transitory scenes of human 
greatness are unworthy of a serious thought." 

8 Shed tears.] — This idea of extreme affliction or anger 
tending to check the act of weeping, is expressed by 
Shakspeare with wonderful sublimity and pathos. It is 
part of a speech of Lear : 

You see me here, ye gods, a poor old man, 
As full of grief as age, wretched in both. 
Jf it be you that stir these daughters' hearts 
Against their father, fool me not so much 
To bear it tamely :- Touch me with noble anger, 
And let not woman's weapons, water drops, 
Stain my man's cheeks. No, you unnatural hags, 
I will have such revenges on you both 

That all the world shall 1 will do such things, 

What they are yet I know not, but they shall be 
The terrors of the earth You think I'll weep- 
No, I 'li not weep. I have full cause of weeping ; 
But this heart shall break into a hundred Uiousand flawt 
Or e'er I weep — T. 



140 



HERODOTUS. 



he ordered the son of Psammenitus to be pre- 
served out of those who had been condemned 
to die, and Psammenitus himself to be con- 
ducted from the place where he was, to his 
presence. 

XV. The emissaries employed for the pur- 
pose found the young prince had suffered first, 
and was already dead ; the father they led to 
Cambyses, with whom he lived, and received 
no farther ill treatment ; and could he have re- 
frained from ambitious attempts, would pro- 
bably have been intrusted with the government 
of Egypt. The Persians hold the sons of sov- 
ereigns in the greatest reverence, and even if 
the fathers revolt, they will permit the sons to 
succeed to their authority ; that such is really 
their conduct may be proved by various exam- 
ples. Thannyras the son of Inarus, ' received 
the kingdom which his father governed ; Pau- 
siris also, the son of Amyrtaeus, was permitted 
to reign after his father, although the Persians 
had never met with more obstinate enemies than 
both Inarus and Amyrtaeus. Psammenitus 
revolted, and suffered for his offence : he was 
detected in stirring up the Egyptians to rebel ; 
and being convicted by Cambyses, was made to 
drink a quantity of bullock's blood, 2 which im- 
mediately occasioned his death. — Such was the 
end of Psammenitus. 

XVI. From Sais, Cambyses proceeded to 
Memphis, to execute a purpose he had in view. 
As soon as he entered the palace of Amasis, he 
ordered the body 3 of that prince to be removed 
from his tomb. When this was done, he com- 
manded it to be beaten with rods, the hair to be 

1 hiarus.] — The revolt of Inarus happened in the first 
year of the 80th Olympiad, 460 before the Christian era. 
He rebelled against Artaxerxes Longimauus, and with 
the assistance of the Athenians defied the power of Per- 
sia for nearly five years. After he was reduced, Amyr- 
taeus held out for some time longer in the marshy coun- 
try. — The particulars may be found in the first book of 
Thucydides, chap. civ. &c. 

2 Bullock's blood.'} — Bull's blood, taken fresh from the 
animal, was considered by the ancients as a powerful 
poison, and supposed to act by coagulating in the stom- 
ach. Themistocles, and several other personages of 
antiquity, were said to have died by taking it.— See Plut. 
in Themist. and Pliny, book xxviii. ch. ix. Aristophanes, 
in the 'l^irs/,-, also alludes to this account of the death of 
Themistocles. 

BsXtHTTOV Yl/JUV OUfJt.01 TOtC^ilOV TIUY, 

'O ©ijAurrozXiovs yu.g^a.va.TOi odglriiii^oi. 

3 Be ordered the body.]— A similar example of taking 
a preposterous but cruel vengeance on the body of a de- 
ceased enemy, occurs in the story of Achilles, with re- 
spect to Hector, and of Alexander the Great, who, on 
the most minute and frivolous occasions, affected to imi- 
tate that hero. See Quintus Curtius. 



plucked out, and the flesh to be goaded with 
sharp instruments, to which he added other 
marks of ignominy. As the body was em- 
balmed, their efforts made but little impression ; 
when therefore they were fatigued with these 
outrages, he ordered it to be burned. In this 
last act Cambyses paid no regard to the religion 
of his country, for the Persians venerate fire as 
a divinity. 4 The custom of burning the dead 
does not prevail in either of the two nations ; 
for the reason above-mentioned, the Persians 
do not use it, thinking it profane to feed a di- 
vinity with human carcases ; and the Egyptians 
abhor it, being fully persuaded that fire is a vo- 
racious animal, which devours whatever it can 
seize, and when saturated finally expires with 
what it has consumed. They hold it unlawful 
to expose the bodies of the dead 5 to any ani- 
mals, for which reason they embalm them, 
fearing lest, after interment, they might become 
the prey of worms. The Egyptians assert, 
that the above indignities were not inflicted upon 
the body of Amasis, but that the Persians were 
deceived, and perpetrated these insults on some 
other Egyptian of the same age with that prince. 
Amasis, they say, was informed by an oracle of 
the injuries intended against his body, to pre- 



4 Venerate fire as a divinity.] — This expression must 
not be understood in too rigorous a sense. Fire was cer- 
tainly regarded by the Persians as something sacred, and 
perhaps they might render it some kind of religious 
worship, which in its origin referred only to the deity of 
which this element was an emblem. But it is certain 
that this nation did not believe fire to be a deity, other- 
wise how would they have dared to have extinguished it 
throughout Persia, on the death of the sovereign, as we 
learn from Diodorus Siculus ? — See an epigram of Dios- 
corides, Brunk's Analecta, vol. i. 503. — Larcher. 

5 Bodies of the dead.] — We learn from Xenophou, that 
the interment of bodies was common in Greece ; and 
Homer tells us that the custom of burning the dead was 
in use before the Trojan war. It is therefore probable 
that both customs were practised at the same time ; this 
was also the case at Rome, as appears from many ancient 
monuments : the custom, however, of interment, seems 
to have preceded that of burning. "At milii quidem an- 
tiquissimum sepulturse genus id fuisse videtur quo apud 
Xenophontem Cyrus utitur. Redditur eniin terra cor- 
pus, et ita locatum et situm quasi operimento matris ob- 
ducitur." Cicero de legibus, lib. ii. 22. 

"That seems to me to have been the most ancient 
kind of burial, which, according to Xenophon, was used 
by Cyrus. For the body is returned to the earth, and so 
placed as to be covered with the veil of its mother." The 
custom of burning at Rome, according to Montfaucori, 
ceased about the time of Theodosius the younger. 

Sylla was the first of the Cornelian family whose body- 
was burned, whence some have erroneously advanced 
that he was the first Roman ; but both methods were 
mentioned in the laws of the twelve tables, and appear 
to have been equally prevalent After Sylla, burning be- 
came general. — T. 



THALIA. 



HI 



vent which he ordered the person who really 
sustained them, to be buried at the entrance of 
his tomb, whilst he himself, by his own direc- 
tions given to his son, was placed in some secret 
and interior recess of the sepulchre. These as- 
sertions I cannot altogether believe, and am 
rather inclined to impute them to the vanity of 
the Egyptians. 

XVII. Cambyses afterwards determined to 
commence hostilities against three nations at 
once, the Carthaginians, the Ammonians, and 
the Macrobian" Ethiopians, who inhabit that 
part of Libya which lies to the southern ocean. 
He accordingly resolved to send against the 
Carthaginians a naval armament ; a detachment 
of his troops was to attack the Ammonians by 
land ; and he sent spies into Ethiopia, who, un- 
der pretence of carrying presents to the prince, 
were to ascertain the reality of the celebrated 
table of the sun, 7 and to examine the condition 
of the country. 

XVIII. What they called the table of the 
sun was this : —A plain in the vicinity of the 
city was filled to the height of four feet with 
the roasted flesh of all kinds of animals, which 
was carried there in the night, under the inspec- 
tion of the magistrates; during the day whoever 
pleased was at liberty to go and satisfy his hun- 
ger. The natives of the place affirm, that the 
earth spontaneously produces all these viands : 
this, however, is what they term the table of 
the sun. 

XIX. As soon as Cambyses had resolved on 
the measures he meant to pursue, with respect 
to the Ethiopians, he sent to the city of Ele- 
phantine for some of the Ichthyophagi who 
were skilled in their language. In the mean- 
time he directed his naval forces to proceed 
against the Carthaginians ; but the Phenicians 
refused to assist him in this purpose, pleading 
the solemnity of their engagements with that 
people, and the impiety of committing acts of 
violence against their own descendants : — Such 
was the conduct of the Phenicians, and the 
other armaments were not powerful enough to 
proceed. Thus, therefore, the Carthaginians 

G i. e. long-lived. 

7 Table of the sun.~\ — Solinus speaks of this table of the 
sun as something marvellous, and Pomponius Mela seems 
to have had the same idea. Pausanias considers what 
was reported of it as fabulous. " If," says he, " we credit 
all these marvels on the faith of the Greeks, we ought 
also to receive as true what the Ethiopians above Syene 
relate of the table of the sun." In adhering to the reci- 
tal of Herodotus, a considerable portion of the marvel- 
lous disappears.— hatcher. 



escaped being made tributary to Persia, for 
Cambyses did not choose to use compulsion 
with the Phenicians, who had voluntarily be- 
come his dependents, and who constituted the 
most essential part of his naval power. The 
Cyprians had also submitted without contest 
to the Persians, and had served in the Egyp- 
tian expedition. 

XX. As soon as the Ichthyophagi arrived 
from Elephantine, Cambyses despatched them 
to Ethiopia. They were commissioned to de- 
liver, with certain presents, a particular mes- 
sage to the prince. The presents consisted 
of a purple vest, a gold chain for the neck, 
bracelets, an alabaster box of perfumes, 8 and a 
cask of palm wine. The Ethiopians to whom 
Cambyses sent, are reported to be superior to 
all other men in the perfections of size and 
beauty : their manners and customs, which differ 
also from those of all other nations, have be - 
sides this singular distinction ; the supreme 
authority is given to him who excels all his fel- 
low citizens 9 in size and proportionable strength. 

8 Alabaster box of perfu7nes.~\—lt seems probable that 
perfumes in more ancient times were kept in shells. 
Arabia is the country of perfumes, and the Red Sea 
throws upon the coast a number of large and beautiful 
shells, very convenient for such a purpose. — See Horace : 

Funde capacibus 
Unguenta de conchis. 

That to make a present of perfumes was deemed a 
mark of reverence and honour in the remotest times 
amongst the orientals, appears from the following pas- 
sage in Daniel. - 

"Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, 
and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should 
offer an oblation and sweet odours to him." 

See also St Mark, xiv. 3 : 

" There came a woman having an alabaster box of 
ointment of spikenard, very precious ; and she brake the 
box, and poured it on his head." 

See also Matth. xxvi. 7. 

To sprinkle the apartments and the persons of the 
guests with rose water, and other aromatics, still con- 
tinues in the east to be a mark of respectful attention. 

Alabastron did not properly signify a vessel made of 
the stone now called alabaster, but one without handles, 
(A'/\ iX ov ^«£«?. 

Alabaster obtained its name from being frequently 
used for this purpose; the ancient name for the stone 
was alabastrites, and perfumes were thought to keep 
better in it than in any other substance. Pliny has in- 
formed us of the shape of these vessels, by comparing 
to them the pearls called elenchi, which are known to 
have been shaped like pearls, or, as he expresses it, 
fastigiata longitudine, alabastrorum figura, in pleniorem 
orbem desinentes. lib. ix. cap. 35. 

9 Who excels all his fellow citizens, $e] — That the 
quality of strength and accomplishments of person were 
in the first institution of society the principal recom- 
mendations to honour, is thus represented by Lucretius : 

Condere urperunt urbt is, arcemque locarc 
Presidium reges ipsi sibi pcrrugiumque : 



142 



HERODOTUS. 



XXX. The Ichthyophagi on their arrival 
offered the presents, and thus addressed the 
king : " Cambyses, sovereign of Persia, from 
his anxious desire of becoming your friend and 
ally, has sent us to communicate with you, and 
to desire your acceptance of these presents, from 
the use of which he himself derives the greatest 
pleasure." The Ethiopian prince, who was 
aware of the object they had in view, made them 
this answer; — " The king of Persia has not 
sent you with these presents, from any desire 
of obtaining my alliance ; neither do you speak 
the truth, who, to facilitate the unjust designs 
of your master, are come to examine the state 
of my dominions : if he were influenced by 
principles of integrity, he would be satisfied with 
his own, and not covet the possessions of an- 
other ; nor would he attempt to reduce those to 
servitude from whom he has received no injury. 
Give him therefore this bow, and in my name 
speak to him thus : The king of Ethiopia sends 
this counsel to the king of Persia — when his 
subjects shall be able to bend this bow with the 
same ease that I do, then with a superiority of 
numbers he may venture to attack the Macro- 
bian Ethiopians. In the mean time let him be 
thankful to the gods, that the Ethiopians have 
not been inspired with the same ambitious views 
of extending their possessions." 

XXII. When he had finished, he unbent the 
bow and placed it in their hands : after which, 
taking the purple vest, he inquired what it was, 
and how it was made : the Ichthyophagi pro- 
perly explained to him the process by which the 
purple tincture was communicated ; but he told 
them that they and their vests were alike deceit- 
ful. He then made-similar inquiries concern- 
ing the bracelets and the gold chain for the neck: 
upon their describing the nature of those orna- 
ments, he laughed, and conceiving them to be 
chains, 1 remarked, that the Ethiopians possess- 



Et pecudes et agros divisere atque dedere 
Pro facie cujusque, et viribus ingenioque, 
Nam facies multum valuit, Tiresque vigebant.— T. 

1 Conceiving them to be chains."] — We learn from a 
passage in Genesis xxiv. 22, that the bracelets of the 
Orientals were remarkably heavy ; which seems in some 
measure to justify the sentiment of the Ethiopian prince, 
who thought them chains simply because they were 
made of gold, which was used for that purpose in his 
country.— See chap, xxiii. 

" And it came to pass as the camels had done drinking, 
that the man took a golden ear-ring of half a shekel 
weight, and two bracelets for her hands, of ten shekels 
weight of gold." 

That the bracelet was formerly an ensign of royalty 
amongst the Orientals, Mr Harmcr, en his Observations 



ed much stronger. He proceeded lastly to ask 
them the use of the perfumes ; and when they 
informed him how they were made and applied, 
he made the same observation as he had before 
done of the purple robe. 8 When he came to 
the wine, and learned how it was made, he 
drank it with particular satisfaction ; and in- 
quired upon what food the Persian monarch 
subsisted, and what was the longest period of 
a Persian's life. The king, they told him, 
lived chiefly upon bread ; and they then de- 
scribed to him the properties of corn : they 
added that the longest period of life in Persia 
was about eighty years. " I am not at all sur- 
prised," said the Ethiopian prince, " that, sub- 
sisting on dung, the term of life is so short 
among them ; and unless," he continued, point- 



on Passages of Scripture, infers from the circumstance 
of the Amalekite's bringing to David the bracelet which 
he found on Saul's arm, along with his crown. That it 
was a mark of dignity there can be little doubt ; but it 
by no means follows that it was a mark of royalty, though 
the remark is certainly ingenious. If it was, there ex- 
isted a peculiar propriety in making it the part of a pre- 
sent from one prince to another. By the Roman generals 
they were given to their soldiers, as a reward of bravery. 
Small chains were also in the remotest times worn round 
the neck, not only by women but by the men. That 
these were also worn by princes appears from Judges 
viii. 26. 

" And the weight of the golden ear-rings that he re- 
quested, was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of 
gold; beside ornaments, and collars, and purple raiment 
that was on the kings of Midian ; and beside the chains 
that were about their camels' necks." Which last cir- 
cumstance tends also to prove that they thus also deco- 
rated the animals they used, which fashion is to this day 
observed by people of distinction in Egypt. — T. 

2 Purple robe.] — It is a circumstance well known at 
present, that on the coast of Guayaquil, as well as on 
that of Guatima, are found those snails which yield the 
purple dye so celebrated by the ancients, and which the 
moderns have supposed to have been lost. The shell 
that contains them is fixed to rocks that are watered by 
the sea ; it is of the size of a large nut. The juice may 
be extracted from the animal in two ways ; some persons 
kill the animal after they have taken it out of the shell, 
they then press it from the head to the tail with a knife, 
and separating from the body that part in which the 
liquor is collected, they throw away the rest. When 
this operation, repeated upon several of the snails, hath 
yielded a certain quantity of the juice, the thread that is 
to be dyed is dipped in it, and the business is done. The 
colour, which is at first as white as milk, becomes after- 
wards green, and does not turn purple till the thread 
is dry. 

We know of no colour that can be compared to the 
one we have been speaking of, either in mstre or in per- 
manency. — Raynal. 

Pliny describes the purpura as a turbinated shell like 
the buccinum, but with spines upon it ; which may lead 
us to suspect the Abbe's account of the snails of a little 
inaccuracy. — 7". 



THALIA. 



143 



nig to the wine, " they mixed it with this liquor, 
they would not live so long ;" for in this he 
allowed that they excelled the Ethiopians. 

XXIII. The Ichthyophagi in their turn 
questioned the prince concerning the duration 
of life in Ethiopia, and the kind of food there 
in use : — They were told, that the majority of 
the people lived to the age of 3 one hundred and 
twenty years, but that some exceeded even that 
period ; that their meat was baked flesh, their 
drink milk. When the spies expressed aston- 
ishment at the length of life in Ethiopia, they 
were conducted to a certain fountain, in which 
having bathed, they became shining as if an- 
ointed with oil, and diffused from their bodies 
the perfume of violets. But they asserted 
that the water of this fountain was of so in- 
substantial a nature, that neither wood, nor any 
thing still lighter than wood, would float upon 
its surface, but every thing instantly sunk to 
the bottom. If their representation of this 
water was true, the constant use of it may pro- 
bably explain the extreme length of life which 
the Ethiopians attain. From the fountain they 
were conducted to the public prison, where all 
that were confined were secured by chains of 
gold ; for among these Ethiopians brass is the 
rarest of all the metals. After visiting the 
prison they saw also what is called the table 
of the sun. 

XXIV. Finally they were shown their 
coffins, which are said to be constructed of 

3 Lived to the age of, fyc.~\ — " We travelled all the night, 
as far as Bacras, a large borough, the lord of which was 
a venerable old man, of a hundred and thirty years old, 
and who appeared to us as strong and vigorous, as if he 
had not been above forty. — Poncet's Voyage to Ethiopia. 

4 Coffins.] — Coffins, though anciently used in the East, 
and considered as marks of distinction, are not now there 
applied to the dead either by Turks or Christians. 

" With us," says Mr Harmer, in his Observations on 
Passages of Scripture, " the poorest people have their 
coffins : if the relations cannot afford them, the parish is 
at the expense. In the East, on the contrary, they are 
not now at all made use of. Turks and Christians, Theve- 
not assures us, agree in this. The ancient Jews pro- 
bably buried their dead in the same manner : neither 
was the body of our Lord, it should seem, put into a 
coffin, nor that of Elisha, whose bones were touched by 
the corpse that was let down a little after into his sepul- 
chre, 2 Kings xiii. 21. That they, however, were an- 
ciently made use of in Egypt, all agree ; and antique 
coffins, of stone and sycamore wood, are still to be seen 
in that country, not to mention those said to be made of 
a kind of pasteboard, formed by folding and glewing 
cloth together a great number of times, which were 
curiously plastered, and then painted with hieroglyphics. 
Its being an ancient Egyptian custom, and its not being 
used in the neighbouring countries, were doubtless the 
cause that the sacred historian expressly observes of 



crystal, and in this manner: — After all the 
moisture is exhausted from the body, by the 
Egyptian or some other process, they cover it 
totally with a kind of plaster, which they de - 
corate with various colours, and make it con- 
vey as near a resemblance as may be, of the 
person of the deceased. They then inclose it 
in a hollow pillar of crystal, 5 which is dug up 
in great abundance, and of a kind that is easily 
worked. The deceased is very conspicuous 
through the crystal, has no disagreeable smell, 
nor any thing else that is offensive. This 
coffin the nearest relations keep for a twelve- 
month in their houses, offering before it differ- 
ent kinds of victims, and the first fruits of their 
lands ; these are afterwards removed and set 
up round the city. 

XXV. The spies, after executing their 
commission, returned; and Cambyses was so 



Joseph, that he was not only embalmed, but put into a 
coffin too, both being managements peculiar in a manner 
to the Egyptians." — Observations on Passages of Scrip- 
ture, vol. ii. 154. 

Mr Harmer's observation in the foregoing note is not 
strictly true. The use of coffins might very probably 
be unknown in Syria, from whence Joseph came ; but 
that they were used by all nations contiguous on one 
side at least to Egypt, the passage before us proves 
sufficiently. I have not been able to ascertain at what 
period the use of coffins was introduced in this country, 
but it appears from the following passage of our cele- 
brated antiquary Mr Strutt, that from very remote times 
our ancestors were interred in some kind of coffin. " It 
was customary in the Christian burials of the Anglo 
Saxons to leave the head and shoulders of the corpse 
uncovered till the time of burial, that relations, ike. 
might take a last view of their deceased friend." We 
have also the following in Durant, " Corpus totum at 
sudore obvolutum ac locuto conditurn veteres in eoena- 
culis, seu tricliniis exponebant." 

We learn from a passage in Strabo, that there was a 
temple at Alexandria, in which the body of Alexander 
Avas deposited, in a coffin of gold ; it was stolen by Sg- 
leucus Cybiosactes, who left a coffin of glass in its piace. 
This is the only author, except Herodotus, in whom I can 
remember to have seen mention made of a coffin of glass. 
The urns of ancient Rome, in which the ashes of the dead 
were deposited, were indifferently made of gold, silver, 
brass, alabaster, porphyry, and marble; these were ex- 
ternally ornamented according to the rank of the de- 
ceased. A minute description of these, with a multi- 
tude of specimens, may be seen in Montfaucon. — T. 

5 Pillar of crystal.'} — " Our glass," says M. Larcher, 
"is not the production of the earth, it must be manu- 
factured with much trouble." According to Ludolf, 
they find in some parts of Ethiopia large quantities of 
fossil salt, which is transparent, and w Inch indurates in 
the air : this is perhaps what they took for glass. 

We have the testimony of the Scholiast on Aristo- 
phanes, that vocXo;, though afterwards used for glass, 
signified anciently crystal : as therefore Herodotus in- 
forms us that this substance was digged from the earth, 
why should we hesitate to translate it crystal ?— T. 



144 



HERODOTUS 



exasperated at their recital, that he determined 
instantly to proceed against the Ethiopians, 
without ever providing for the necessary sus- 
tenance of his army, or reflecting that he was 
about to visit the extremities of the earth. 
The moment that he heard the report of the 
Ichthyophagi, like one deprived of all the 
powers of reason, he commenced his march 
with the whole body of his infantry, leaving no 
forces behind but such Greeks as had accom- 
panied him to Egypt. On his arrival at 
Thebes, he selected from his army about fifty 
thousand men, whom he ordered to make an 
incursion against the Ammonians, and to burn 
the place from whence the oracles of Jupiter 
were delivered ; he himself with the remainder 
of his troops marched against the Ethiopians. 
Before he had performed a fifth part of his in- 
tended expedition, the provisions be had with 
him were totally consumed. They proceeded 
to eat the beasts which carried the baggage, 
till these also failed. If after these incidents 
Cambyses had permitted his passions to cool, 
and had led his army back again, notwithstand- 
ing his indiscretion, he still might have deserv- 
ed praise. Instead of this, his infatuation 
continued, and he proceeded on his march. 
The soldiers, as long as the earth afforded 
them any sustenance, were content to feed on 
vegetables j but as soon as they arrived among 
the sands and the deserts, some of them were 
prompted by famine to proceed to the most 
horrid extremities. They drew lots, and every 
tenth man was destined to satisfy the hunger 
of the rest. 1 When Cambyses received intel- 
ligence of this fact, alarmed at the idea of de- 
vouring one another, he abandoned his designs 
upon the Ethiopians, and returning homeward 
arrived at length at Thebes, after losing a con- 



1 Satisfy the hunger of the rest.'] — The whole of this 
narrative is transcribed by Seneca, with some little vari- 
ation, in his treatise de Ira ; who at the conclusion adds, 
though we know not from what authority, that not- 
withstanding these dreadful sufferings of his troops, the 
king's table was served with abundance of delicacies. 
Servabantur interim illi generosae aves et instrumenta 
epularum camelis vehebantur. 

Perhaps the most horrid example on record of suffer- 
ing from famine, is the description given by Josephus of 
the siege of Jerusalem. Eleven thousand prisoners 
were starved to death after the capture of the city, 
during the storm. Whilst the Romans were engaged in 
pillage, on entering several houses they found whole 
families dead, and the houses crammed with starved car- 
cases ; but what is still more shocking, it was a noto- 
rious fact, that a mother killed, dressed, and eat her own 
child.— T 



siderable number of his men. From Thebes 
he proceeded to Memphis, from whence he per- 
mitted the Greeks to embark — Such was the 
termination of the Ethiopian expedition. 

XXVI. The troops who were despatched 
against the Ammonians left Thebes with guides, 
and penetrated, as it should seem, as far as 
Oasis. This place is distant from Thebes 
about a seven days' journey over the sands, and 
is said to be inhabited by Samians, of the 
^schryonian tribe. The country is called in 
Greek, " The happy Island." The army is re- 
ported to have proceeded thus far; but what 
afterwards became of them it is impossible to 
know, except from the Ammonians, or those 
whom the Ammonians have instructed on this 
head. It is certain that they never arrived 
among the Ammonians, and that they never 
returned. 2 The Ammonians affirm, that as they 
were marching forwards from Oasis through 
the sands, they halted at some place of middle 
distance, for the purpose of taking repast, which 
while they were doing, a strong south wind 
arose, and overwhelmed them beneath a moun- 
tain of sand, 3 so that they were seen no more. 



2 Never returned.'] — The route of the army makes it 
plain that the guides, who detested the Persians, led them 
astray amidst the deserts ; for they should have departed 
from the lake Mareotis to this temple, or from the environs 
of Memphis. The Egyptians, intending the destruction 
of their enemies, led them from Thebes to the great Oasis, 
three days' journey from Abydus; and having brought 
them into the vast solitudes of Libya, they no doubt 
abandoned them in the night, and delivered them over 
to death. — Savary. 

3 Mountain of sand.] — What happens at present in 
performing this journey, proves the event to be very 
credible. Travellers, departing from the fertile valley 
lying under the tropic, march seven days before they 
come to the first town in Ethiopia. They find their way 
in the day-time by looking at marks, and at night by ob- 
serving the stars. The sand-hills they had observed on 
the preceding journey having of tenbeen carried away 
by the winds, deceive the guides; and if they wander 
the least out of the road, the camels, having passed five 
or six days without drinking, sink under their burden, 
and die : the men are not long before they submit to the 
same fate, and sometimes, out of a great number, not a 
single traveller escapes; at others the burning winds 
from the south raise vortexes of dust, which suffocate 
man and beast, and the next caravan sees the ground 
strewed with bodies totally parched up. — Savary. 

" We set forward on the second of October, early in 
the morning, and from that very day we entered a fright- 
ful desert. These deserts are extremely dangerous, 
because the s?mds, being moving, are raised by the least 
wind; they darken the air, and falling afterwards in 
clouds, passengers are often buried in them, or at least 
lose the route which they ought to keep." — Poncet. 
So where our wide Numidian wastes extend, 
Sudden th' impetuous hurricanes descend, 
Wheel through the air, in circling eddies play, 
Tear up the sands, and sweep whole plains away; 



THALIA. 



145 



— Such, as the Ammonians relate, was the fate 
of this army. 

XXVII. Soon after the return of Cambyses 
to Memphis, the god Apis appeared, called by 
the Greeks, Epaphus. 4 Upon this occasion the 
Egyptians clothed themselves in their richest 
apparel, and made great rejoicings. Cambyses 
took notice of this, and imagined it was done 
on account of his late unfortunate projects. 
He ordered, therefore, the magistrates of Mem- 
phis to attend him ; and he asked them why 
they had done nothing of this kind when he 
was formerly at Memphis, and had only made 
rejoicings now that he had returned with the 
loss of so many of his troops. They told him 
that their deity 5 had appeared to them, which 



The helpless traveller, with wild surprise, 
■Sees the dry desert all around him rise, 
And smothered in the dusty whirlwind dies. 

Addison 

" These lines," says Mr Bruce, who quotes them, 
" are capital, and are a fine copy, which cau only appear 
true by the original having been before our eyes, painted 
by the great master, the creator and ruler of the world." 

4 Epaphus.} — Epaphus was the son of Io, the daughter 
of Inachus. The Greeks pretend he was the same person 
as the god Apis ; this the Egyptians rejected as fabulous, 
and asserted that Epaphus was posterior to Apis by many 
centuries. 

5 Their deity.'} — It was probable that Apis was not 
always considered as a deity; perhaps they regarded 
him as a symbol of Osiris, and it was from this that the 
Egyptians were induced to pay him veneration. Others 
assert confidently that he was the same as Osiris ; and 
some have said, that Osiris having been killed by Typhon, 
Isis inclosed his limbs in a heifer made of wood. Apis 
was sacred to the moon, as was the bull Mnevis to the 
sun. Others supposed, that both were sacred to Osiris, 
who is the same with the sun. When he died, there was 
an universal mourning in Egypt. They sought for 
another, and having found him, the mourning ended. 
The priests conducted him to Nilopolis, where they kept 
him forty days. They afterwards removed him in a 
magnificent vessel to Memphis, where he had an apart- 
ment ornamented with gold. During the forty days 
above mentioned the women only were suffered to see 
him. They stood round him, and lifting up their gar- 
ments, discovered to him what modesty forbids us to 
name. Afterwards the sight of the god was forbidden 
them. 

Every year they brought him a heifer, which had also 
certain marks. According to the sacred books, he was 
only permitted to live a stipulated time ; when this came, 
he was drowned in a sacred fountain. — Lurcher. 

A few other particulars concerning this Apis may not 
be unacceptable to an Fnglish reader. 

The homage paid him was not confined to Egypt ; 
many illustrious conquerors and princes of foreign nations, 
Alexander, Titus, and Adrian, bowed themselves before 
him. Larcher says that he was considered as sacred to 
the moon; but Porphyry expressly says, that he was 
sacred to both sun and moon. The following passage is 
from Plutarch: "The priests affirm that the moon sheds a 
generative light, with which should a cow wanting the bull 
be struck, she conceives Apis, who bears the sign of that 



after a long absence it was his custom to do ; 
and that when this happened, it was customary 
for all the Egyptians to hold a solemn festival. 
Cambyses disbelieved what they told him, and 
condemned them to death, as guilty of falsehood. 

XXVIII. As soon as they were executed, 
he sent for the priests, from whom he received 
the same answer. " If," said he, " any deity 
has shown himself familiarly in Egypt, I must 
see and know him." He then commanded 
them to bring Apis before him, which they pre- 
pared to do. This Apis, or Epaphus, is the 
calf of a cow which can have no more young. 
The Egyptians say, that on this occasion the 
cow is struck with lightning, from which she 
conceives and brings forth Apis. The young 
one so produced, and thus named, is known by 
certain marks : The skin is black, but on its 
forehead is a white star, of a triangular form. 
It has the figure of an eagle on the back, the 
tail 6 is divided, and under the tongue 7 it has 
an insect like a beetle. 

XXIX. When the priests conducted Apis 
to his presence, Cambyses was transported with 
rage. He drew his dagger, and endeavouring 
to stab him in the belly, wounded him in 
the thigh ; then turning to the priests with 
an insulting smile, " Wretches," he exclaimed, 
" think ye that gods are formed of flesh and 
blood, and thus susceptible of wounds ? This, 

planet." Strabo says, that he was brought out from his 
apartment to gratify the curiosity of strangers, and might 
always be seen through a window. Pliny relates with 
great solemnity that he refused food from the hand of 
Germanicus, who died soon after ; and one ancient his- 
torian asserts, that during the seven days when the birth 
i of Apis was celebrated, crocodiles forgot their natural 
ferocity, and became tame. 

The bishop of Avranches, M. Huet, endeavoured to 
prove that Apis was a symbol of the patriarch Joseph. 

It has been generally allowed, that Osiris was rever- 
enced in the homage paid to Apis. Osiris introduced 
agriculture, in which the utility of the bull is obvious ; 
and this appears to be the most rational explanation that 
can be given of this part of the Egyptian superstition. — 
See Savary, Pococke, fyc. — T. 

6 The tail.} — The scholiast of Ptolemy says, but I 
know not on what authority, that the tail of the bull in- 
creased or diminished according to the age of the moon. 
— Larcher. 

7 Under the tongue.} — In all the copies of Herodotus, 
it is tm St t--? yXanrtrvi c upon the tongue ,' but it is plain 
from Pliny and Eusebius that it ought to be ucro under.' 
The former explains what it was, Nodus sub lingua quern 
cantharum appellant, " a knot under the tongue, which 
they callcantharus, or the beetle," viii. 46. The spot on 
the forehead is also changed by the commentators from 
quadrangular to triangular. Pliny mentions also a mark 
like a crescent on the right side, and is silent about the 
eagle. The beetle was considered ad an emblem of the 
sun.— T. 

T 



146 



HERODOTUS. 



indeed, is a deity worthy of Egyptians ; but 
you shall find that I am not to be mocked with 
impunity." He then called the proper officers, 
and commanded the priests to be scourged : he 
directed also that whatever Egyptian was found 
celebrating this festival, should be put to death. 
The priests were thus punished, and no farther 
solemnities observed. Apis himself languished 
and died in the temple, from the wound of his 
thigh, and was buried ' by the priests without 
the knowledge of Cambyses. 

XXX. The Egyptians affirm, that in con- 
sequence of this impiety, Cambyses became 
immediately insane, 2 who indeed did not before 
appear to have had the proper use of his reason. 
The first impulse of his fury was directed 
against Smerdis his own brother, who had be- 
come the object of his jealousy, because he was 
the only Persian who had been able to bend the 
bow, which the Ichthyophagi brought from 
Ethiopia, the breadth of two fingers. He was 
therefore ordered to return to Persia, where as 
soon as he came, Cambyses saw this vision : a 
messenger appeared to arrive from Persia, in- 
forming him that Smerdis, seated on the royal 
throne, touched the heavens with his head. 
Cambyses was instantly struck with the appre- 
hension that Smerdis would kill him, and seize 
his dominions ; to prevent which he despatched 
Prexaspes, a Persian, and one of his most 
faithful adherents, to put him to death. He 
arrived at Susa, and destroyed Smerdis, some 
say, by taking him aside whilst engaged in the 
diversion of the chase : others believe that he 
drowned him in the Red Sea ; this, however, 
was the commencement of the calamities of 
Cambyses. 

XXXI. The next victim of his fury was 
his sister, who had accompanied him into Egypt. 
She was also his wife, which thing he thus ac- 
complished : before this prince, no Persian had 
ever been known to marry his sister ; 3 but Cam- 

1 Buried by the priests.] — This account is contradicted 
by Plutarch, who tells us, that Apis having been slain 
by Cambyses, was by his order exposed and devoured by 
dogs.— T. 

2 Immediately insane.'} — Amongst the ancients, mad- 
ness was considered and termed a sacred disease, inflict- 
ed on those individuals who had been guilty of impiety. 
Orestes was stricken with madness for this reason . 

" Quern Jupiter vult perdere dementat prius." 

3 Marry his sister.] — Ingenious and learned men of 
all ages have amused themselves with drawing a com- 
parison betwixt the laws of Solon and Lycurgus. The 
following particularity affords ample room for conjecture 
and discussion : At Athens a man was suffered to marry 
his sister by the father, but forbidden to marry his sister 



■ byses, being passionately fond of one of his, 
and knowing that there was no precedent to 
justify his making her his wife, assembled those 
who were called the royal judges ; of them he 
desired to know whether there was any law 
which would permit a brother to marry his sis- 
ter, if he thought proper to do so. The royal 
judges in Persia are men of the most approved 
integrity, who hold their places for life, or till 
they shall be convicted of some crime. 4 Every 
thing is referred to their decision, they are the 
interpreters of the laws, and determine all pri- 
vate disputes. In answer to the inquiry of 
Cambyses, they replied shrewdly, though with 
truth, that although they could find no law 
which would permit a brother to marry his sister, 
they had discovered one which enabled a mon- 
arch of Persia to do what he pleased. In this 
answer, the awe of Cambyses prevented their 
adopting literally the spirit of the Persian laws ; 
and to secure their persons, they took care to 
discover what would justify him, who wished 
' to marry his sister. Cambyses, therefore, in- 
I stantly married the sister whom he loved, 5 and 
not long afterwards a second. 6 The younger 
of these, who accompanied him to Egypt, he 
put to death. 

XXXII. The manner of her death, like 
that of Smerdis, 7 is differently related. The 
Greeks say that Cambyses made the cub of a 
lioness, and a young whelp engage each other, 
and that this princess was present at the com- 
bat ; and when this latter was vanquished, 



by the mother. At Lacedsemon things were totally re- 
j versed, a man was allowed to marry his sister by the 
i mother, and forbidden to marry his sister by the father. 

— See what Bayle says on the circumstance of a man's 

marrying his sister, article Sarah. — T. 

4 Of some crime.] — An appointment like this, mani- 
festly leading to corruption, and the perversion of justice, 
prevailed in this country with respect to judges, till the 
reign of George the Third, when a law was passed, the 
wisdom of which cannot be sufficiently admired, makiug 
the judges independent of the king, his ministers, and 
successors. Yet, however this provision may in appear- 
ance diminish the strength of the executive power, the 
riot-act, combined with the assistance of the standing 
army, which is always kept up in this country, add as 
much to the influence of the crown, as it may at first 
sight seem to have lost in prerogative. Such, however, 
was the opinion of judge Blackstone. — T. 

5 Whom he loved.] — Her name, according to the scho- 
liast of Lucian, was Attossa, who next married Smerdis 
one of the magi, and afterwards Darius, son of Hystas- 
pes. — Larcher. 

6 Afterwards a second.] — If Libainus may be credited, 
the name of this lady was Meroe. — Wesseling. 

7 Smerdis.]— It is perhaps not unworthy of remark 
that the same personage who is here called Smerdis, 
iEschyius, in his Persse, called Merdis. 



THALIA. 



147 



another whelp of the same litter broke what 
confined it, and flew to assist the other, and 
that both together were too much for the young 
lion. Cambyses seeing this, expressed great 
satisfaction : but the princess burst into tears. 
Cambyses observed her weep, and inquired 
the reason ; she answered, that seeing one 
whelp assist another of the same brood, she 
could not but remember Smerdis, whose death 
she feared nobody would revenge. For which 
saying, the Greeks affirm, that Cambyses put 
her to death. On the contrary, if we may be- 
lieve the Egyptians, this princess was sitting 
at table with her husband, and took a lettuce 
in her hand, dividing it leaf by leaf: " Which, 
said she, " seems in your eyes most agreeable, 
this lettuce whole, or divided into leaves?" He 
replied, " When whole." " You," says she, 
"resemble this lettuce, as I have divided it, 
for you have thus torn in sunder the house of 
Cyrus." Cambyses was so greatly incensed, 
that he threw her down, and leaped upon her ; 
and being pregnant, she was delivered before 
her time, and lost her life. 

XXXIII. To such excesses in his own 
family was Cambyses impelled, either on ac- 
count of his impious treatment of Apis, or 
from some other of those numerous calamities 
which afflict mankind. From the first hour 
of his birth, he laboured under what by some is 
termed the sacred disease. It is, therefore, by 
no means astonishing that so great a bodily in- 
firmity should at length injure the mind. 

XXXIV. His phrenzy, however, extended 
to the other Persians. He once made a re- 
markable speech to Prexaspes, for whom he 
professed the greatest regard, who received all 
petitions to the king, and whose son en- 
joyed the honourable office of royal cup-bearer. 
" What," says he, upon some occasion, " do 
the Persians think of me, or in what terms do 
they speak of me ?" " Sir," he replied, " in all 
other respects they speak of you with honour ; 
but it is the general opinion that you are too 
much addicted to wine." "What!" returned 
the prince in anger, " I suppose they say that I 
drink to excess, and am deprived of reason ; 
their former praise, therefore, could not be sin- 
cere." At some preceding period he had ask- 
ed of those whom he used most familiarly, and 
of Crcesus among the rest, whether they 
thought he had equalled the greatness of his 
father Cyrus. In reply they told him, that he 
was the greater of the two, for that to all 
which Cyrus had possessed, he had added the 



empire of Egypt and of the ocean. Croesus, 
who was present, did not assent to this. 
" Sir," said he to Cambyses, " in my opinion 
you are not equal to your father ; you have not 
such a son as he left behind him." Which 
speech of Crcesus was highly agreeable to Cam- 
byses. 

XXXV. Remembering this, he turned 
with great anger to Prexaspes : " You," said 
he, " shall presently be witness of the truth or 
falsehood of what the Persians say. If I hit 
directly through the heart s of your son, who 
stands yonder, it will be evident that they 
speak of me maliciously; if I miss my aim, 
>they will say true in affirming that I am mad." 
No sooner had he spoken, than he bent his 
bow, and struck the young man. When he 
fell, the king ordered his body to be opened, 
and the wound to be examined. He was re- 
joiced to find that the arrow had penetrated 
his heart ; and turning to the father with a ma- 
licious smile, "You observe," said he, " that it 
is not I that am mad, but the Persians who 
are foolish. Tell me," he continued, " if you 
ever saw a man send an arrow surer to its 
mark ?" Prexaspes, seeing he was mad, and 
fearing for himself, replied, " I do not think, 
Sir, that even a deity could have aimed so 
well." — Such was his treatment of Prexaspes. 
At another time, without the smallest provo- 
cation, he commanded twelve Persians of dis- 
tinction to be interred alive. 

XXXVI. Whilst he was pursuing these 
extravagancies, Crcesus gave him this advice . 
" Do not, Sir, yield thus intemperately to the 
warmth of your age and of your temper. Re- 
strain yourself, and remember that moderation 
is the part of a wise man, and it becomes every 

8 Through the heart.]— The story of William Tell, the 
great deliverer of the Swiss cantons from the yoke of 
the Germans, may be properly introduced in this place. 
Grisler governed Switzerland for the Emperor Albert. 
He ordered William Tell, a Swiss of some importance, 
for a pretended offence, to place an apple on the head of 
one of his children, and to hit it, on pain of death, with 
an arrow. He was dexterous enough to do so, without 
hurting his child. Grisler, when the affair was over, 
took notice that Tell had another arrow concealed un- 
der his cloak, and asked him what it was for ? " 1 in- 
tended," replied Tell, " to have shot you to the heart, if 
I had killed my child." The governor ordered Tell to 
be hanged : but the Swiss, defending their countrymen, 
flew to arms, destroyed their governor, and made them- 
selves independent, See this historical anecdote referred 
to by Smollett, in his sublime Ode to Independence. 

Who with the generous rustics ;ite 

On Uri's rock, in close divan, 

And wing'd that arrow, sure as fair, 

Which ascertain'^ the sacred rites of man — T. 



148 



HERODOTUS. 



one to weigh the consequences of his actions. 
Without any adequate offence you destroy 
your fellow citizens, and put even children to 
death. If you continue these excesses, the 
Persians may be induced to revolt from you. 
In giving you these admonitions, I do but fulfil 
the injunctions which the king your father re- 
peatedly laid upon me, to warn you of whatever 
I thought necessary to your welfare." Kind 
as were the intentions of Croesus, he received 
this answer from Cambyses : " I am astonished 
at your presumption in speaking to me thus, as 
if you had been remarkable either for the judi- 
cious government of your own dominions, or 
for the wise advice which you gave my father. 
I cannot forget, that instead of waiting for the 
attack of the Massagetae, you counselled him 
to advance and encounter them in their own 
territories. By your misconduct you lost your 
own dominions, and by your ill advice were the 
cause of my father's ruin. But do not expect 
to escape with impunity ; indeed I have long 
wished for an opportunity to punish you." He 
then eagerly snatched his bow, 1 intending to 
pierce Croesus with an arrow, but by an expe- 
ditious flight he escaped. Cambyses instantly 
ordered him to be seized and put to death ; but 
as his officers were well acquainted with their 
prince's character, they concealed Croesus, 2 
thinking that if at any future period he should 
express contrition, they might by producing him 
obtain a reward ; but if no farther inquiries 
were made concerning him, they might then 
kill him. Not long afterwards Cambyses ex- 
pressed regret for Croesus, which when his atten- 
dants perceived, they told him that he was alive. 
He expressed particular satisfaction at the 
preservation of Croesus, but he would not 
forgive the disobedience of his servants, who 
were accordingly executed. 

XXXVIL Many things of this kind did 
he perpetrate against the Persians and his allies, 
whilst he stayed at Memphis : neither did he 
hesitate to violate the tombs, and examine the 
bodies of the dead. He once entered the 
temple of Vulcan, and treated the shrine of 

1 Snatched his bow.] — The mental derangement under 
which Saul laboured, previous to the elevation of David, 
bears some resemblance to the character here given of 
Cambyses ; and the escape of the son of Jesse from the 
javelin of the king of Israel, will admit of a comparison 
with that of Croesus from the arrow of Cambyses. 

2 Croesus.] — Spenser, canto v. stanza 48, represents 
Croesus in the dungeon, among the captives of pride. 

There also was king Crcesus, that enhaunst 
His heart too high through his great riches store. 



that deity with much contempt. The statue of 
this god exceedingly resembles the Pataici, 
which the Phoenicians place at the prow of 
their triremes : they who have not seen them, 
may suppose them to resemble the figure of a 
pigmy. Cambyses also entered the temple of 
the Cabiri, 3 to which access is denied to all 
but the priests. He burned their statues, after 
exercising upon them his wit and raillery. 
These statues resemble Vulcan, whose sons 
the Cabiri are supposed to be. 

XXXVIII. For my own part I am satis- 
fied that Cambyses was deprived of his reason ; 
he would not otherwise have disturbed the 
sanctity of temples, or of established customs. 
Whoever had the opportunity of choosing for 
their own observance, from all the nations of 
the world, such laws and customs as to them 
seemed the best, would, I am of opinion, after 
the most careful examination, adhere to their 
own. Each nation believes that their own 
laws are by far the most excellent ; no one there- 
fore, but a madman, would treat such prejudices 
with contempt. That all men are really thus 
tenacious of their own customs, appears from 
this, amongst other instances : Darius once 
sent for such of the Geeeks as were dependent 
on his power, and asked them what reward 
would induce them to eat the bodies of their 
deceased parents ; they replied that no sum 
could prevail on them to commit such a deed. 
In the presence of the same Greeks, who by 
an interpreter were informed of what had 
passed, he sent also for the Callatiae, a people 
of India known to eat the bodies of their 
parents. He asked them for what sum they 
would consent to burn the bodies of their 
parents. The Indians were disgusted at the 
question, and intreated him to forbear such 
language. — Such is the force of custom ; and 
Pindar * seems to me to have spoken with pe- 
culiar propriety, when he observed that cus- 
tom 5 was the universal sovereign. 



3 Cabiri.] — Concerning these see book ii. chap. li. 

4 Pindar.] — The passage in Pindar which is here re- 
ferred to, is preserved in the Scholia ad Nem. ix. 35. It 
is this : — Ne^or 6 Xcuvtcdv (SuirtXlvs Ootvocrw -n z.k.1 <x.Ba.vecraiv 
ccvit Sizxim to fitx.i0TO.T0v v7TigTa.Ttt> %ti?i. —" Custom is 
the sovereign of mortals and of gods ; with its powerful 
hand it regulates things the most violent." 

5 Custom.] — Many writers on tins subject appear not 
to have discriminated accurately betwixt custom and 
habit : the sovereign power of both must be confessed ; 
but itwill not be found, on due deliberation, that custom 
has reference to the action, and habit to the actor. 
That the Athenians, the most refined and polished nation 
of the world, could bear to see human sacrifices repre- 



THALIA. 



149 



XXXIX. Whilst Cambyses was engaged 
in his Egyptian expedition, the Lacedaemonians 
were prosecuting a war against Polycrates, the 
son of iEaces, who had forcibly possessed him- 
self of Samos. He had divided it into three 
parts, assigning one severally to his brothers 
Pantagnotus, and Syloson. He afterwards, 
having killed Pantagnotus, and banished Sylo- 
son, who was the younger, seized the whole. 
Whilst he was thus circumstanced, he made a 
treaty of alliance with Amasis, king of Egypt, 
which was cemented by various presents on 
both sides. His fame had so increased, that he 
was celebrated through Ionia and the rest of 
Greece. Success attended all his military un- 
dertakings ; he had a hundred fifty- oared vessels, 
and a thousand archers. He made no discrimi- 
nations in the objects of his attacks, thinking 
that he conferred a greater favour 6 even on a 
friend, by restoring what he had violently taken, 
than by not molesting him at all. He took a 
great number of islands, and became master of 
several cities on the continent. The Lesbians, 
who with all their forces were proceeding to 
assist the Milesians, he attacked and conquered 
in a great sea-fight. Those whom he made 
prisoners he put in chains, and compelled to 
sink the trench 7 which surrounds the walls of 
Samos. 

XL. The great prosperity of Polycrates ex- 
cited both the attention and anxiety of Amasis. 
As his success continually increased, he was 
induced to write and send this letter to Samos : 

sented on their theatres, could listen with applause and 
with delight to the misery of (Edipus, and the madness 
of Orestes, is to be accounted for alone from the power- 
fid operation of their national customs. The equally 
forcible sway of habit, referring to an individual, was 
never perhaps expressed with so much beauty as in the 
following lines of our favourite Shakspeare : 

How use doth breed a habit in a man ! 
This shadowy desert, unfrequented wood 1 ;, 
I better brook than flourishing peopled towns. 
Here I can sit alone, unseen of any, 
And to the nightingale's complaining notes 
Tune my distresses, and record my woes.—T. 
6 A greater favour.]— This sentiment is false, and 
Libanius seems to me to have spoken with truth, when, 
in a discourse which is not come down to us, he says, 
" An instance of good fortune never gives a man so much 
satisfaction as the loss of it does uneasiness." — Larcker. 
1 Sink the trench.'] — It would be an interesting la- 
bour to investigate, from ages the most remote, and na- 
tions the most barbarous, the various treatment which 
prisoners of war have experienced : from the period, 
when every species of oppression and of cruelty was put 
in practice against unfortunate captives, to the present 
period, when the refinement of manners, and the pro- 
gress of the milder virtues, soften the asperity, and take 
much from the horrors of war. — T. 



Amasis to Polycrates. 
" The success of a friend and an ally fills me 
with particular satisfaction ; but as I know the 
invidiousness of fortune, 8 your extraordinary 
prosperity excites my apprehensions. If I 
might determine for myself, and for those 
whom I regard, I would rather have my affairs 
sometimes flattering, and sometimes perverse. 
I would wish to pass through life with the al- 
ternate experience of good and evil, rather than 
with uninterrupted good fortune. I do not re- 
member to have heard of any remarkable for a 
constant succession of prosperous events, whose 
end has not been finally calamitous. If, there- 
fore, you value my counsel, you will provide 
this remedy against the excess of your pros- 
perity : — Examine well what thing it is which 
you deem of the highest consequence to your 
happiness, and the loss of which would most 

8 Invidiousness of fortune.]— Three very distinct quali- 
ties of mind have been imputed to the three Greek his- 
torians, Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, with 
respect to their manner of reflecting on the facts winch 
they relate. Of the first, it has been said that he seems 
to have considered the deity as viewing man with a 
jealous eye, as only promoting his successes to make the 
catastrophe of his fate the more calamitous. This is 
pointed out by Plutarch with the severest reprehension. 
Thucydides, on the contrary, admits of no divine inter- 
position in human affairs, but makes the good or ill for- 
tune of those whose history he gives us to depend on the 
wisdom or folly of their own conduct. Xenophon, in 
distinction from both, invariably considers the kindness 
or the vengeance of heaven as influencing the event of 
human enterprizes. " That is," says the Abbe Barthe- 
lemy, "according to the first, all sublunary tilings are 
governed by a fatality ; according to the second, by hu- 
man prudence ; according to the last, by the piety of the 
individual."— The inconstancy of fortune is admirably 
described in the following passage from Horace, and 
with the sentiment with which the lines conclude, every 
ingenuous mind must desire to be in unison. 

Fortuna saevo laeta negotio, et 

Ludum insolentem ludere pertinax, 
Transmutat incertos honores 
Nunc mihi, nunc aliis benigna. 

Laudo manentem : si celeres quatit 

Pennas, resigno quae dedit, et me& 

Virtute me involvo, probainque 

Pauperiem sine dote quaero. 

It would be inexcusable not to insert Dryden's version, 
or rather paraphrase, of the above passage. 

Fortune, that with malicious joy 
Does man her slave oppress, 

Proud of her office to destroy, 
Is seldom pleased to bless: 

Still various, and inconstant still, 

But with an inclination to be ill, 

Promotes, degrades, delights in strife, 

And makes a lottery of life. 
I can enjoy her while she's kind, 
But when she dances in the wind, 

And shakes the wings, and will not stay, 

I puff the prostitute away : 
The little or the much she gave is quietly resign'd, 

Content with poverty, my soul I arm. 
And virtue, tho' in rags, will keep me warm.— T. 



150 



HERODOTUS. 



afflict 3'ou. When you shall have ascertained 
this, banish it from you, so that there may be 
no possibility of its return. If after this your 
good fortune still continue without diminution 
or change, you will do well to repeat the 
remedy I propose." 

XL I. Polycrates received this letter, and 
seriously deliberated on its contents. The ad- 
vice of Amasis appeared sagacious, and he re- 
solved to follow it. He accordingly searched 
among his treasures, for something, the loss of 
which would most afflict him. He conceived 
this to be a seal-ring, 1 which he occasionally 
wore ; it was an emerald set in gold, and the 
workmanship of Theodorus the Samian, the 
son of Telecles. Of this determining to de- 
prive himself, he embarked in a fifty-oared 
vessel, with orders to be carried into the open 
sea ; when he was at some distance from the 
island, in the presence of all his attendants, he 
took the ring from his finger and cast it into 
the sea ; this done he sailed back again. 

XLII. Returning home, he regretted his 
loss ; but in the eourse of five or six days this 
accident occurred : — A fisherman caught a fish 
of such size and beauty, that he deemed it a 
proper present for Polycrates. He went 
therefore to the palace, and demanded aa au- 
dience ; being admitted, he presented the fish 
to Polycrates, with these words : " Although, 
Sir, I live by the produce of my industry, I 
could not think of exposing this fish, which I 
have taken, to sale in the market-place, believ- 



1 A seal-ring.]— This ring- has been the subject of some 
controversy amongst the learned, both as to what it re- 
presented, and of what precious stone it was formed. 

Clemens Alexandrinus says it represented a lyre. 
Pliny says it was a sardonyx ; and that in his time there 
existed one in the temple of Concord, the~ gift of Augus- 
tus, affirmed to be this of Polycrates. Solinus asserts 
also, that it was a sardonyx ; but Herodotus expressly 
tells us, it was an emerald. At this period the art of en- 
graving precious stones must have been in its infancy, 
which might probably enhance the value of his ring- to 
Polycrates. It is a little remarkable that the moderns 
have never been able to equal the ancients in the ex- 
quisite delicacy and beauty of their performances on 
precious stones. Perhaps it may not be too much to 
add, that we have never attained the perfection with 
which they executed all works in miniature. Pliny says, 
that Cicero once saw the Iliad of Homer written so very 
finely, that it might have been contained ' in mice,' in a 
nut-shell. Aulus Gellius mentions a pigeon made of 
wood, which imitated the motions of a living bird; and 
.Mian speaks of an artist, who wrote a distich in letters 
of gold, which he inclosed in the rind of a grain of corn. 
Other instances of a similar kind are collected by the 
learned Mr Dutens, in his Inquiry into the Origin of the 
Discoveries attributed to the Moderns.— T. 



ing it worthy of you to accept, which I hope 
you will." The king was much gratified, and 
made him this reply : " My good friend, your 
present and your speech are equally acceptable 
to me ; and I beg that I may see you at sup- 
per. " a The fisherman, delighted with his re- 
ception, returned to his house. The servants 
proceeding to open the fish, found in its paunch 
the ring of Polycrates ; with great eagerness 
and joy they hastened to carry it to the king, 
telling him where they had met with it. Poly- 
crates concluded that this incident bore evident 
marks of divine interposition ; he therefore 
wrote down every particular of what had hap- 
pened, and transmitted it to Egypt. 

XLIII. Amasis after perusing the letter of 
his friend, was convinced that it was impossible 
for one mortal to deliver another from the des- 
tiny which awaited him : he was satisfied that 
Polycrates could not terminate his days in 
tranquillity, whose good fortune had never suf- 
fered interruption, and who had even recovered 
what he had taken pains to lose. He sent 
therefore a herald to Samos, to disclaim all 
future connection •* his motive for doing which, 
was the apprehension, that in any future cala- 
mity which might befall Polycrates he as a friend 
and ally might be obliged to bear a part. 

XLIV. Against this Polycrates, 4 in all things 

2 See you at supper.] — The circumstance of a sove- 
reign prince asking a common fisherman to sup with 
him, seems at first sight so entirely repugnant, not only 
to modern manners but also to consistency, as to justify 
disgust and provoke suspicion. But let it be remember- 
ed, that in ancient times the rites of hospitality were 
paid without any distinction of person; and the same 
simplicity of maimers, which would allow an individual 
of the meanest rank to solicit and obtain an audience of 
his prince, diminishes the act of condescension which is 
here recorded, and which to a modern reader may ap- 
pear ridiculous. — T. 

3 Future connection.] — This may be adduced as one 
amongst numerous other instances, to prove, that where 
the human mind has no solid hopes of the future, nor 
any firm basis of religious faith, the conduct will ever Le 
wayward and irregular ; and although there may exist 
great qualities, capable of occasionally splendid actions, 
there will also be extraordinary weaknesses, irrecon- 
cileable to common sense or common humanity. Diodo- 
rus Siculus, however, gives a very different account of 
the matter, and ascribes the behaviour of Amasis to a 
very different motive : — " The Egyptian," says he, 
" was so disgusted with the tyrannical behaviour of 
Polycrates, not only to Ins subjects but to strangers, that 
he foresaw his fate to be unavoidable, and therefore was 
cautious not to be involved in his ruin."—? 1 . 

4 Polycrates.] — This personage has the discredit of 
having filled Greece with the ministers and contrivers of 
voluptuousness (i'/iy-iov^ym); and a cook of Laimi was 
held in esteem amongst the nobility of Athens. See 
Athenaeus, page 540. 



THALIA. 



151 



so prosperous, the Lacedaemonians undertook an 
expedition, to which they were induced by those 
Samians who afterwards built the city of Cydon 
in Crete. 5 To counteract this blow, Polycrates 
sent privately to Cambyses, who was then pre- 
paring for hostilities against Egypt, entreating 
him to demand supplies and assistance of the 
Samians. With this Cambyses willingly com- 
plied, and sent to solicit, in favour of Polycra- 
tes, some naval force to serve in his Egyptian 
expedition. Those whose principles and in- 
tentions he most suspected, the Samian prince 
selected from the rest, and sent in forty tri- 
remes to Cambyses, requesting him by all means 
to prevent their return. 

XLV. There are some who assert, that the 
Samians sent by Polycrates, never arrived in 
Egypt, but that as soon as they reached the 
Carpathian sea they consulted together, and 
determined to proceed no further. Others, on 
the contrary affirm, that they did arrive in 
Egypt, but that they escaped from their guards, 
and returned to Samos : they add, that Poly- 
crates met and engaged them at sea, where he 
was defeated ; but that, landing afterwards on 
the island, they had a second engagement by 
land, in which they were totally routeJ, and 
obliged to fly to Lacedaemon. They who as- 
sert that the Samians returned from Egypt, 
and obtained a victory over Polycrates, are in 
my opinion mistaken ; for if their own force 
was sufficient to overcome him, there was no 
necessity for their applying to the Lacedaemo- 
nians for assistance. Neither is it at all con- 
sistent with probability, that a prince who had 
so many forces under his command, composed 
as well of foreign auxiliaries as of archers of his 
own, could possibly be overcome by the few 
Samians who were returning home. Polycra- 
tes, moreover, had in his power the wives and 
children of his Samian subjects : these were 
all assembled and confined in his different har- 
bours ; and he was determined to destroy them 
by fire, and the harbours along with them, in 
case of any treasonable conjunction between 
the inhabitants and the Samians who were re- 
al rning. 

XL VI. The Samians who were expelled by 

5 Cydon in Crete.}— This place is now called Canea : 
some say it was at first called Apollonia,' because built 
by Cydon the son of Apollo. Pausanias says, it was 
built by Cydon, son of Tegetes. It was once a place of 
great power, and the largest city in the island; for a 
description of its present condition, see Savory's Letters 
on Greece.— T. 



Polycrates immediately on their arrival at 
Sparta obtained an audience of the magistrates, 
and in the language of suppliants spoke a 
great while. The answer which they first re- 
ceived informed them, that the commencement 
of their discourse was not remembered, and the 
conclusion not understood. At the second in- 
terview they simply produced a bread-basket, 
and complained it contained no bread ; even to 
this the Lacedaemonians replied, that their ob- 
servation was unnecessary f — they determined 
nevertheless to assist them. 

XL VII. After the necessary preparations, 
the Lacedaemonians embarked with an army 
against Samos : if these Samians may be cre- 
dited, the conduct of the Lacedaemonians in 
this business was the effect of gratitude, they 
themselves having formerly received a supply 
of ships against the Messenians. But the La- 
cedaemonians assert that they engaged in this 
expedition not so much to satisfy the wishes of 
those Samians who had sought their assistance, 
as to obtain satisfaction for an injury which 
they had formerly received. The Samians had 
violently taken away a goblet which the Lace- 
daemonians were carrying to Croesus, and a 
corselet, 7 which was given them by Amasis 
king of Egypt. This latter incident took place 
at the interval of a year after the former j the 
corselet was made of linen, but there were in- 
terwoven in the piece a great number of ani- 
mals richly embroidered with cotton and gold ; 
every part of it deserved admiration ; it was 
composed of chains, each of which contained 
three hundred and sixty threads distinctly visi- 



6 Observation tvas unnecessary.'} — The Spartans were 
always remarkable for their contempt of oratory, and 
eloquence. The following curious examples of this are 
recorded in Sextus Empiricus : — " A young Spartan 
went abroad, and endeavoured to accomplish himself in 
the art of speaking ; on his return he was punished by 
the Ephori, for having conceived the design of deluding 
his countrymen. Another Spartan was sent to Tissa- 
phernes, a Persian satrap, to engage him to prefer the 
alliance of Sparta to that of Athens ; he said but little, 
but when he found the Athenians employed great pomp 
and profusion of words, he drew two lines, both termi- 
nating in the same point, but one was straight, the other 
very crooked; pointing these out to Tissaphernes, he 
merely said, "Choose." The story here related of the 
Samians, by Herodotus, is found also in Sextus Empiri- 
cus, but is by him applied on a different occasion, and to 
a different people. — T. 

7 A corselet.} — Some fragments of this were to be seen 
in the time of Pliny, who complains that so curious a 
piece of workmanship should be spoiled, by its being 
unravelled by different people to gratify curiosity, or to 
ascertain the fact here asserted.— T. 



152 



HERODOTUS. 



ble. Amasis presented another corselet, en- 
tirely resembling this, to the Minerva of Hin- 
dus. 

XL VIII. To this expedition against Samos 
the Corinthians also contributed with consider- 
able ardour. In the age which preceded, and 
about the time in which the goblet had been 
taken, they had been affronted by the Samians. 
Periander, ' the son of Cypselus, had sent to 
Alyattes, at Sardis, three hundred children of 
the principal families of the Corcyreans to be 
made eunuchs. They were intrusted to the 
care of certain Corinthians, who by distress of 
weather were compelled to touch at Samos. 
The Samians soon learned the purpose of the 
expedition, and accordingly instructed the chil- 
dren to fly for protection to the temple of Diana, 
from whence they would not suffer the Corin- 
thians to take them. But as the Corinthians 
prevented their receiving any food, the Samians 
instituted a festival on the occasion, which they 
yet observe. At the approach of night, as long 
as the children continued as suppliants in the 
temple, they introduced a company of youths 
and virgins, who in a kind of religious dance, 
were to carry cakes made of honey and flour 2 
in their hands. This was done that the young 
Corcyreans, by snatching them away, might 
satisfy their hunger, and was repeated till the 
Corinthians who guarded the children departed. 
The Samians afterwards sent the children back 
to Corcyra. 3 

1 Periander,'} — The life of Periander is given by Dio- 
genes Laertius ; from which I have extracted such par- 
ticulars as seem most worthy the attention of the Eng- 
lish reader. 

He was of the family of the Heraclidse ; and the rea- 
son of his sending the young Corcyreans, with the pur- 
pose mentioned by Herodotus, was on account of their 
having killed his son, to whom he wished to resign his 
power. He was the first prince who used guards for the 
defence of his person. He was by some esteemed one of 
the seven wise men ; Plato, however, does not admit 
him amongst them. His celebrated saying was, that 
" Perseverance might do every thing." 

In an epigram inserted in Stephens' Anthologia, and 
translated by Ausonius, %oX«y y,gu.mtv is the maxim attri- 
buted to Periander, "Restrain your anger:" of which 
rule he must have severely felt the necessity, if, as Laer- 
tius relates, he killed his wife Melissa in a transport of 
passion, by kicking her or throwing a chair at her when 
pregnant. Her name, according to the same author, was 
Lyside ; Melissa was probably substituted through fond- 
ness, certain nymphs and departed human souls being 
called Melissce. — Melange. — T. 

2 Honey and flour.]— The cakes of Samos were very 
famous.— See Athenasus, book xiv. c. 13. 

3 Back to Gareyra.1— Plutarch, in Ms Treatise on the 
Malignity of Herodotus, says, " that the young Corcy- 
reans were not preserved by the Samians, but by the 



XLIX. If after the death of Periander there 
had existed any friendship betwixt the Corin- 
thians and the Corcyreans, it might be sup- 
posed they would not have assisted in this ex- 
pedition against Samos. But notwithstanding 
these people had the same origin (the Corin- 
thians having built Corcyra) they had always 
lived in a state of enmity. The Corinthians, 
therefore, did not forget the affront which they 
had received at Samos ; and it was in resent- 
ment of injuries formerly received from the 
Corcyreans, that Periander had sent to Sardis 
these three hundred youths of the first families 
of Corcyra, with the intention of their being 
made eunuchs. 

L. When Periander had put his wife Melissa 
to death, he was involved in an additional ca- 
lamity. By Melissa he had two sons, one of 
whom was seventeen, the other eighteen years 
old : Procles, their grandfather by the mother's 
side, had sent for them to Epidaurus, of which 
place he was prince ; and had treated them with 
all the kindness due to the children of his 
daughter. At the time appointed for their de- 
parture, he took them aside, and asked them if 
they knew who had killed their mother. To 
these words the elder brother paid no attention j 
but the younger, whose name was Lycophron, 
took it so exceedingly to heart, that at his re- 
turn to Corinth, he would neither salute his 
father, converse with, nor answer him ; in in- 
dignation at which behaviour, Periander ban- 
ished him his house. 

LI. After the above event, Periander asked 
his elder son, what their grandfather had said to 
them. The youth informed him, that their 
grandfather had received them very affection- 
ately, but as he did not remember, he could not 
relate the words he had used to them at parting. 
The father, however, continued to press him j 
saying, it was impossible that their grandfather 
should dismiss them without some advice. This 
induced the young man more seriously to re- 

Cnidians." — This assertion is examined and refuted by 
Larcher. 

Pliny says, that the fish called echines stopped the ves- 
sel going swift before the wind, on board of which were 
messengers of Periander, having it in command to cas- 
trate the sons of the Cnidian noblemen j for which reason 
these shells were highly reverenced in the temple of Ve- 
nus at Cnidos. M. Larcher, avowedly giving the reader 
the above passage from Pliny, is guilty of a misquotation : 
"these shells," says he, "arreterent le vaisseau on 
etoient ces enfans;" whereas the words of Pliny (see 
Gronovius' edition, vol. i. page 609.) are these, " Quibus 
inhserentibus stetisse navem portantem nuncios a Perian- 
dro ut castrarentur nobiles pueri." — T. 



THALIA. 



153 



fleet on what had passed ; and he afterwards in- 
formed his father of every particular. Upon 
this, Periander was determined not at all to re- 
lax from his severity, but immediately sent to 
those who had received his son under their pro- 
tection, commanding them to dismiss him. 
Lycophron was thus driven from one place to 
another, and from thence to a third, and from 
this last also the severity of Periander expelled 
him. Yet fearful as people were to entertain 
him, he still found an asylum, from the consi- 
deration of his being the son of Periander. 

LII. Periander at length commanded it to be 
publicly proclaimed, that whoever harboured his 
son, or held any conversation with him, should 
pay a stipulated fine for the use of Apollo's 
temple. After this no person presumed either 
to receive or converse with him, and Lycophron 
himself acquiesced in the injunction, by retiring 
to the public portico. On the fourth day, Per- 
iander himself observed him in this situation, 
covered with rags and perishing with hunger : 
his heart relenting, he approached, and thus 
addressed him : " My son, which do you think 
preferable, your present extremity of distress, 
or to return to your obedience, and share with 
me my authority and riches ? You who are my 
son, and a prince of the happy Corinth, choose 
the life of a mendicant, and persevere in irritat- 
ing him who has the strongest claims upon your 
duty. If the incident which induces you to 
think unfavourably of my conduct has any evil 
resulting from it, the whole is fallen upon my- 
self ; and I feel it the more sensibly, from the 
reflection that I was myself the author of it. 
Experience has taught you how much better it 
is to be envied than pitied, 4 and how dangerous 
it is to provoke a superior and a parent — return 
therefore to my house." To this speech Peri- 
ander received no other answer from his son, 
than that he himself, by conversing with him, 
had incurred the penalty which his edict had 
imposed. The king, perceiving the perverse- 

4 Envied than pitied.] — Of this M. Larcher remarks, 
that it is a proverbial expression in the French language : 
it is no less so in our own. The same sentiment in Pin- 
dar is referred to by the learned Frenchman j which is 
thus beautifully translated by Mr West. 
Nor less distasteful is excessive fame 

To the sour palate of the envious mind ; 
Who hears with grief his neighbour's goodly name. 

And hates the fortune that he ne'er shall find ; 
Vet in thy virlue, Hieio, persevere, 

Since to be envied is a nobler fate 
Than to be pitied, and let strict justice steer 

With equitable hand the helm of state, 
And arm thy tongue with truth : O king ! beware 
Of every step: a prince can never lightly e;r.— T\ 



ness of his son to be immutable, determined to 
remove him from his sight ; he therefore sent 
him in a vessel to Corcyra, which place also be- 
longed to him. After this, Periander made 
war upon his father-in-law Procles, whom he 
considered as the principal occasion of what had 
happened. He made himself master of Epi- 
daurus, 5 and took Procles prisoner ; whom 
nevertheless he preserved alive. 

LIU. In process of time, as Periander ad- 
vanced in years, he began to feel himself inade- 
quate to the cares of government; he sent 
therefore for Lycophron to Corcyra, to take 
upon him the administration of affairs ; his 
eldest son appeared improper for such a situa- 
tion, and was indeed dull and stupid. Of the 
messenger who brought him this intelligence 
Lycophron disdained to take the smallest notice. 
But Periander, as he felt his affection for the 
young man to be unalterable, sent to him his 
sister, thinking her interposition most likely to 
succeed. When she saw him, " Brother," said 
she, " will you suffer the sovereign authority to 
pass into other hands, and the wealth of your 
family to be dispersed, rather than return to 
enjoy them yourself? Let me entreat you to 
punish yourself no more ; return to your coun- 
try and your family : obstinacy like yours is but 
an unwelcome guest, it only adds one evil to an- 
other. Pity is by many preferred to justice ; 
and many from their anxiety to fulfil their duty 
to a mother, have violated that which a father 
might expect. Power, which many so assidu- 
ously court, is in its nature precarious. Your 
father is growing old, do not therefore resign to 
others honours which are properly your own. " 
Thus instructed by her father, she used every 



5 Epidaurus.]— This was a city of the Peloponnese, 
famous for a temple of JEsculapius. When the Romans 
were once afflicted by a grievous pestilence, they were 
ordered by the oracle to bring iEsculapius to Rome ; they 
accordingly despatched ambassadors to Epidaurus to ac- 
complish this. The Epidaurians refusing to part with 
their god, the Romans prepared to depart : as their ves- 
sel was quitting the port, an immense serpent came 
swimming towards them, and finally wreathed itself 
round the prow ; the crew, flunking it to be iEsculapius 
himself, carried him with much veneration to Rome. — 
His entrance is finely described by Ovid : — 

Jamque caput rerum Romanam intra verat urbem, 
Erigitur serpens — summoque acclivia malo 
Colla movet, sedesque sibi circuinspicit aptas. 
Which description, fully considered, would perhaps afford 
no mean subject for an historical painting. 

Epidaurus was also famous for its breed of horses. — 
See Virgil, Georgic. iii, 43, 4. 

Vocat ingenti clamore Cithaeron 
Taygetique canes, domitrixque Kpidaurus equorum. 

The same fact is also mentioned by Strabo, book viii. — T. 

u 



154 



HERODOTUS. 



argument likely to influence her brother ; but he 
briefly answered, "that as long as his father 
lived he would not return to Corinth." When 
she had communicated this answer to Periander, 
he sent a third messenger to his son, informing 
him, that it was his intention to retire to Corcyra : 
but that he might return to Corinth, and take 
possession of the supreme authority. This 
proposition was accepted, and Periander pre- 
pared to depart for Corcyra, the young man for 
Corinth. But when the Corcyreans were in- 
formed of the business, to prevent the arrival 
of Periander among them, they put his son to 
death. — This was what induced that prince to 
take vengeance of the Corcyreans. 

LIV. The Lacedaemonians arriving with a 
powerful fleet, laid siege to Samos, and advanc- 
ing towards the walls, they passed by a tower 
which stands in the suburbs, not far from the 
sea. At this juncture Polycrates attacked 
them, at the head of a considerable force, and 
compelled them to retreat. He was instantly 
seconded by a band of auxiliaries, and a great 
number of Samians, who falling upon the enemy 
from a fort which was behind the mountain, 
after a short conflict effectually routed them, 
and continued the pursuit with great slaughter 
of the Lacedaemonians. 

L V. If all the Lacedaemonians in this engage- 
ment had behaved like Archias and Lycopas, 
Samos must certainly have been taken; for 
these two alone entered the city, with those 
Samians who sought security within the walls, 
and having no means of retreat were there slain. 
I myself one day met with a person of the same 
name, who was the son of Samius, and grand- 
son of the Archias above-mentioned; I saw 
him at Pitane, 1 of which place he was a native. 
This person paid more attention to Samians 
than to other foreigners ; and he told me, that 
his father was called Samius, as being the im- 

1 Pitane. j — This proper name involves some perplex, 
ity, and has afforded exercise for much acute and inge- 
nious criticism. Martiniere, from mistaking a passage of 
Pausanias, asserts that it was merely a quarter, or rather 
suburbs of Lacedsemon, and is consequently often con- 
founded with it. Tlds mistake is ably pointed out and 
refuted by Bellanger, in his Critique de quelques Articles 
du Diet, de M. la Martiniere. This word is found in 
Hesychius, as descriptive of a distinct tribe ; in Thucy- 
dides, of a small town; and in Herodotus, of a whole 
people. — See book ix. chap. 52, where he speaks of the 
cohort of Pitane, which in the glorious battle of Platea 
was commanded by Amompharetus. It is certain that 
there were several places of this name; the one here 
specified was doubtless on the banks of the Eurotas, in 
Laconia. — See Essais de Critique, %c. 316. — T. 



J mediate descendant of him, who with so much 
honour had lost his life at Samos. The reason 
of his thus distinguishing the Samians, was 
because they had honoured his grandfather by 
a public funeral. a 

LVI. The Lacedaemonians, after remaining 
forty days before the place without any advan- 
tage, returned to the Peloponnese. It is report- 
ed, though absurdly enough, that Polycrates 
struck off a great number of pieces of lead cased 
with gold, a like the coin of the country, and 
that with these he purchased their departure. 
— This was the first expedition of the Dorians 
of Lacedsemon into Asia. 

LVII. Those Samians who had taken up arms 
against Polycrates, when they saw themselves 
forsaken by the Lacedaemonians, and were dis- 
tressed from want of money, embarked for Siph- 
nos. 4 At this time the power of the Siphnians 



2 Public funeral.~\ — The manner in which the funerals 
of those who had died in defence of their country were 
solemnized at Athens, cannot fail of giving the English 
reader an elevated idea of that polished people. 

On an appointed day a number of coffins made of cypress 
wood, and containing the bones of the deceased, were 
exposed to view beneath a large tent erected for the pur- 
pose ; they who had relations to deplore, assembled to 
weep over them, and pay the duties dictated by tender- 
ness, or enjoined by religion. Three days afterwards 
the coffins were placed upon as many cars as there were 
tribes, and were carried slowly through the town, to the 
Ceramicus, where funeral games were celebrated. The 
bodies were deposited in the earth, and their relations 
and friends paid for the last time the tribute of their 
tears : an orator appointed by the republic from an ele- 
vated place pronounced a funeral oration over his valiant 
countrymen ; each tribe raised over the graves some kind 
of column, upon which was inscribed the names of the 
deceased, their age, and the place where they died. 

The above solemnities were conducted under the in- 
spection of one of the principal magistrates. 

The most magnificent public funeral of which we have 
any account, was that of Alexander the Great, when his 
body was brought from Babylon to Alexandria ; a minute 
description of which is given by Diodorus Siculus. 

For a particular description of the ceremonies observed 
at public and private funerals, amongst the Romans, 
consult Montfaucon.— -T. 

3 Lead cased with gold.'}— Similar to this artifice, was 
that practised on the people of Gortynain Crete, by Han- 
nibal, as recorded by Justin. After the defeat of Antio- 
chus by the Romans, Hannibal retired to Gortyna, carry- 
ing with him an immense treasure. This circumstance 
exciting an invidiousness against him, he pretended to 
deposit his riches in the temple of Diana, to which place 
he carried with much ceremony several vessels filled with 
lead. He soon took an opportunity of passing over into 
Asia with his real wealth, which he had concealed in the 
images of the gods he affected to worship. — T. 

4 Siphnos.]— This was one of those small islands lying 
opposite to Attica ; They were seventeen in number, and 
called, from their situation with respect to each other, 
the Cyclades: they were all eminently beautiful, and 



THALIA. 



155 



was very considerable, and they were the rich- 
est of all the inhabitants of the islands. Their 
soil produced both the gold and silver metals 
in such abundance, that from a tenth part of 
their revenues they had a treasury at Delphi, 
equal in value to the riches which that temple 
possessed. Every year they made an equal 
distribution among themselves, of the value of 
their mines : whilst their wealth was thus ac- 
cumulating, they consulted the oracle, to know 
whether they should long continue in the en- 
joyment of their present good fortune. From 
the Pythian they received this answer : 

When Siphnos shall a milk-white senate show, 
And all her market wear a front of snow ; 
Him let her prize whose wit suspects the most, 
A scarlet envoy from a wooden host. 

At this period the prytaneum, and the forum 
of Siphnos, were adorned with Parian marble. 

LVIII. This reply of the oracle, the Siph- 
nians were unable to comprehend, both be- 
fore and after the arrival of the Samians. As 
soon as the Samians touched at Siphnos, they 
despatched a messenger to the town, in one of 
their vessels. According to the ancient cus- 
tom, all ships were painted of a red colour ; and 
it was this which induced the Pythian to warn 
the Siphnians against a wooden snare, and a 
red ambassador. On their arrival, the Samian 
ambassadors entreated the inhabitants to lend 
them ten talents ; on being refused, they plun- 
dered the country. The Siphnians hearing 
of this, collected their forces, and were defeat- 
ed in a regular engagement ; a great number 
were in the retreat cut off from the town, and 
the Samians afterwards exacted from them 
a hundred talents. 

LIX. Instead of money, the Samians had 



severally distinguished by some appropriate excellence. 
The marble of Paros was of inimitable whiteness, and of 
the finest grain ; Andros and Naxos produced the most 
exquisite wine j Amengos was famous for a dye made 
from a lichen, growing there in vast abundance. The 
riches of siphnos are extolled by many ancient writers j 
it is now called Siphanto. 

The following account of the modern circumstances of 
Siphnos, is extracted principally from Tournefort. 

It is remarkable for the purity of its air ; the water, 
fruit, and poultry, are very excellent. Although cover- 
ed with marble and granite, it is one of the most fertile 
islands of the Archipelago. They have a famous manu- 
factory of straw hats, winch are sold all over the Archi- 
pelago, by the name of Siphanto castors : though once 
so famous for its mines of gold and silver, the inhabitants 
can now hardly tell you where they were. They have 
plenty of lead, which the rains discover. The ladies of 
Siphanto cover their faces with linen bandages so dexte- 
rously, that you can only see their mouth, nose, and 
white of the eyes.— T. 



received of the Hermionians the island of Thy- 
rea, adjacent to the Peloponnese : this they 
afterwards gave as a pledge to the Traezenians. 
They afterwards made a voyage to Crete, 
where they built Cydonia, although their ob- 
ject in going there, was to expel the Zacyn- 
thians. In this place they continued five years, 
during which period they were so exceedingly 
prosperous, that they not only erected all those 
temples which are now seen in Cydonia, but 
built also the temple of Dictynna. 5 In the 
sixth year, from a junction being made with 
the Cretans by the iEginetse, they were totally 
vanquished in a sea engagement, and reduced 
to servitude. The prows of their vessels were 
taken away and defaced, and afterwards sus- 
pended in the temple of Minerva at iEgina. 
To this conduct towards the Samians the 
iEginetae were impelled in resentment of a 
former injury. When Amphicrates reigned at 
Samos, he had carried on a war against the 
iEginetse, by which they materially suffered ; 
this, however, they severely retaliated. 

LX. I have been thus particular in my ac- 
count of the Samians, because this people pro- 
duced the greatest monuments 6 of art which 
are to be seen in Greece. They have a moun- 
tain which is one hundred and fifty orgyise in 
height ; entirely through this, they have made a 
passage, the length of which is seven stadia, it 
is moreover eight feet high, and as many wide. 
By the side of this there is also an artificial 
canal, which in like manner goes quite through 
the mountain, and though only three feet in 
breadth, is twenty cubits deep. This, by the 
means of pipes, conveys to the city the waters 
of a copious spring. 7 This is their first work, 



5 Dictynna.] — Diana was worshipped in Crete, indiffer- 
ently under the name of Dictynna and of Britomartis. 
Sritu, in the Cretan language, meant sweet, and martis, 
a virgin. Britomartis was the name of a virgin greatly 
beloved by Diana; and what is said by Diodorus Sicu- 
lus on the subject seems most worthy of attention. His 
story is this : — Dictynna was born in Caeron ; she in- 
vented hunters' toils and nets, and thence her name. 
She was the daughter of Jupiter, which renders it ex- 
ceedingly improbable that she should be obliged to fly 
from Minos, and leap into the sea, where she was caught 
in some fishers' nets. The Mons Dictynnaeus of Pliny is 
now called Cape Spada. — T. 

6 The greatest monuments. — Of these monuments 
some vestiges are still to be seen, consult Tournefort, i. 
314 Port Tigani is in form of a half-moon, and regards 
the south-east ; its left horn is that famous Jcttee which 
Herodotus reckoned amongst the three wonders of Sa- 
mos. This work, at that time of day, is an evidence of 
the Samians' application to maritime matters. 

7 Copious spring-.']— On the left of the dale, near to the 



156 



HERODOTUS 



and constructed by Eupalinus, the son of 
Naustrophus, an inhabitant of Megara. Their 
second is a mole, which projects from the har- 
bour into the sea, and is two stadia or more in 
length, and about twenty orgyiae in height. 
Their last performance was a temple, which 
exceeds in grandeur all I have seen. This 
structure was first commenced by a native of 
the country, whose name was Rhcecus,' son of 
Phileus. 

LXI. Whilst Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, 
passed his time in Egypt, committing various 
excesses, two magi, who were brothers, and 
one of whom Cambyses had left in Persia as 
the manager of his domestic concerns, excited 
a revolt against him. The death of Smerdis, 
which had been studiously kept secret, and was 
known to very few of the Persians, who in 
general believed that he was alive, was a cir- 

aqueduct which crosses it, are certain caverns, the en- 
trance of some of them artificially cut. In all appear- 
ance some of these artificial caverns were what He- 
rodotus says were ranked among the most wonderful 
performances of the Greek nation. The beautiful spring 
which tempted them to go upon so great a work,is doubtless 
that of Metelinous, the best in the island, the disposition 
of the place proving perfectly favourable, the moment 
they had conquered the difficulty of boring it ; but in all 
probability they were not exact enough in levelling the 
ground, for they were obliged to dig a canal of twenty 
cubits deep for carrying the spring to the place designed. 
There must liave been some mistake in this passage of 
Herodotus. 

Some five hundred paces from the sea, and almost the 
like distance from the river Imbrasis to Cape Cera, are 
the ruins of the famous temple of the Samian Juno. But 
for Herodotus we should never have known the name 
of the architect. He employed a very particular order 
of columns, as may be now seen. It is indeed neither 
better nor worse than the Ionian order in its infancy, 
void of that beauty which it afterwards acquired — Thus 
far Tournefort. 

Its ancient names were Parthenias, Anthemus, and 
Melamphissus. It was the birth-place of Pythagoras, 
and the school of Epicurus. Pococke says, that there 
are no remains which he could prevail upon himself to 
believe to belong to this canal. He adds, that the inhab- 
itants are remarkably profligate and poor. Tournefort 
makes a similar remark. There are no disciples of 
Pythagoras observes the Frenchman, now left in Samos ; 
the modern Samians are no more fond of fasting, than 
they are lovers of silence. — T. 

1 Rhcecus.] — This Rhcecus was not only a skilful ar- 
chitect, but he farther invented, in conjunction with 
Theodorus of Samos, the art of making moulds with 
clay, long before the Bacchiades had been driven from 
Corinth; they were also the first who made casts in 
brass of which they formed statues. Pausanias relates 
the same fact, with this addition, that upon a pedestal 
behind the altar of Diana, called Protothenia, there is a 
statue by Rhcecus ; it is a woman in bronze, said by the 
Ephesians to be that of Night. He had two sons, Tel- 
ecles and Theodorus, both ingenious statuaries. — Lar- 
cher. 



cumstance to which the last-mentioned of these 
magi had been privy, and of which he deter- 
mined to avail himself. His brother, who, as 
we have related, joined with him in this busi- 
ness, not only resembled in person 2 but had 
the very name of the young prince, the son of 
Cyrus, who had been put to death by the order 
of his brother Cambyses. Him, Patizithes, 
the other magus, publicly introduced and placed 
upon the royal throne, having previously in- 
structed him in the part he was to perform. 
Having done this, he sent messengers to differ- 
ent places, and one in particular to the Egyp- 
tian army, ordering them to obey Smerdis, the 
son of Cyrus, alone. 

LXI I. These orders were every where 
obeyed. The messenger who came to Egypt 
found Cambyses with the army at Ecbatana, 
in Syria. He entered into the midst of the 
troops, 3 and executed the commission which had 
been given him. When Cambyses heard this, 
he was not aware of any fallacy, but imagined 

2 Rese?nbled in person."] — Similar historical incidents 
will here occur to the most common reader, there hav- 
ing been no state whose annals are come down to us, 
in which, from the similitude of person, factious indi- 
viduals have not excited commotions. In the Roman 
government a false Pompey and a false Drusiis claim our 
attention, because one exercised the political sagacity of 
Cicero, the other employed the pen of Tacitus. Neither 
have we in our own country been without similar im- 
postors, the examples of which must be too familiar to 
require insertion here. — T. 

3 Into the midst of the troops.] — It may to an English 
reader at first sight seem extraordinary, that any person 
should dare to execute such a commission as this, and 
should venture himself on such a business amongst the 
troops of a man whose power had been so long estab- 
lished, and whose cruelty must have been notorious. 
But the persons of heralds, as the functions they were to 
perform were the most important possible, were on all 
occasions sacred. Homer more than once calls them 
the sacred ministers of gods and men : they denounced 
war, and proclaimed peace. It has been a matter of dis- 
pute amongst the learned from whence this sanctity was 
conferred on them ; they were said to be descended from 
Cenyx, the son of Mercury, and under the protection of 
that god. This office, in Athens and Sparta, was hered- 
itary. In Athens as I have observed, the heralds were 
said to be derived from Cenyx ; in Sparta, from Talthy- 
bius, the celebrated herald of Agamemnon. They 
usually carried a staff of laurel in then hands, sometimes 
of olive, round this two serpents were twisted. To what 
an extreme this reverence for the persons of ambassa- 
dors or heralds was carried, will appear from the book 
Polyhymnia, chap. 134. It is almost unnecessary to add, 
that in modern times the persons of ambassadors are 
in like manner deemed sacred, unless the treatment 
which in case of war they receive at Constantinople be 
deemed an exception. The moment that war is declared 
against any foreign power, the representative of that 
power is seized, and sent as a prisoner to the Black 
Tower.— T. 



THALIA. 



157 



that Prexaspes, whom he had sent to put 
Smerdis to death, had neglected to obey his 
commands. " Prexaspes," said the king, " thou 
hast not fulfilled my orders." "■ Sir," he replied, 
" you are certainly deceived ; it is impossible 
that your brother should rebel against you, or 
occasion you the smallest trouble. I not only 
executed your orders concerning Smerdis, but 
I buried him with mine own hands. If the 
dead can rise again, you may expect also a re- 
bellion from Astyages the Mede ; but if things 
go on in their usual course, you can have no- 
thing to apprehend from your brother. I would 
recommend, therefore, that you send for this 
herald, and demand by what authority he claims 
our allegiance to Smerdis." 

LXIII. This advice was agreeable to Cam- 
byses : the person of the herald was accordingly 
seized, and he was thus addressed by Prexas- 
pes : " You say, my friend, that you come from 
Smerdis, the son of Cyrus ; but I would advise 
you to be cautious, as your safety will depend 
upon your speaking the truth ; tell me, there- 
fore, did Smerdis himself entrust you with this 
commission, or did you receive it from some 
one of his officers ?" " I must confess," replied 
the herald, " that since the departure of Cam- 
byses on this Egyptian expedition, I have never 
seen Smerdis, the son of Cyrus. I received my 
present commission from the magus to whom 
Cambyses entrusted the management of his do- 
mestic affairs ; he it was who told me that 
Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, commanded me to 
execute this business." This was the sincere 
answer of the herald ; upon which, Cambyses 
thus addressed Prexaspes : " I perceive that, 
like a man of integrity, you performed my com- 
mands, and have been guilty of no crime : but 
what Persian, assuming the name of Smerdis, 
has revolted against me?" "Sir," answered 
Prexaspes, " I believe I comprehend the whole 
of this business : the magi have excited this re- 
bellion against you, namely, Patizithes, to whom 
you intrusted the management of your house- 
hold, and Smerdis, his brother." 

LXIV. As soon as Cambyses heard the 
name of Smerdis, he was impressed with con- 
viction of the truth ; and he immediately per- 
ceived the real signification of the dream in which 
he had seen Smerdis seated on the royal throne, 
and touching the firmament with his head. Ac- 
knowledging that without any just cause he had 
destroyed his brother, he lamented him with 
tears. After indulging for a while in the ex- 



tremest sorrow, which a sense of his misfor- 
tunes prompted, he leaped hastily upon his 
horse, determining to lead his army instantly to 
Susa against the rebels. In doing this, the sheath 
fell from his sword, * which being thus naked, 
wounded him in the thigh. The wound was in 
the very place in which he had before struck 
Apis, the deity of the Egyptians. As soon as 
the blow appeared to be mortal, Cambyses 
anxiously inquired the name of the place where 
he was : they told him it was called Ecbatana. 
An oracle from Butos had warned him that he 
should end his life at Ecbatana ; this he under- 
stood of Ecbatana s of the Medes, where all his 
treasures were deposited, and where he con- 
ceived he was in his old age to die. The ora- 
cle, however, spoke of the Syrian Ecbatana. 
When he learned the name of the town, the 
vexation arising from the rebellion of the magus, 
and the pain of his wound, restored him to his 
proper senses. " This," he exclaimed, remem- 
bering the oracle, "is doubtless the place in 
which Cambyses, son of Cyrus, is destined to 
die." 

L X V. On the twentieth day after the above 
event, he convened the more illustrious of the 

4 The sheath fell from his sword.'} — The first swords 
were probably made of brass ; for, as Lucretius observes, 

Et prior aeris erat quam ferri cognitus usus. 

It has been remarked, on the following passage of 
Virgil, 

iErata;que micant peltse, micat seneus ensis, 
that the poet only uses brass poetically instead of iron ; 
this, however, seems forced and improbable. More an- 
ciently, which indeed appears from Homer, the sword 
was worn over the shoulder ; if, therefore, the attitude 
of Cambyses, in the act of mounting his horse be consi- 
dered, his receiving the wound here described does not 
appear at all unlikely. In contradiction to modern cus- 
tom, the Romans sometimes wore two swords, one on 
each side : when they wore but one it was usually, though 
not always, on the right side. On this subject, see Mont- 
faucon, where different specimens of ancient swords may 
be seen. The Persian swords were called acinaces, or 
scymetars.— T. 

5 Ecbatana.} — Ctesias makes this prince die at Baby- 
lon ; but this is not the only place in which he contra- 
dicts Herodotus. — Larcher. - 

It appears by the context, that this Ecbatana was in 
Syria ; an obscure place, probably, and xinheard of by 
Cambyses till this moment. A similar fiction of a pro- 
phecy occurs in our own history. Henry the Fourth 
had been told he was to die in Jerusalem, but died in the 
Jerusalem-chamber at Westminster. Which tale Shak- 
speare has immortalized by noticing it 

It hath been prophesied to me many years 

I should not die but in Jerusalem. 

Which vainly I supposed the Holy Land. 

But bear me to that chamber, there I'll lie, 

In that Jerusalem shall Harry die. 

Patanaea in Palestine marks the place of this Syi Ian 
Ecbatana.— See d'Anville.—T. 



158 



HERODOTUS. 



Persians who were with him, and thus addressed 
them ; " What has happened to me, compels 
me to disclose to you what I anxiously desired 
to conceal. Whilst I was in Egypt, I beheld 
in my sleep a vision, which I could wish had 
never appeared to me. A messenger seemed 
to arrive from home, informing me that Smer- 
dis, sitting on the royal throne, touched the 
heavens with his head. It is not in the power 
of men to counteract destiny ; but fearing that 
my brother would deprive me of my kingdom, 
I yielded to passion rather than to prudence. 
Infatuated as I was, I despatched Prexaspes to 
Susa, to put Smerdis to death. After this 
great crime, I lived with more confidence, be- 
lieving, that Smerdis being dead, no one else 
would rise up against me. But my ideas of the 
future were fallacious ; I have murdered my 
brother, a crime equally unnecessary and atro- 
cious, and am nevertheless deprived of my power. 
It was Smerdis the magus 1 whom the divinity 
pointed out to me in my dream, and who has 

1 Stnerdis, the magus.'] — Mr Richardson, in his Dis- 
sertation on the Language, &c. of Eastern Nations, speak- 
ing of the disagreement between the Grecian and Asiatic 
history of Persia, makes the following remarks. 

From this period (610 before Christ) till the Macedonian 
conquest, we have the history of the Persians as given 
us by the Greeks, and the history of the Persians as 
written by themselves. Between these classes of writers 
we might naturally expect some difference of facts, but 
we should as naturally look for a few great lines which 
might mark some similarity of story: yet from every 
research which I have had an opportunity to make, there 
seems to be nearly as much resemblance between the 
annals of England and Japan, as between the European 
and Asiatic relations of the same empire. The names 
and numbers of their kings have no analogy; and in re- 
gard to the most splendid facts of the Greek historians, 
the Persians are entirely silent. We have no mention of 
the great Cyrus, nor of any king of Persia who in the 
events of his reign can apparently be forced into a simili- 
tude. We have no Croesus, king of Lydia ; not a syllable 
of Cambyses, or of his frantic expedition against theEthio- 
pians. Smerdis Magus, and the succession of Darius, the 
son of Hystaspes, by the neighing of his horse, are to the 
Persians circumstances equally unknown, as the numer- 
ous assassinations recorded by the Greeks, &c. 

To do away, at least in part, any impression to the 
prejudice of Grecian history, which may be made by per- 
using the above remarks of Mr Richardson, the reader is 
presented with the following sentiments of Mr Gibbon. 

" So little has been preserved of eastern history before 
Mahomet, that the modern Persians are totally ignorant 
of the victory of Sapor, an event so glorious to their 
nation. " 

The incident here mentioned is the victory of Sapor 
over Valerian the Roman emperor, who was defeated, 
taken prisoner, and died in captivity. This happened in 
the year 260 of the Christian era. Mahomet was born 
in the year 571 of the same era; if, therefore, Mr Gib- 
bon's observation be well founded, which it appears to 
be, Mr Richardson's objections fall to the ground. —T. 



now taken arms against me. Things being 
thus circumstanced, it becomes you to remem- 
ber that Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, is actually 
dead, and that the two magi, one with whom I 
left the care of my household, and Smerdis his 
brother, are the men who now claim your obe- 
dience. He, whose office it would have been to 
have revenged on these magi any injuries done 
to me, has unworthily perished by those who 
were nearest to him : but since he is no more, 
I must now tell you, O Persians ! what I 
would have you do when T am dead — I entreat 
you all, by those gods who watch over kings, 
and chiefly you who are of the race of the 
Achaemenides, that you will never permit this 
empire to revert to the Medes. If by any 
stratagem they shall have seized it, by stratagem 
do you recover it. If they have by force ob- 
tained it, do you by force wrest it from them. 
If you shall obey my advice, may the earth give 
you its fruits in abundance ; may you ever be 
free, and your wives and your flocks prolific ! 
If you do not obey me, if you neither recover 
nor attempt to recover the empire, may the re- 
verse of my wishes befall you, and may every 
Persian meet a fate like mine ! " 

LXVI. Cambyses having thus spoken, be- 
wailed his misfortunes. When the Persians 
saw the king thus involved in sorrow, they tore 
their garments, and expressed their grief aloud. 
After a very short interval, the bone became 
infected, the whole of the thigh mortified, and 
death ensued. Thus died Cambyses son of 
Cyrus, after a reign of seven years and five 
months, 8 leaving no offspring, male or female. 
The Persians who were present could not be 
persuaded that the magi had assumed the su- 
preme authority, but rather believed that what 
Cambyses had asserted concerning the death of 
Smerdis, was prompted by his hatred of that 
prince, and his wish to excite the general ani- 
mosity of the Persians against him. They 
were, therefore, generally satisfied that it was 
really Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, who had 
assumed the sovereignty. To which they were 
the more inclined, because Prexaspes afterwards 
positively denied that he had put Smerdis to 
death. When Cambyses was dead, he could 
not safely have confessed that he had killed the 
son of Cyrus. 

LXVII. After the death of Cambyses, the 
magus, by the favour of his name, pretending 

2 Seven years and five months.]— Clemens Alexandrinus 
makes him reign ten years. — Larcher. 



THALIA 



159 



to be Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, reigned in 
security during the seven months which com- 
pleted the eighth year of the reign of Cambyses. 
In this period he distinguished the various de- 
pendents on his power by his great munificence, 
so that after his death he was seriously regret- 
ted by all the inhabitants of Asia, except the 
Persians. He commenced his reign by pub- 
lishing every where an edict which exempted 
his subjects for the space of three years both 
from tribute and military service. 

LXVIH. In the eighth month he was de- 
tected in the following manner; Otanes, son 
of Pharnaspes, was of the first rank of the 
Persians, both with regard to birth and afHuence. 
This nobleman was the first who suspected that 
this was not Smerdis, the son of Cyrus; and 
was induced to suppose who he really was, from 
his never quitting the citadel, and from his not 
inviting any of the nobles to his presence. 
Suspicious of the imposture, he took these 
measures : — He had a daughter named Phae- 
dyma, who had been married to Cambyses, and 
whom, with the other wives of the late king, 
the usurper had taken to himself. Otanes sent 
a message to her, to know whether she cohabited 
with Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, or with any 
other person. She returned for answer, " that 
she could not tell, as she had never seen Smer- 
dis, the son of Cyrus, nor did she know the 
person with whom she cohabited." Otanes 
sent a second time to his daughter : " If," says 
he, " you do not know the person of Smerdis, the 
son of Cyrus, inquire of Atossa who it is with 
whom you and she cohabit, for she must neces- 
sarily know her brother." To which she thus 
replied, " I can neither speak to Atossa, nor 
indeed see any of the women that live with him. 
Since this person, whoever he is, came to the 
throne, the women have all been kept separate. 3 

3 Kept separate.'}— Chardin, speaking of the death of a 
king of Persia, and the intemperate grief of his \vives,says, 
that the reason why the women on such occasions are so 
deep! y afflicted, is not only for the loss of the king their hus- 
band, but for the loss of that shadow of liberty winch they 
enjoyed during his life ; for no sooner is the prince laid 
in his tomb, but they are all shut up in particular houses. 
Tournefort tells us, that after the death of the sultan at 
Constantinople, the women whom he honoured with his 
embraces, and their eldest daughters, are removed into 
the old seraglio at Constantinople ; the younger are 
sometimes left for the new emperor, or are married to 
the bashas. 

It appears that in the east from the remotest times fe- 
males have been jealously secluded from the other sex. 
Nevertheless, we learn from modern travellers, that this 
is done with some restrictions, and that they are not only 
Buffered to communicate with each other, but on certain 



LXIX. This reply more and more justified 
the suspicions of Otanes ; he sent, therefore, a 
third time to his daughter: " My daughter," he 
observed, "it becomes you, who are nobly bom, 
to engage in a dangerous enterprize, when your 
father commands you. If this Smerdis 4 be not 
the son of Cyrus, but the man whom I suspect, 
he ought not, possessing your person, and the 
sovereignty of Persia, to escape with impunity. 
Do this, therefore — when next you shall be ad- 
mitted to his bed, and shall observe that he is 
asleep, examine whether he has any ears ; if he 
has, you may be secure you are with Smerdis, 
the son of Cyrus ; but if he has not, it can be 
no other, than Smerdis, one of the magi." To 
this Phsedyma replied, " That she would obey 
him, notwithstanding the danger she incurred ; 
being well assured, that if he had no ears, and 
should discover her in endeavouring to know 
this, she should instantly be put to death." Cy- 
rus had in his life-time deprived this Smerdis 
of his ears 5 for some atrocious crime. 

days to leave the haram or seraglio, and take their amuse- 
ments abroad. 

Where a plurality of wives is allowed, each, it should 
seem from Tournefort, has a distinct and separate apart- 
ment. " I was extremely at a loss," says he, " how to 
behave to the great men of the east, when I was called 
in, and visited, as a physician, the apartments of their 
wives. These apartments are just like the dormitories 
of our religious, and at every door I found an arm covered 
with gauze, thrust out through a small loop-hole, made 
on purpose : at first I fancied they were arms of w*ood or 
brass, to serve for sconces to light up candles in at night ; 
but it surprised me when I was told that I must cure the 
persons to whom these arms belonged." The easterns 
listen with much astonishment to the familiarity pre- 
vailing betwixt the sexes in Europe. When told that 
no evil results from this, they answer with a proverb, 
"Bring butter too near the fire, and you will hardly keep 
it from melting." — T. 

4 If this Smei-dis.2— That Cambyses was the Ahasue- 
rus, and Smerdis the Artaxerxes, that obstructed the 
work of the temple, is plain from hence, that they are 
said in Scripture to be the kings of Persia that reigned 
between the time of Cyrus and the time of that Darius 
by whose decree the temple was finished; but that Darius 
being Darius Hystaspes, and none reigning between Cy- 
rus and that Darius in Persia, but Cambyses and Smerdis, 
it must follow from hence, that none but Cambyses and 
Smerdis could be the Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes, who 
are said in Ezra to have put a stop to this work. — 
Pricleaux. 

5 This Smerdis of his ears.~\ — The discovery of this im- 
posture was long celebrated in Persia as an annual festi- 
val. By reason of the great slaughter of the magians 
then made, it was called magophonia. It was also from 
this time that they first had the name of magians, vt Inch 
signified the cropt-eared, which was then given them on 
account of this impostor, who was thus erupt. Mige- 
gush signified, in the language of the country then in use, 
one that had his ears cropt ; and from a ring-loader of 
that sect who was thus cropt, the author of the famous 



160 



HERODOTUS. 



Phsedyma complied in all respects with the 
injunctions of her father. The wives of the 
Persians sleep with their husbands by turns. v 
When this lady next slept with the magus, as 
soon as she saw him in a profound sleep, she 
tried to touch his ears, and being perfectly sa- 
tisfied that he had none, as soon as it was day, 
she communicated the intelligence to her father. 

LXX. Otanes instantly revealed the secret 
to Aspathines and Gobryas, two of the noblest 
of the Persians, upon whose fidelity he could 
depend, and who had themselves suspected the 
imposture. It was agreed that each should dis- 
close the business to the friend in whom he 
most confided. Otanes therefore chose Inta- 
phernes ; Gobryas, Megabyzus ; and Aspathi- 
nes, Hydarnes. The conspirators being thus 
six in number, Darius, son of Hystaspes, arrived 
at Susa, from Persia, where his father was gov- 
ernor : when they instantly agreed to make him 
also an associate. 

LXXI. These seven met, 2 and after mutual 
vows of fidelity consulted together. As soon 
as Darius was to speak, he thus addressed his 
confederates : " I was of opinion that the death 
of Smerdis, son of Cyrus, and the usurpation 
of the magus, were circumstances known only 
to myself; and my immediate purpose in com- 
ing here, was to accomplish the usurper's death. 
But since you are also acquainted with the 
matter, I think that all delay will be dangerous, 
and that we should instantly execute our inten- 
tions." "Son of Hystaspes," replied Otanes, 
" born of a noble parent, you seem the inheri- 
tor of your father's virtue ; nevertheless, be not 
precipitate, but let us enter on this business 



Arabic lexicon called Camus, tells us they had all tliis 
name given them; and what Herodotus and Justin, and 
other authors, write of this Smerdis, plainly shows that 
ho was the man. — Prideaux. 

1 The tvives of the Persians sleep with their husbands 
by turns.] — By the Mahometan law, the Persians, Turks, 
and indeed all true believers, are permitted to have wives 
of three different descriptions ; those whom they espouse, 
those whom they hire, and those whom they purchase. 
Of the first kind they are limited to four, of the two last 
they may have as many as they please or can afford. 
Amongst the singularities sanctified by the Alcoran, the 
following is not the least; a woman legally espoused 
may insist on a divorce from her husband, if he is impo- 
tent, if he is given to unnatural enjoyment, or, to use 
Tournefort's expression, if he does not pay his tribute 
upon Thursday and Friday night, which are the times 
consecrated to the conjugal duties. — T. 

2 These seven met.] — Mithridates, king of Pontus, who 
afterwards gave so much trouble to the Romans, was de- 
scended from one of these conspirators : see book vii. 
chap. ii. — Larcher. 



with caution : for my own part, I am averse to 
undertake any thing, till we shall have strength- 
ened our party." " My friends," resumed 
Darius, " if you follow the advice of Otanes, 
your ruin is inevitable. The hope of reward 
will induce some one to betray your designs 
to the magus. An enterprize like this should 
be accomplished by yourselves, disdaining all 
assistance. But since you have revealed the 
secret, and added me to your party, let us this 
very day put our designs in execution ; for I 
declare, if this day pass without our fulfilling 
our intentions, no one shall to-morrow betray 
me j I will myself disclose the conspiracy to 
the magus." 

LXXII. When Otanes observed the ardour 
of Darius ; " Since," he replied, "you will not 
suffer us to defer, but precipitate us to the ter- 
mination, of our purpose, explain how we shall 
obtain entrance into the palace, and attack the 
usurpers. That there are guards regularly 
stationed, if you have not seen them yourself, 
you must have known from others ; how shall 
we elude these ?" " There are many circum- 
stances, Otanes," returned Darius, "which we 
cannot so well explain by our words as by our 
actions. There are others which may be made 
very plausible by words, but are capable of no 
splendour in the execution. You cannot sup- 
pose that it will be difficult for us to pass the 
guards ; who amongst them will not be impell- 
ed by reverence of our persons, or fear of our 
authority, to admit us ? Besides this, I am 
furnished with an undeniable excuse ; I can say 
that I am just arrived from Persia, and have 
business from my father with the king. If a 
falsehood must be spoken, 3 let it be so. They 



3 If a falsehood ?nust be spoken. ~]— This morality, says 
Larcher, is not very rigid ; but it ought, he continues, 
to be remembered, that Herodotus is here speaking of 
falsehood which operates to no one's injury. Bryant, on 
the contrary, remarks, that we may rest assured these 
are the author's own sentiments, though attributed to 
another person ; hence he adds, we must not wonder if 
his veracity be sometimes called in question. But when 
we remember that one of the first rudiments of Persian 
education was to speak the truth, the little scruple with 
which Darius here adopts a falsehood, must appear very 
remarkable. Upon this subject of sincerity, Lord Shaftes- 
bury has some very curious remarks. The chief of 
ancient critics," says he, "extols Homer above all tilings 
for understanding how to lie in perfection. His lies, ac- 
cording to that master's opinion and the judgment of 
the gravest and most venerable writers, Mere in them- 
selves the justest moral truths, and exhibitive of the best 
doctrine and instruction in life and manners." It is well 
remarked by one of the ancients, though I do not remem- 
ber which, that a violation of truth implies a contempt 



THALIA. 



161 



who are sincere, and they who are not, have 
the same object in view. Falsehood is prompt- 
ed by views of interest, and the language of 
truth is dictated by some promised benefit, or 
the hope of inspiring confidence. So that, in 
fact, these are only two different paths to the 
same end : if no emolument were proposed, the 
sincere man would be false, and the false man 
sincere. As to the guards, he who suffers us 
to pass shall hereafter be remembered to his 
advantage ; he who opposes us shall be deemed 
an enemy : let us, therefore, now hasten to the 
palace, and execute our purpose." 

L XXIII. When he had finished, Gobryas 
spake as follows : " My friends, to recover the 
empire will indeed be glorious ; but if we fail, 
it will be nobler to die, than for Persians to 
live in subjection to a Mede, and he too de- 
prived of his ears. You who were present at 
the last hours of Cambyses, cannot but remem- 
ber the imprecations which he uttered against 
the Persians if they did not attempt the recov- 
ery of the empire. We then refused him at- 
tention, thinking him influenced by malignity 
and resentment ; but now I at least second the 
proposal of Darius, nor would I have this as- 
sembly break up, but to proceed instantly 
against the magus." The sentiment of Go- 
bryas gave universal satisfaction. 

LXXIV. During the interval of this con- 
sultation, the two magi had together determined 
to make a friend of Prexaspes : they were 
aware that he had been injured by Cambyses, 
who had slain his son with an arrow ; and that 
he alone was privy to the death of Smerdis, the 
son of Cyrus, having been his executioner ; 
they were conscious also that he was highly es- 
teemed by the Persians. They accordingly 
sent for him, and made him the most liberal 
promises ; they made him swear that he would 
on no account disclose the fallacy which they 
practised on the Persians ; and they promised 
him, in reward of his fidelity, rewards without 
number. Prexaspes engaged to comply with 
their wishes ; they then told him of their in- 
tention to assemble the Persians beneath the 



of God, and fear of man. Yet the gravest of our moralists 
and divines have allowed that there may be occasions in 
which a deviation from strict truth is venial. — T. 

This morality is not only not very rigid, as Larcher 
affirms, but it contradicts one of the most important ob- 
jects in the education of the Persians, the speaking truth, 
which we are told by Herodotus, in more places than one, 
was not frequently violated, though in Persian discipline 
strongly enforced. 



tower 4 which was the royal residence, from 
whence they desired him to declare aloud that he 
who then sat on the throne of Persia was Smer- 
dis, the son of Cyrus, and no other. They were 
induced to this measure, from a consideration 
of the great authority of Prexaspes, and because 
he had frequently declared that he had never put 
Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, to death, but that 
he was still alive. 

LXXV. Prexaspes agreed to comply with 
all that they proposed ; the magi accordingly 
assembled the Persians, and leading Prexaspes 
to the top of the tower, commanded him to 
make an oration. He, without paying the least 
attention to the promises he had made, recited 
the genealogy of the family of Cyrus, begin- 
ning with Achaemenes. When he came to 
Cyrus himself, he enumerated the services 
which that prince had rendered the Persians. 
He then made a full discovery of the truth, 
excusing himself for concealing it so long, from 
the danger which the revealing it would have 
incurred, but that it was now forced from him. 
He assured them that he actually had killed 
Smerdis, by the order of Cambyses, and that 
the magi now exercised the sovereign authority. 
When he had imprecated many curses 5 upon 



4 Beneath the tower.] — This was the citadel. An- 
ciently the kings lodged here for security. In chap, 
lxviii. Herodotus observes that the magus would not stir 
from the citadel ; and in chap, lxxix. he says that the 
conspirators left behind in the citadel such of their friends 
as were wounded in attacking the magi. — Larcher. 

5 Imprecated many curses. ] — In ancient times, and 
amongst the Orientals in particular, these kind of im- 
precations were very frequent, and supposed to have an 
extraordinary influence. The curse of a father was 
believed to be particularly fatal ; and the furies were 
always thought to execute the imprecations of parents 
upon disobedient children : see the stories of CEdipus and 
Theseus. When Joshua destroyed Jericho, he impre- 
cated a severe curse upon whoever should attempt to 
rebuild it. This was, however, at a distant period of 
time accomplished. We have two examples of solemn 
imprecations on record, which have always been deemed 
worthy of attention. The one occurred in ancient 
Rome : when Crassus, in defiance of the auspices, pre- 
pared to make an expedition against the Parthians. The 
tribune Ateius waited for him at the gates of the city 
with an altar, a fire, and a sacrifice ready prepared, and 
with the most horrid solemnity devoted him to destruc- 
tion. The other example is more modern, it is the im- 
precation which Averroes, the famous Arabian philoso- 
pher, uttered against his son. As it is less generally 
known, I shall recite it at length : Averroes was one day 
seriously conversing with some grave friends, when his 
son, in a riotous manner, intruded himself, accompanied 
by some dissolute companions. The old man, viewing 
him with great indignation, spoke two verses to the 
following effect : " Thy own beauties could not content 
thee, thou has stripped the wild goat of his beauties j 

X 



162 



HERD OT US. 



the Persians, if they did not attempt the re- 
covery of their rights, and take vengeance 
upon the usurpers, he threw himself from the 
tower — Such was the end of Prexaspes, a man 
who through every period of his life merited 
esteem. 1 

LXXVI. The seven Persians, having de- 
termined instantly to attack the magi, proceeded, 
after imploring the aid of the gods, to execute 
their purpose. They were at first ignorant of 
what related to the fate of Prexaspes, but they 
learned it as they went along. They withdrew 
for a while to deliberate together ; they who 
sided with Otanes, thought that their enter- 
prize should be deferred, at least during the 
present tumult of affairs. The friends of 
Darius, on the contrary, were averse to any 
delay, and were anxious to execute what they 
had resolved immediately. Whilst they re- 
mained in this suspense, they observed seven 
pair of hawks, 2 which, pursuing two pair of 
vultures, beat and severely tore them. At this 
sight the conspirators came immediately into 
the designs of Darius ; and, relying on the 
omen of the birds, advanced boldly to the 
palace. 

LXXVII. On their arrival at the gates, it 
happened as Darius had foreseen. The guards, 
unsuspicious of what was intended, and awed 
by their dignity 3 of rank, who, in this instance, 



and they who are as beautiful as thyself admire thee. 
Thou hast got his wanton heart, his lecherous eyes, and 
his senseless head ; but to-morrow thou shalt find thy 
father will have his pushing horns. Cursed be all extra- 
vagancies : when I was young I sometimes punished my 
father, now I am old I cannot punish my son ; but 1 beg 
of God to deprive him rather of life, than suffer him to 
be disobedient." It is related that the young man died 
within ten months. — T. 

1 Merited esteem.} — Upon this incident M. Larcher 
remarks, that this last noble action of his life but ill 
corresponds with the mean and dastardly behaviour 
which Prexaspes had before exhibited to the murderer 
of his son. 

2 Seven pair of hawks. .} — The superstition of the an- 
cients, with respect to the sight or flight of birds, has 
often exercised the sagacity and acuteness of philosophers 
and scholars. Some birds furnished omens from their 
chattering, as crows, owls, &c. ; others from the direc- 
tion in which they flew, as eagles, vultures, hawks, &c. 
An eagle seen to the right was fortunate. — See Homer. 
The sight of an eagle was supposed to foretel to Tarqui- 
nius Priscus, that he should obtain the crown ; it pre- 
dicted also, the conquests of Alexander; and the loss 
of their dominions to Tarquin the proud, and Dionysius, 
tyrant of Syracuse; innumerable other examples must 
here occur to the most common reader. A raven seen 
on the left hand was unfortunate : 

Ssepe sinistra cava prtedixit ab Mine comix.— Virgil. 

3 Awed by their dignity."} — The most memorable in- 



seemed to act from a divine impulse, without 
any questions, permitted them to enter. As 
soon as they came to the interior part of the 
palace, they met with eunuchs, who were em- 
ployed as the royal messengers ; these asked 
their business, and at the same time threatened 
the guards for suffering them to enter. On their 
opposing their farther entrance, the conspirators 
drew their swords, and encouraging each other, 
put the eunuchs to death ; from hence they in- 
stantly rushed to the inner apartments. 

L XXVIII. Here the two magi happened 
to be, in consultation about what was to be done 
in consequence of the conduct of Prexaspes. 
As soon as they perceived the tumult, and heard 
the cries of the eunuchs, they ran towards them, 
and preparing in a manly manner to defend 
themselves, the one seized a bow and the other 
a lance. As the conspirators drew near to the 
attack, the bow became useless ; but the other 
magus, who was armed with the lance, wounded 
Aspathines in the thigh, and deprived Intapher- 
nes of one of his eyes, though the blow was not 
fatal. The magus who found his bow of no 
service, retreated to an adjoining apartment, into 
which he was followed by Darius and Gobryas. 
This latter seized the magus round the waist, 4 
but as this happened in the dark, Darius stood 
in hesitation, fearing to strike, lest he should 
wound Gobryas. When Gobryas perceived 
this, he inquired why he was thus inactive : 
when Darius replied, that it was from his fear 
of wounding his friend ; " Strike," exclaimed 

stance in history of the effects of this kind of impression, 
is that of the soldier sent into the prison to kill Caius 
Marius : — The story is related at length by Plutarch. 
"When the man entered the prison with his sword drawn, 
"Fellow," exclaimed the stern Roman, "darest thou 
kill Caius Marius ?" Upon which the soldier dropped his 
sword, and rushed out of doors. This fact, however, 
being no where mentioned by Cicero, who speaks very 
largely on the subject of Marius, has given Dr Middleton 
reason to suppose, that the whole is a fabulous narra- 
tion.— 2 V 

4 Round the waist.} — Not unlike to this was the man. 
ner in which David Rizzio, the favourite of the unfor- 
tunate Mary queen of Scots, was murdered. Rizzio was 
at supper with his mistress, attended by a few domestics, 
when the king, who had chosen this place and oppor- 
tunity to satisfy his vengeance, entered the apartment 
with Ruthven and his accomplices. The wretched fa- 
vourite, conceiving himself the victim whose death was 
required, flew for protection to the queen, whom he 
seized round the waist. This attitude did not save him 
from the dagger of Ruthven ; and before he could be 
dragged to the next apartment, the rage of his enemies 
put an end to his life, piercing his body with fifty-six 
wounds. — See the account in Robertson's History of Scot, 
land, vol. i. 359.— T. 






THALIA. 



163 



Gobryas, "though you should pierce both."— 
Darius instantly complied, and ran his sword 
through the magus. 

LXXIX. Having thus slain the magi, 5 they 



5 The magi.]— It may not in this place be impertinent, 
to give a succinct account of the magi or magians, as se- 
lected from various writers on the subject. This sect 
originating in the East, abominating all images, worship- 
ped God only by fire. Their chief doctrine was, that there 
were two principles, one of which was the cause of all 
good, the other the cause of all evil. The former is re- 
presented by light, the other by darkness, and that from 
these two all things in the world were made. The good 
god they named Yazdan or Ormund ; the evil god, Ah- 
raman ; the former is by the Greeks named Oromasdes, 
the latter Arimanius. Concerning these two gods, some 
held both of them to have been from eternity; others 
contended the good being only to be eternal, the other 
created : both agreed in this, that there will be a con- 
tinual opposition between these two till the end of the 
world, when the good god shall overcome the evil god ; 
and that afterwards each shall have his world to himself, 
the good god have all good men with him, the evil god 
all wicked men. Of this system, Zoroaster was the first 
founder, whom Hyde and Prideaux make cotemporary 
with Darius Hystaspes, but whose era, as appears from 
Moyle, the Greek writers of the age of Darius make 
many hundred years before their own time. After giv- 
ing a concise but animated acconnt of the theology of Zo- 
roaster, Mr Gibbon has this foolish remark : "Every mode 
of religion, to make a deep and lasting impression on the 
human mind, must exercise our obedience, by enjoining 
practices of devotion for which we can assign no reason ; 
and must acquire our esteem by inculcating moral duties, 
analogous to the dictates of our own hearts." The re- 
ligion of Zoroaster was abundantly provided with the 
former, and possessed a sufficient portion of the latter. 
At the age of puberty the faithful Persian was invested 
with a mysterious girdle, from which moment the most 
indifferent action of his life was sanctified by prayers, 
ejaculations, and genuflexions, the omission of which 
was agrievous sin. The moral duties, however, were re- 
quired of the disciple of Zoroaster, who wished to escape 
the persecution of Arimanius, or, as Mr Gibbon writes it, 
Ahriman, and to live with Ormund, or Ormusdin a bliss- 
ful eternity, where the degree of felicity will be exactly 
proportioned to the degree of virtue and piety. In the 
time of Theodosius the younger, the Christians enjoyed 
a full toleration in Persia ; but Abdas indiscreetly pull- 
ing down a temple, in wliich the Persians worshipped 
fire, a persecutiom against the Christians was excited, 
and prosecuted with unrelenting cruelty. The magi are 
still known in Persia, under the name of parsi or parses ; 
their superstition is contained in three books, named 
Zend, Pazend, and Vestna, said by themselves to be com- 
posed by Zerdascht, whom they confound with the pa- 
triarch Abraham. The oriental Christians pretend, that 
the magi who adored Jesus Christ, were disciples of Zo- 
roaster, who predicted to them the coming of the Mes. 
siah, and the new star which appeared at his birth. Up- 
on this latter subject a modern writer has ingeniously 
remarked, that the presents which the magi made to 
Christ, indicated their esteeming him a royal child, not- 
withstanding his mean situation and appearance : they 
gave him gold, frankincense, and myrrh, such as the 
queen of Sheba presented to Solomon in his glory. 

It seems almost unnecessary to add, that from these 



instantly cut off their heads. Their two friends 
who were wounded were left behind, as well to 
guard the citadel, as on account of their inability 
to follow them. The remaining five ran out 
into the public street, having the heads of the 
magi in their hands, and making violent outcries. 
They called aloud to the Persians, explaining 
what had happened, and exposing the heads of 
the usurpers ; at the same time, whoever of the 
magi appeared was instantly put to death. The 
Persians hearing what these seven noblemen 
had effected, and learning the imposture prac- 
tised on them by the magi, were seized with the 
desire of imitating their conduct. Sallying 
forth with drawn swords, they killed every 
magus whom they met ; and if night had not 
checked their rage, not one would have escaped. 
The anniversary of this day the Persians cele- 
brate with great solemnity : the festival they 
observe is called the magophonia, or the slaugh- 
ter of the magi. On this occasion no magus is 
permitted to be seen in public, they are obliged 
to confine themselves at home. 

LXXX. When the tumult had subsided, 
and an interval of five days was elapsed, the 
conspirators met to deliberate on the situation 
of affairs. Their sentiments, as delivered on 
this occasion, however they may want credit 
with many of the Greeks, were in fact as 
follows. — Otanes recommended a republican 
form of government : " It does not," says he, 
" seem to me advisable, that the government of 
Persia 6 should hereafter be intrusted to any 
individual person, this being neither popular 
nor wise. We all know the extreme lengths 
to which the arrogance of Cambyses proceeded, 
and some of us have felt its influence. How 
can that form of government possibly be good, 
in which an individual with impunity may in- 
dulge his passions, and which is apt to transport 

magi or magians the English word magic is derived: — 
See Prideaux, Gibbon, Bayle, Bibliotheque Orientale, 
and Harmer's Observations on passages of Scripture. — T. 
6 Government of Persia. ] — Machiavel, reasoning upon 
the conquests of Alexander the Great, and upon the un- 
resisting submission which his successors experienced 
from the Persians, takes it for granted, that amongst the 
ancient Persians there was no distinction of nobility. 
This, however, was by no means the case; and what 
Mr Hume remarks of the Florentine secretary was un- 
doubtedly true, that he was far better acquainted with 
Roman than with Greek authors : — See the Essay of Mr 
Hume, where he asserts that " Politics may be reduced 
to a science;" with his note at the end of the volume, 
which contains an enumeration of various Persian noble- 
men of different periods, as well as a refutation of Ma* 
chiavel's absurd position above stated.— T. 



164 



HERODOTUS. 



even the best of men beyond the bounds of 
reason ? When a man, naturally envious, at- 
tains greatness, he instantly becomes insolent : 
Insolence and jealousy are the distinguishing 
vices of tyrants, and when combined lead to 
the most enormous crimes. He who is placed 
at the summit of power, ought indeed to be a 
stranger to envy ; but we know by fatal exper- 
ience, that the contrary happens. We know 
also, that the worthiest citizens excite the jeal- 
ousy of tyrants, who are pleased only with the 
most abandoned : they are ever prompt to listen 
to the voice of calumny. If we pay them tem- 
perate respect, they take umbrage that we are 
not more profuse in our attentions : if the 
respect with which they are treated seem immo- 
derate, they call it adulation. The severest 
misfortune of all is, that they pervert the insti- 
tutions of their country, offer violence to our 
females, and put those whom they dislike to 
death, without the formalities of justice. But 
a democracy in the first place bears the honour- 
able name of an equality; 1 the disorders which 
prevail in a monarchy cannot there take place. 
The magistrate is appointed by lot, he is ac- 
countable for his administration, and whatever 
is done must be with the general consent. I 
am, therefore, of opinion, that monarchy should 
be abolished, and that, as every thing depends 
on the people, 8 a popular government should 
be established,". — Such were the sentiments of 
Otanes. 

LXXXI. Megabyzus, however, was in- 
clined to an oligarchy ; in favour of which he 
thus expressed himself: " All that Otanes has 

1 Equality.] — The word in the original is i/rovo/nr/iv, 
winch means equality of laws. M. Larcher translates it 
literally isonomie ; but in English, as we have no author- 
ity for the use of it, isonomy would perhaps seem pedan- 
tic. The following passage from Lord Shaftesbury fully 
explains the word in question. — Speaking of the influence 
of tyranny on the arts, " The high spirit of tragedy," 
says he, " can ill subsist where the spirit of liberty is 
wanting." The genius of this poetry consists in the 
lively representation of the disorders and misery of the 
great ; to the end that the people, and those of a lower 
condition, may be taught the better to content them- 
selves with privacy, enjoy their safer state, and prize 
the equality and justice of their guardian laws. — T. 

2 Every thing depends on the people.]— In this place 
the favourate adage of Vox popxili vox Dei, must occur 
to every reader ; the truth of which, as far as power is 
concerned, is certainly indisputable ; but with respect to 
political sagacity, the sentiment of Horace may be more 
eecurely vindicated : 

lnterdum vulgus rectum videt, est ubi peccat. 

Which Pope happily renders, 

The people's yoice is odd ; 

It is, and it is not, the voice of God — T. 



urged, concerning the extirpation of tyranny, 
meets with my entire approbation ; but when 
he recommends the supreme authority to be 
intrusted to the people, he seems to me to err 
in the extreme. Tumultuous assemblies of 
the people are never distinguished by wisdom, 
always by insolence ; neither can any thing be 
possibly more preposterous, than to fly from 
the tyranny of an individual to the intemperate 
caprice of the vulgar. Whatever a tyrant un- 
dertakes, has the merit of previous concert and 
design ; but the people are always rash and ig- 
norant. And how can they be otherwise, who 
are uninstructed, and with no internal sense a 
of what is good and right ? Destitute of judg- 
ment, their actions resemble the violence of a 
torrent. 4 To me, a democracy seems to in- 
volve the ruin of our country : let us, there- 
fore, inti-ust the government to a few indi- 
viduals, selected for their talents and their vir- 
tues. Let us constitute a part of these our- 
selves, and from the exercise of authority so 
deposited, we may be justified in expecting the 
happiest events." 



3 No internal sense.] — The original is somewhat per- 
plexed; but the acute Valcnaer, by reading omo8i» 
for ot%.r,iov } at once removes all difficulty. — T. 

4 Their actions resemble the violence of a torrent.] — 
Upon the subject of popular assemblies, the following 
remarks of M. de Lolme seem very ingenious as well as 
just. 

" Those who compose a popular assembly are not ac- 
tuated, in the course of their deliberations, by any clear 
or precise view of any present or positive personal inter- 
est. As they see themselves lost as it were in the crowd 
of those who are called upon to exercise the same func- 
tion with themselves ; as they know that their indi- 
vidual vote will make no change in the public resolution, 
and that to whatever side they may incline, the general 
result will nevertheless be the same, they do not under- 
take to inquire how far the things proposed to them 
agree with the whole of the laws already in being, or 
with the present circumstances of the state. As few 
among them have previously considered the subjects on 
which they are called upon to determine, very few carry 
along with them any opinion or inclination of their own, 
and to which they are resolved to adhere. As, how- 
ever, it is necessary at last to come to some resolution, 
the major part of them are determined, by reasons 
which they would blush to pay any regard to on much less 
serious occasions : an unusual sight, a change of the ordi- 
nary place of assembly, a sudden disturbance, a rumour, 
are, amidst the general want of a spirit of decision, the 
sufficiens ratio of the determination of the greatest part ; 
and from this assemblage of separate wills, thus formed, 
hastily and without reflection, a general will results, 
which is also without reflection." — Constitution of Eng- 
land, 250, 251. 

Quod enim fretum, quern Euripum, tot motus, tantas 
et tarn varias habere putatis agitationes fluctuum, quan- 
tas perturbationes et quantos aestus habet ratio comitio* 
rum. — Cicero Orat. pro Murcena. 



THALIA. 



165 



LXXXII. Darius was the third who de- 
livered his opinion. " The sentiments of 
Megabyzus," he observed, " as they relate to a 
popular government, are unquestionably wise 
and just; but from his opinion of an oligarchy, 
I totally dissent. Supposing the three differ- 
ent forms of government, monarchy, demo- 
cracy, and an oligarchy, severally to prevail in 
the greatest perfection, I am of opinion that 
monarchy has greatly the advantage. Indeed 
nothing can be better than the government of 
an individual eminent for his virtue. He will 
not only have regard to the general welfare of 
his subjects, but his resolutions will be cau- 
tiously concealed from the public enemies of 
the state. In an oligarchy, the majority who 
have the care of the state, though employed in 
the exercise of virtue for the public good, will 
De the objects of mutual envy and dislike. 
Every individual will be anxious to extend his 
own personal importance, from which will pro- 
ceed faction, sedition, and bloodshed. The 
sovereign power coming by these means to the 
nands of a single person, constitutes the strong- 
est argument to prove what form of govern- 
ment is best. Whenever the people possess 
the supreme authority, disorders in the state are 
unavoidable : such disorders introduced in a re- 
public, do not separate the bad and the profli- 
gate from each other, they unite them in the 
closest bonds of connection. They who mu- 
tually injure the state, mutually support each 
other : this evil exists till some individual, as- 
suming authority, suppresses the sedition : he 
of course obtains popular admiration, which 
ends in his becoming the sovereign ; 5 and this 
again tends to prove, that a monarchy is of all 
governments the most excellent. To compre- 
hend all that can be said at once, to what are 
we indebted for our liberty ; did we derive it 
from the people, an oligarchy, or an individual? 
For my own part, as we were certainly indebt- 
ed to one man for freedom, I think that to one 
alone the government should be intrusted. 
Neither can we without danger change the 
customs of our country." 

LXXXIII. Such were the three different 
opinions delivered, the latter of which was ap- 
proved by four out of the seven. 6 When Ota- 



5 Ends in his becoming the sovereign.] — It is probable 
that the ascendant of one man over multitudes began 
during a state of war, where the superiority of courage 
and of genius discovers itself most visibly, where unan- 
imity and concert are most requisite, and where the per- 
nicious effects of disorder are most sensibly felt. — Hume. 

6 Four out of the seven.] — This majority certainly decid- 



i nes saw his desire to establish an equality in 
I Persia, rejected, he spoke thus : " As it seems 
determined that Persia shall be governed by one 
person, whether chosen among ourselves by lot, 
or by the suffrages of the people, or by some 
other method, you shall have no opposition from 
me : I am equally averse to govern or obey. I 
therefore yield, on condition that no one of you 
shall ever reign over me, or any of my pos- 
terity." The rest of the conspirators assenting 
to this, he made no farther opposition, but re- 
tired from the assembly. At the present period 
this is the only family in Persia which retains 
its liberty, for all that is required of them is not 
to transgress the laws of their country. 

LXXXIV. The remaining six noblemen 
continued to consult about the most equitable 
mode of electing a king; and they severally de- 
termined, that if the choice should fall upon 
any of themselves, Otanes himself and all his 
posterity should be annually presented with a 
Median habit, 7 as well as with every other 

ed in favour of that species of government which is most 
simple andnatural ; and which would be, if always vested 
in proper hands, the best : but the abuse of absolute 
power is so probable, and so destructive, that it is neces- 
sary by all means to guard against it. Aristotle inclines 
to the opinion of those, who esteem a mixed government 
the best that can be devised. Of tliis they consider the 
Lacedaemonian constitution a good specimen ; the kings 
connecting it with monarchy, the senate with oligarchy, 
and the ephori and syssytia with democracy. — Arist. Pol. 
1. ii. cap. 4. Modern speculators on this subject, with one 
accord, allow the constitution of Great Britain, as it stands 
at present, to be a much more judicious and perfect mix- 
ture of the three powers, which are so contrived as to 
check and counterbalance each other, without impeding 
that action of the whole machine, which is necessary to 
the well-being of the people. The sixth book of Polybius 
opens with a dissertation on the different forms of gov- 
ernment, which deserves attention. — T. 

7 Presented with a Median habit.] — The custom of 
giving vests or robes in oriental countries, as a mark of 
honour and distinction, may be traced to the remotest an- 
tiquity, and still prevails. On this subject the following 
passage is given from a manuscript of Sir John Chardin, 
by Mr Harmer, in his Observations on Passages of Scrip- 
ture. 

" The kings of Persia have great wardrobes, where 
there are always many hundreds of habits ready, designed 
for presents, and sorted. They pay great attention to 
the quality or merit of those to whom these vestments 
or habits are given ; those that are given to the great 
men have as much difference as there is between the de- 
grees of honour they possess in the state." 

All modern travellers to the east speak of the same 
custom. We find also in the Old Testament various ex- 
amples of a similar kind. Chardin also, in his account erf 
the coronation of Solyman the Third, king of Persia, has 
the following passage : 

" His majesty, as every grandee had paid him his sub- 
missions, honoured him with a calate or royal vest. This 
Persian word, according to its etymology, signifies entire, 
perfect, accomplished, to signify either the excellency of 



166 



HERODOTUS. 



distinction magnificent in itself, and deemed 
honourable in Persia. They decreed him this 
tribute of respect, as he had first agitated the 
matter, and called them together. These were 
their determinations respecting Otanes : as to 
themselves they mutually agreed that access to 
the royal palace should be permitted to each of 
them, without the ceremony of a previous mes- 
senger, ' except when the king should happen 
to be in bed with his wife. They also resolved, 
that the king should marry no woman but from 
the family of one of the conspirators. The 
mode they adopted to elect a king was this : — 
They agreed to meet on horseback at sun-rise, 
in the vicinity of the city, and to make him king, 
whose horse should neigh the first. 

LXXX V. Darius had a groom, whose name 
was CEbares, a man of considerable ingenuity, for 
whom on his return home, he immediately sent. 
" CEbares," said he, "it is determined that we 
are to meet at sun- rise on horseback, and that 
he among us shall be king, whose horse shall 
first neigh. Whatever acuteness you have, exert 
it on this occasion, that no one but myself may 
attain this honour." " Sir," replied CEbares, 
" if your being a king or not depends on what 
you say, be not afraid ; I have a kind of charm, 
which will prevent any one's being preferred to 
yourself." " Whatever," replied Darius, "this 
charm may be, it must be applied without de- 
lay, as the morning will decide the matter." 
CEbares, therefore, as soon as evening came, 
conducted to the place before the city a mare, 
to which he knew the horse of Darius was par- 
ticularly inclined : he afterwards brought the 

the habit, or the dignity of him that wears it ; for it is 
an infallible mark of the particular esteem which the 
sovereign has for the person to whom he sends it, and 
that he has free liberty to approach his person ; for when 
the kingdom has changed its lord and master, the gran- 
dees who have not received this vest dare not pre- 
sume to appear before the king without hazard of their 
lives." 

This Median habit was made of silk ; it was indeed, 
among the elder Greeks only another name for a silken 
robe, as we learn from Procopius, tw t<r(lvire& — fa notka.i 
/uciv 'EAX'/jve? M.'/idizyv ixccXovv, vvv 5s trviptx'/iv ovo/ak^ouo'iv. 
This gift is fully explained by Xenophon in the first book 
of the Anabasis : it consisted of a horse with a gilt bridle, 
a golden collar, bracelets, and a sword of the kind pecu- 
liar to Media, called acinaces, besides the silken vest. 
His expressions are so similar to those of Herodotus, as 
to satisfy us that these specific articles properly made up 
the gift of honour. — T. 

1 Previous messenger.]— Visits to the great in eastern 
countries are always preceded by messengers, who carry 
presents, differing in value according to the dignity of the 
person who is to receive them. Without some present or 
other no visit must be made, nor favour expected. — T. 



horse there, and after carrying him several times 
round and near the mare, he finally permitted 
him to cover her. 

LXXXVI. The next morning as soon as it 
was light the six Persians assembled, as had 
been agreed, on horseback. After riding up 
and down at the place appointed, they came at 
length to the spot where, the preceding evening, 
the mare had been brought ; here the horse of 
Darius instantly began to neigh, which, though 
the sky was remarkably clear, was instantly suc- 
ceeded by thunder and lightning. The heavens 
thus seemed to favour, and indeed to act in con- 
cert with Darius. Immediately the other noble- 
men dismounted, and falling at his feet hailed 
him king. 2 

LXXX VII. Such, according to some, was 
the stratagem of CEbares ; others, however, re- 
late the matter differently, and both accounts 
prevail in Persia. These last affirm, that the 
groom having rubbed his hand against the pri- 
vate parts of the mare, afterwards folded it up 
in his vest, and that in the morning, as the 
horses were about to depart, he drew it out 
from his garment, and touched the nostrils of 
the horse of Darius, and that this scent instantly 
made him snort and neigh. 

LXXXVIII. Darius the son of Hystaspes 3 
was thus proclaimed king; and, except the 
Arabians, all the nations of Asia who had been 
subdued first by Cyrus, and afterwards by Cam- 
byses, acknowledged his authority. The Ara- 
bians were never reduced to the subjection of 

2 Hailed him king.] — Darius was about twenty years 
old when Cyrus died. Cambyses reigned seven years 
and five months ; Smerdis Magus was only seven months 
on the throne ; thus Darius was about twenty-nine years 
old when he came to the crown. — Lurcher. 

This circumstance of thunder and lightning from a 
cloudless sky, is often mentioned by the ancients, and 
was considered by them as the highest omen. Horace 
has left an ode upon it, as a circumstance which staggered 
his Epicurean notions, and impressed him with awe and 
I veneration, 1. i. Od. 34 ; and the commentators give us 
instances enough of similar accounts. With us there is 
no thunder without clouds, except such as is too distant 
to have much effect ; it may be otherwise in hot climates, 
where the state of the air is much more electrical.— T. 

3 Darius the son of Hystaspes.] — Archbishop Usher 
holdeth that it was Darius Hystaspes that was the king 
Ahasuerus, who married Esther ; and that Atossa was 
the Vashti, and Antystone the Esther of the holy scrip- 
tures. But Herodotus positively tells us, that Antystone 
was the daughter of Cyrus, and therefore she could not 
be Esther : and that Atossa had four sons by Darius, 
besides daughters, all born to him after he was king; 
and therefore sne cou^l not be that queen Vashti, who 
was divorced from the king her husband in the third year 
of his reign, nor he that Ahasuerus that divorced her. — 
Prideaux. 



_ 



THALIA. 



167 



Persia, ' but were in its alliance : tbey afforded 
Cambyses the means of penetrating into Egypt, 
without which he could never have accomplished 
his purpose. Darius first of all married two 
women of Persia, both of them daughters of 
Cyrus, Atossa who had first been married to 
Cambyses, and afterwards to the magus, and 
Antystone a virgin. He then married Parmys, 
daughter of Smerdis, son of Cyrus, and that 
daughter of Otanes who had been the instru- 
ment in discovering the magus. Being firmly 
established on the throne, his first work was the 
erection of an equestrian statue, with this in- 
scription : " Darius, son of Hystaspes, obtained 
the sovereignty of Persia by the sagacity of his 
horse, and the ingenuity of (Ebares his groom." 
The name of the horse was also inserted. 

L XX XIX. The next act of his authority 
was to divide Persia into twenty provinces, 
which they call satrapies, to each of which a 
governor was appointed. He then ascertained 
the tribute they were severally to pay, connect- 
ing sometimes many nations together which 
were near each other, under one district ; and 
sometimes he passed over many which were ad- 
jacent, forming one government of various re- 
mote and scattered nations. His particular 
division of the provinces, and the mode fixed 
for the payment of their annual tribute, was 
this : They whose payment was to be made in 
silver, were to take the Babylonian talent 5 for 

4 Never reduced to the subjection of Persia.]— The in- 
dependence of the Arabs has always been a theme of 
praise and admiration, from the remotest ages to the 
present. Upon this subject the following animated apos- 
trophe from Mr Gibbon, includes all that need be said. 
" The arms of Sesostris and Cyras, of Pompey and Tra- 
jan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia. The 
present sovereign of the Turks may exercise a shadow 
of jurisdiction, but his pride is reduced to solicit the 
friendship of a people whom it is dangerous to provoke, 
and fruitless to attack. The obvious causes of their free- 
dom are inscribed on the character and country of the 
Arabs ; the patient and active virtues of a soldier are in- 
sensibly nursed in the habits and discipline of a pastoral 
life. The long memory of their independence is the 
firmest pledge of its perpetuity ; and succeeding genera- 
tions are animated to prove their descent, and to main- 
tain their inheritance. When they advance in battle, the 
hope of victory is in the front, and in the rear the assur- 
ance of a retreat. Their horses and camels, who in eight 
or ten days can perform a march of four or five hundred 
miles, disappear before the conqueror : the secret waters 
of the desert elude his search ; and his victorious troops 
are consumed with hunger, thirst, and fatigue, in the 
pursuit of an invisible foe, who scorns his efforts} and 
safely reposes in the heart of the burning solitude." 

5 Babylonian talent.]— What follows on the subject of 
the talent, is extracted principally from Arbuthnot's 
tables of ancient coins. 



their standard ; the Euboic talent was to regu- 
late those who made their payment in gold; the 
Babylonian talent, it is to be observed, is equal 
to seventy Euboic minae. During the reign of 
Cyrus, and indeed of Cambyses, there were no 
specific tributes," but presents were made to the 
sovereign. On account of these and similar in- 
novations, the Persians call Darius a merchant, 
Cambyses a despot, but Cyrus a parent. Darius 
seemed to have no other object in view but the 
acquisition of gain ; Cambyses was negligent 
and severe ; whilst Cyrus was of a mild and 
gentle temper, ever studious of the good of his 
subjects. 

XC. The lonians and Magnesians of Asia, 
the iEolians, Carians, Lycians, Melyeans, 7 and 
Pamphylians, were comprehended under one 
district, and jointly paid a tribute of four hun- 
dred talents of silver ; they formed the first 
satrapy. The second, which paid five hun- 
dred talents, was composed of the Mysians, 
Lydians, Alysonians, Cabalians, and Hygen- 
nians. 8 A tribute of three hundred and sixty 
talents was paid by those who inhabit the right 
side of the Hellespont, by the Phrygians and 
Thracians of Asia, by the Paphlagonians, 
Mariandynians, 9 and Syrians : and these nations 



The word talent in Homer, is used to signify a balance, 
and in general it was applied either to a weight or a sum 
of money, differing in value according to the age and 
countries in which it was used. Every talent consists 
of 60 minae, and every minae of 100 drachmae, but the tal- 
ents differed in weight according to the minae and drach- 
mae of which they were composed. 

What Herodotus here affirms of the Babylonian talent, 
is confirmed by Pollux and by iElian. 

The Euboic talent was so called from the island Eubcea ; 
it was generally thought to be the same with the Attic 
talent, because both these countries used the same 
weights ; the mina Euboica, and the mina Attica, each 
consisted of 100 drachmae. 

According to the above, the Babylonian talent would 
amount, in English money, to about 22.QI. ; the Euboic or 
Attic talent to 193?. \bs.—T. 

6 No specific tributes.] — This seemingly contradicts 
what was said above, that the magus exempted the Per- 
sians for three years from every kind of impost. It must 
be observed that these imposts were not for a constancy, 
they only subsisted in time of war and were rather a 
gratuity than an impost. Those imposed by Darius 
were perpetual ; thus Herodotus does not appear at all 
to contradict himself. — Larcher. 

7 Melyeans.] — Those people are in all probability the 
same with the Milyans of whom Herodotus speaks, book 
i. c. clxxiii. and book vii. c. clxxvii. They were some- 
times called Minyans, from Minos, king of Crete. — T. 

8 Hygennians.] — For Hygennians Wesseling pro- 
poses to read Obigenians.-rT. 

3 Mariandynians.] — These were on the coast of Bi- 
thynia, where was said to be the Acherusian cave, 
through which Hercules dragged up Cerberus to light, 



168 



HERODOTUS. 



constituted the third satrapy. The Cilicians 
were obliged to produce every day a white horse, 
that is to say, three hundred and sixty annually, 
with five hundred talents of silver ; of these one 
hundred and forty were appointed for the pay- 
ment of the cavalry who formed the guard of 
the country ; the remaining three hundred and 
sixty were received by Darius : these formed 
the fourth satrapy. 

XCI. The tribute levied from the fifth sa- 
trapy was three hundred and fifty talents. Under 
this district was comprehended the tract of 
country which extended from the city Posi- 
deium, built on the frontiers of Cilicia and 
Syria, by Amphilochus, son of Amphiaraus, 1 
as far as Egypt, part of Arabia alone excluded, 
which paid no tribute. The same satrapy, more- 
over included allPhoenicia, the Syrian Palestine, 
and the isle of Cyprus. Seven hundred talents 
were exacted from Egypt, from the Africans 
which border upon Egypt, from Cyrene and 
Barce, which are comprehended in the Egyp- 
tian district. The produce of the fishery of 
the lake Moeris was not included in this, neither 
was the corn, to the amount of seven hundred 
talents more ; one hundred and twenty thou- 
sand measures of which were applied to the 
maintenance of the Persians and their auxiliary 
troops garrisoned within the white castle of 
Memphis : this was the sixth satrapy. The 
seventh was composed of the Satgagydse, the 
Dadicse and Aparytse, who together paid one 
hundred and seventy talents. The eighth 
satrapy furnished three hundred talents, and 
consisted of Susa and the rest of the Cissians. 

XCII. Babylon and the other parts of As- 
syria constituted the ninth satrapy, and paid a 
thousand talents of silver, with five hundred 



whose foam then produced aconite. Thus Dionysius 
Periegetes, 1. 788. 

That sacred plain where erst, as fablers tell, 
The deep-voiced dog of Pluto, struggling hard 
Against the potent grasp of Hercules, 
With foamy drops impregnating the earth, 
Produced dire poison to destroy mankind. 
1 Amphilochus, son of Amphiraus.2 — For an account 
of Amphiaraus, see book the first, chap. xlvi. The name 
of the mother of Amphilochus, according to Pausanias, 
was Eriphyle. He appears to have obtained an esteem 
and veneration equal to that which was paid to his father. 
He had an oracle at Mallus, in Cilicia, which place he 
built ; he had also an altar erected to his honour at Athens . 
His oracle continued in the time of Plutarch, and the 
mode of consulting it was this : — The person who wish- 
ed an answer to some inquiry passed a night in the tem- 
ple, and was sure to have a vision, which was to be con- 
sidered as the reply. There is an example in Dion Cassius, 
of a picture which was painted in the time of Commodus, 
descriptive of an answer communicated by thisoracle. — T. 



young eunuchs. The tenth satrapy furnished 
four hundred and fifty talents, and consisted of 
Ecbatana, the rest of Media, the Parycanii, 
and the Orthocorybantes. The Caspians, the 
Pausicse, the Pantimathi, and the Daritse, con- 
tributed amongst them two hundred talents, 
and formed the eleventh satrapy. The twelfth 
produced three hundred and sixty talents, and 
was composed of the whole country from the 
Bactrians to iEglos. 

XCIII. From the thirteenth satrapy four 
hundred talents were levied ; this comprehend- 
ed Pactyica, the Armenians with the contiguous 
nations j as far as the Euxine. The fourteenth 
satrapy consisted of the Sangatians, the Sa- 
rangasans, the Thamanaeans, Utians, and Menci, 
with those who inhabit the islands of the Red 
Sea, where the king sends those whom he 
banishes ; 8 these jointly contributed six hun- 
dred talents. The Sacae and Caspii formed 
the fifteenth satrapy, and provided two hundred 
and fifty talents. Three hundred talents were 
levied from the Parthians, Chorasmians, Sog- 
dians, and Arians, who were the sixteenth 
satrapy. 

XCIV. The Paricanii and Ethiopians of 
Asia paid four hundred talents, and formed the 
seventeenth satrapy. The eighteenth was 
taxed at two hundred talents, and was composed 
of the Matieni, the Saspires, and Alarodians. 
The Moschi, Tibareni, Macrones, Mosynceci, 
and Mardians, provided three hundred talents, 



2 Whom he baniskes.~\ — Banishment seems to have 
been adopted as a punishment at a very early period of 
the world ; and it may be supposed that in the infancy of 
society, men, reluctant to sanguinary measures, would 
have recourse to the expulsion of mischievous or un- 
worthy members, as the simpler and less odious remedy. 
When we consider the effect which exile has had upon 
the minds of the greatest and wisest of mankind, and 
reflect on thatattractive sweetness of the natal soil, which 
whilst we admire in poetic description we still feel to be 
ratione valentior omni, it seems wonderful that banish- 
ment should not more frequently supersede the neces- 
sity of sanguinary punishments. That Ovid, whose mind 
was enervated by licentious habits, should deplore, in 
strains the most melancholy, the absence of what alone 
could make life supportable, may not perhaps be thought 
wonderful ; but that Cicero, whose whole life was a life 
of philosophic discipline, should so entirely lose his firm- 
ness, and forget his dignity, may justify our concluding 
of the punishment of exile, that human vengeance need 
not inflict a more severe calamity. In opposition to what 
I have asserted above, some reader will perhaps be in- 
clined to cite the example of Lord Bolingbroke, his con- 
duct, and Ms reflections upon exile; but I think I can 
discern through that laboured apology, a secret chagrin 
and uneasiness, which convinces me at least, that whilst 
he acted the philosopher and the stoic, he had the com- 
mon feelings and infirmities of man.— T. 



THALIA. 



169 



and were the nineteenth satrapy. The Indians, 
the most numerous nation of whom we have 
any knowledge, were proportionally taxed ; they 
formed the twentieth satrapy, and furnished six 
hundred talents in golden ingots. 

XCV. If the Babylonian money be reduced 
to the standard of the Euboic talent, the aggre- 
gate sum will be found to be nine thousand 
eight hundred and eighty talents in silver ; and 
estimating the gold at thirteen times 3 the value 
of silver, there will be found, according to the 
Euboic talent, four thousand six hundred and 
eighty of these talents. The whole being es- 
timated together, it will appear that the annual 
tribute paid to Darius was fourteen thousand 
five hundred and sixty talents, omitting many 
trilling sums not deserving our attention. 

XCVI. Such was the sum which Asia 
principally, and Africa in some small propor- 
tion, paid to Darius. In process of time the 
islands . also were taxed, as was that part of 
Europe which extends to Thessaly. The 
manner in which the king deposited these 
riches in his treasury, was this : — The gold 
and silver was melted and poured into earthen 
vessels ; the vessel, when full, was removed, 
leaving the metal in a mass. When any 
was wanted, such a piece was broken off as the 
contingence required. 

XCVTI. We have thus described the diff- 
erent satrapies, and the impost on each. Persia 
is the only province which I have not men- 
tioned as tributary. The Persians are not 
compelled to pay any specific taxes, but they 
present a regular gratuity. The Ethiopians 
who border upon Egypt, subdued by Cambyses 
in his expedition against the Ethiopian Ma- 



3 Thirteen times the value of silver.] — The proportion 
of gold to silver varied at different times, according to 
the abundance of these two metals. In the time of Da- 
rius it was tliirteen to one j in the time of Plato twelve, 
and in the time of Menander, the comic poet, it was ten. 
— Larcher. 

In the time of Julius Caesar the proportion of gold to 
silver at Rome was no more than nine to one. This 
arose from the prodigious quantity of gold which Cossar 
had obtained from the plunder of cities and temples. It 
is generally supposed amongst the learned, that in the 
gold coin of the ancients one fiftieth part was alloy. — T. 

4 The annual tribute.'} — The comparison of two pas- 
sages in Herodotus (book i. chap, excii. and book iii. 
chaps, lxxxix. xcvi.) reveals an important difference 
between the gross and the net revenue of Persia, the 
sums paid by the provinces, and the gold or silver depo- 
sited in the royal treasury. The monarch might an- 
nually save three millions six hundred thousand pounds 
of the seventeen or eighteen millions raised upon the 
people. — Gibbon. 



crobians, are similarly circumstanced, as are 
also the inhabitants of the sacred town of 
Nyssa, who have festivals in honour of Bac- 
chus. These Ethiopians, with their neighbours, 
resemble in their customs the Calantian Indi- 
ans : they have the same rites of sepulture, 5 
and their dwellings are subterraneous. Once 
in every three years these two nations present 
to the king two chcenices of gold unrefined, 
two hundred blocks of ebony, twelve large 
elephants' teeth, and five Ethiopian youths, 
which custom has been continued to my time. 
The people of Colchos 6 and their neighbours, 
as far as mount Caucasus, imposed upon them- 
selves the payment of a gratuity. To this latter 
place the Persian authority extends ; northward 
of this their name inspires no regard. Every 
five years the nations above-mentioned present 
the king with an hundred youths and an hun- 
dred virgins, 7 which also has been continued 
within my remembrance. The Arabians con- 
tribute every year frankincense to the amount 
of a thousand talents. Independent of the 
tributes before specified, these were the pre- 
sents which the king received. 

XCVIIL The Indians procure the great 
number of golden ingots, which, as I have ob- 
served, they present as a donative to the king, 
in this manner : — That part of India which lies 
towards the east is very sandy ; and indeed, of 
all nations concerning whom we have any au- 
thentic accounts, the Indians are the people of 
Asia who are nearest the east, and the place 
of the rising sun. The part most eastward, is 
a perfect desert, from the sand. Under the 



5 The same rites of sepulture.}— The word in the text 
is <T!T£f|M.«T;, which means ' grains :' to say of two differ- 
ent nations that they use the same grain, seems ridicu- 
lous enough. Valcnaer proposes to read /rv^xri, which 
seems obvious and satisfactory. — T. 

6 The people of Colchos.]— It was the boast of the Col- 
chians, that their ancestors had checked the victories of 
Sesostris, but they sunk without any memorable effort 
under the arms of Cyrus, followed in distant wars the 
standard of the great king, and presented him every 
fifth year with a hundred boys and as many virgins, 
the fairest produce of the land. Yet he accepted this 
gift like the gold and ebony of India, the frankincense 
of the Arabs, and the negroes and ivory of Ethiopia : 
The Colcluans were not subject to the dominion of a 
satrap, and they continued to enjoy the name as well as 
substance of national independence. — Gibbon. 

7 Hundred virgins.]— The native race of Persians is 
small and ugly, but it has been improved by the perpe- 
tual mixture of Circassian blood. This remark Mr Gib- 
bon applies to the Persian women in the time of Julian. 
Amongst modern travellers, the beauties of the Persian 
ladies is a constant theme of praise and admiration. — T. 

Y 



170 



HERODOTUS. 



name of Indians many nations are compre- 
hended, using different languages ; of these 
some attend principally to the care of cattle, 
others not; some inhabit the marshes, and 
live on raw fish, which they catch in boats 
made of reeds, divided at the joint, and every 
joint ! makes one canoe. These Indians have 
cloth made of rushes, 2 which having mowed 
and cut, they weave together like a mat, and 
wear in the manner of a cuirass. 

XCIX. To the east of these are other In- 
dians, called Padsei, a who lead a pastoral life, 
live on raw flesh, 4 and are said to observe these 
customs : — If any man among them be dis- 

1 Every joint] — This assertion seems wonderful ; but 
Pliny, book xvi. chap. 36, treating of reeds, canes, and 
aquatic shrubs, affirms the same, with this precaution 
indeed, " if it may be credited." His expression is this : 
— Harundini quidem Indicae arborea amplitudo, quales 
vulgo in templis videmus. — Spissius mari corpus, fcemi- 
nae capacius. Navigiorumque etiam vicem praestant (si 
credimus) singula internodia. — T. 

2 Cloth made of rushes.] — To trace the modern dress 
back to the simplicity of the first skins, and leaves, and 
feathers, that were worn by mankind in the primitive 
ages, if it were possible, would be almost endless ; the 
fashion has often been changed, while the materials re- 
mained the same : the materials have been different as 
they were gradually produced by successive arts that 
converted a raw hide into leather, the wool of the sheep 
into cloth, the web of the worm into silk, and flax and 
cotton into linen of various kinds. One garment also 
has been added to another, and ornaments have been 
multiplied on ornaments, with a variety almost infinite, 
produced by the caprice of human vanity, or the new 
necessities to which man rendered himself subject by 
those many inventions which took place after he ceased 
to be, as God had created him, upright. — See historical 
remarks on dress, prefixed to a collection of the dresses 
of different nations, ancient and modern. 

The canoes and dresses here described, will strike the 
reader as much resembling those seen and described by 
modern voyagers to the South Seas. 

3 Padcei.]— 

Impia nee saevis celebrans convivia mensis 
Ultima Ticinus Phoebo tenet arva Padaeus. 

Tibull. I. iv. U4. 

4 On raw flesh.] — Not at all more incredible is the cus- 
tom said to be prevalent among the Abyssinians, of eat- 
ing a slice of meat raw from the living ox, and esteeming 
it one of the greatest delicacies. The assertion of this 
fact by Mr Bruce, the celebrated traveller, has excited a 
clamour against him, and by calling his veracity in ques- 
tion, has probably operated, amongst other causes, to 
the delay of a publication much and eagerly expected. 
This very fact, however, is also asserted of the Abys- 
ainians by Lobo and Poncet. If it be allowed without 
reserve, an argument is deducible from it, to prove that 
bullock's blood in contradiction to what is asserted by 
our historian, in ch. 15. of this book, is not a poison ; 
unless we suppose that the quantity thus taken into the 
stomach would be too small to produce the effect. Lobo, 
as well as Mr Bruce, affirms, that the Abyssinians eat 
beef, not only in a raw state, but reeking from the ox. 
—T. 



eased, his nearest connections put him to death, 
alleging in excuse that sickness would waste 
and injure his flesh. They pay no regard to 
his assertions that he is not really ill, but with- 
out the smallest compunction deprive him of 
life. If a woman be ill, her female connections 
treat her in the same manner. The more aged 
among them are regularly killed and eaten ; but 
there are very few who arrive at old age, for in 
case of sickness they put every one to death. 

C There are other Indians, who differing 
in manners from the above put no animal to 
death, 5 sow no grain, have no fixed habitations, 
and live solely upon vegetables. They have a 
particular grain, nearly of the size of millet, 
which the soil spontaneously produces, which 
is protected by a calyx ; the whole of this they 
bake and eat. If any of these Indians be 
taken sick, they retire to some solitude, and 
there remain, no one expressing the least con- 
cern about them during their illness, or after • 
their death. 

CI. Among all these Indians whom I have 
specified, the communication between the sexes 
is like that of the beasts, open and unrestrained. 
They are all of the same complexion, and much 
resembling the Ethiopians. The semen which 
their males emit is not, like that of other men, 
white, but black like their bodies," which is also 
the case with the Ethiopians. These Indians 
are very remote from Persia towards the south, 
and were never in subjection to Darius. 

CII. There are still other Indians towards 
the north, who dwell near the city of Caspaty- 
rum, and the country of Pactyica. Of all the 
Indians these in their manners most resemble 
the Bactrians ; they are distinguished above 
the rest by their bravery, and are those who are 
employed in searching for the gold. In the 
vicinity of this district there are vast deserts of 
sand, in which a species of ants 7 is produced, 

5 Put no animal to death.] — Nicolas Damascenus has 
preserved the name of this people. He calls them Ari- 
tonians. — Larcher. 

6 Black like their bodies.]— Semen si probe concoctum 
fuerit, colore album et splendens esse opportet, Ut vel 
hinc pateat quam parum vere Herodotus scribat semen 
nigrum Ethiopes promere. Rodericus a Castro de uni- 
versa mulierum medicina. — Aristotle had before said the 
same thing, in his history of animals. — Larcher. 

7 Species of ants.]— Of these ants Pliny also makes men- 
tion, in the following terms : 

" In the temple of Hercules, at Erythrae, the horns of 
an Indian ant were to be seen, an astonishing object In 
the country of the northern Indians, named Dandae, 
these ants cast up gold from holes within the earth. In 
colour they resemble cats, and are as large as the wolv«*» 



THALIA. 



171 



not so large as a dog, but bigger than a fox. 
Some of these, taken by hunting, are preserved 
in the palace of the Persian monarch. Like 
the ants common in Greece, which in form also 
they nearly resemble, they make themselves 
habitations in the ground, by digging under the 
sand. The sand thus thrown up is mixed with 
gold-dust, to collect which the Indians are des- 
patched into the deserts. To this expedition 
they proceed, each with three camels 8 fastened 
together, a female being secured between two 
males, and upon her the Indian is mounted, 
taking particular care to have one which has 
recently foaled. The females of this descrip- 
tion are in all respects as swift as horses, and 
capable of bearing much greater burdens. 9 

of Egypt. This gold, which they throw up in the winter, 
the Indians contrive to steal in the summer, when the 
ants, on account of the heat, hide themselves under 
ground. But if they happen to smell them, the ants rush 
from their holes and will often tear them in pieces, 
though mounted on their swiftest camels, such is the swift- 
ness and fierceness they display from the love of then- 
gold." 

Upon the above Larcher has this remark: the little 
communication which the Greeks had with the Indians, 
prevented their investigating the truth with respect to 
this animal; and their love of the marvellous inclined 
them to assent to this description of Herodotus. Deme- 
trius Triclinius says, on the Antigone of Sophocles, 
doubtless from some ancient Scholiast which he copies, 
that there are in India winged animals, named ants, which 
dig up gold. Herodotus and Tliny say nothing of their 
having wings. Most of our readers will be induced 
to consider the description of these ants as fabulous; 
nevertheless de Thou, an author of great credit, tells 
us, that Shah Thomas, sophi of Persia, sent, in the year 
1559, to Soliman an ant like these here described. 

They who had seen the vast nests of the termites, or 
white ants, might easily be persuaded that the animals 
which formed them were as large as foxes. The dispro- 
portion between the insect, though large, and its habita- 
tion, is very extraordinary. — T. 

8 Camels.] — There has long existed a preposterous pre- 
judice, with respect to the natural history of this animal, 
which is now removed by the sure and decisive test of 
anatomical experiment. All naturalists and travellers, 
ancient and modern, as ancient as Aristotle, and as 
modern as Mr Bruce, (see his fourth volume) have as- 
serted of the camel, that it has a fifth stomach or reser- 
voir, of great capacity, which by retaining water a most 
incredible time, pure and unmixed, enables the animal 
to perform those long and fatiguing journeys, which have 
been the admiration of mankind. Mr Bruce says, that 
being reduced to the extremity of distress, from the want 
of water, he and his party killed two camels, and took 
from the stomachs of each about four gallons of water ; 
it was vapid, and of a bluish cast, but had neither taste 
nor smell. 

In contradiction to this positive assertion, I am inform- 
ed, that an eminent naturalist, who has dissected not 
less than three camels, unequivocally denies the existence 
of any separate stomach or reservoir, dift'erent from those 
of all ruminating animals. 

9 Greater burdens.] — Of all the descriptions I have 



CI II. As my countrymen of Greece are well 
acquainted with the form of the camel, I shall 
not here describe it ; I shall only mention those 
particulars concerning it with which I conceive 
them to be less acquainted. '" Behind, the camel 
has four thighs and as many knee joints ; the 
member of generation falls from between the 
hinder legs, and is turned towards the tail. 



met with of this wonderful animal, the following from 
Volney, seems the most animated and interesting: — 

No creature seems so peculiarly fitted to the climate 
in which it exists, as the camel. Designing the camel to 
dwell in a country where he can find little nourishment, 
nature has been sparing of her materials in the whole 
of his formation. She has not bestowed upon him the 
fleshiness of the ox, horse, or elephant, but limiting her- 
self to what is strictly necessary, she has given him a 
small head vrithout ears, at the end of a long neck with- 
out flesh. She has taken from his legs and thighs every 
muscle not immediately requisite for motion, and in short 
has bestowed on his withered body only the vessels and 
tendons necessary to connect its frame together. She 
has furnished him with a strong jaw, that he may grind 
the hardest aliments; but, lest he should consume too 
much, she has straitened his stomach, and obliged him 
to chew the cud. She has lined his foot with a lump of 
flesh, which, sliding in the mud, and being no way adapt- 
ed to climbing, fits him only for a dry, level, and sandy 
soil, like that of Arabia : she has evidently destined him 
likewise for slavery, by refusing him every sort of defence 
against his enemies. So great, in short, is the importance 
of the camel to the desert, that were it deprived of that 
useful animal, it must infallibly lose every inhabitant. — 
Volney. 

With respect to the burdens which camels are capable 
of carrying, Russel tells us, that the Arab camel will 
carry one hundred rotoloes, or five hundred pounds' 
weight; but the Turcomans' camel's common load is one 
hundred and sixty rotoloes, or eight hundred pounds' 
weight. Their ordinary pace is very slow, Volney says, 
not more than thirty six hundred yards in an hour ; it is 
needless to press them, they will go no quicker. Raynal 
says, that the Arabs qualify the camels for expedition 
by matches, in which the horse runs against him ; the 
camel, less active and nimble, tires out his rival in a long 
course. There is one peculiarity with respect to camels, 
which not being generally known, I give the reader, a* 
translated from the Latin of Father Strope, a learned 
German missionary. " The camels which have the hon- 
our to bear presents to Mecca and Medina are not to be 
treated afterwards as common animals; they are con- 
sidered as consecrated to Mahomet, which exempts them 
from all labour and service. They have cottages built 
for their abodes, where they live at ease, and receive 
plenty of food, with the most careful attention. 

10 To be less acquainted,] — These farther particulars 
concerning the camel are taken from Mr Pennant. 

The one-bunched camel is the Arabian camel, the two- 
bunched, the Bactrian. The Arabian has six callosities 
on the legs, will kneel down to be loaded, but rises the 
moment he finds the burden equal to his strength. They 
are gentle always, except when in heat, when they are 
seized with a sort of madness, which makes it unsafe to 
approach them. The Bactrian camel is larger and more 
generous than the domesticated race. The Chinese have 
a swift variety of this, which they call by the expressive 
name of Fong Kyo Fo, or camels with feet of the wind. 



172 



HERODOTUS. 



CIV. Having thus connected their camels, 
the Indians proceed in search of the gold, 
choosing the hottest time of the day as most 
proper for their purpose, for then it is that the 
ants conceal themselves under the ground. In 
distinction from all other nations, the heat 
with these people is greatest, not at mid-day, 
but in the morning. They have a vertical sun 
till about the time when with us people with- 
draw from the forum ; ' during which period 
the warmth is more excessive than the mid- day 
sun in Greece, so that the inhabitants are then 
said to go into the water for refreshment. 
Their mid-day is nearly of the same tempe- 
rature as in other places; after which the 
warmth of the air becomes like the morning 
elsewhere ; it then progressively grows milder, 
till at the setting sun it becomes very cool. 

CV. As soon as they arrive at the spot, the 
Indians precipitately fill their bags with sand, 
and return as expeditiously as possible. The 
Persians say that these ants know and pursue 
the Indians by their smell, with inconceivable 
swiftness. They affirm, that if the Indians did 
not make considerable progress whilst the ants 
were collecting themselves together, it would be 
impossible for any of them to escape. For this 
reason, at different intervals, 2 they separate one 



1 People withdraw from tJie forum.]— The times of the 
forum were so exactly ascertained, as to serve for a no- 
tation of time. The time of full forum is mentioned by 
many authors, as Thucydides, Xenophon, Diodorus Sicu- 
lus, Lucian, and others, and is said by Suidas to have 
been the third hour in the morning-, that is, nine*o'clock ; 
and Dio Chrysostom places it as an intermediate point 
between morning-, or sun-rise, and noon, which agrees 
also with nine o'clock. One passage in Suidas speaks also 
of the fourth, fifth, and sixth hours ; but either they were 
fora of different kinds, or the author is there mistaken, 
or the passage is corrupt. See ^Elian, xii. 30. and Athen- 
seus, xiv. 1. The time of breaking up the forum, aXo^s 
di<zXv<Ti$, is not, I believe, mentioned, except here, 
by Herodotus ; but by this passage it appears that it 
must have been also a stated time, and before noon ; pro- 
bably ten or eleven o'clock. This account of a sun, hot- 
ter and more vertical in the morning than at noon, is so 
perfectly unphilosophical, that it proves decisively, what 
the hypothesis of our author concerning the overflowing 
of the Nile gave strong reason to suspect, that Hero- 
dotus was perfectly uninformed on subjects of this kind. 
Mid-day, or noon, can be only, at all places, when the 
sun is highest and consequently hottest, unless any 
clouds or periodical winds had been assigned as causes 
of this singular effect. Whoever fabricated the account, 
which he here repeats, thought it nel-essary to give an 
appearance of novelty even to the celestial phenomena 
of the place. 

Herodotus himself uses the term of rXydaea, aXo^s 
in book. ii. ch. 173. and vii. 223.— T. 

2 At different intervals.] — This passage is somewhat 



of the male camels from the female, which are 
always fleeter than the males, and are at this 
time additionally incited by the remembrance 
of their young whom they had left. Thus, ac- 
cording to the Persians, the Indians obtain 
their greatest quantity of gold ; what they pro- 
cure by digging is of much inferior importance. 
CVL Thus it appears that the extreme 
parts of the habitable world are distinguished 
by the possession of many beautiful things, as 
Greece is for its agreeable and temperate sea- 
sons. India as I have already remarked, is the 
last inhabited country towards the east, where 
every species of birds and of quadrupeds, hor- 
ses excepted, 3 are much larger than in any other 
part of the world. Their horses are not so 
large as the Msaean horses of Media. They 
have also a great abundance of gold, which they 
procure partly by digging, partly from the rivers, 
but principally by the method above described. 

perplexing. The reader must remember that the Indian 
lode upon the female camel, which was betwixt two 
males. This being the swiftest, he trusted to it for his 
own personal security ; and it may be supposed that he 
untied one or both of the male camels, as the enemy ap- 
proached, or as his fears got the better of his avarice. 

3 Horses excepted. — Every thing of moment which is 
involved in the natural history of the horse, may be 
found in M. Buffon. But, as Mr Pennant observes, we 
may in this country boast a variety which no other 
single kingdom possesses. Most other countries pro- 
duce but one kind, while ours, by a judicious mixture of 
the several species, by the happy difference of our soil, 
and by our superior skill in management, may triumph 
over the rest of Europe in having brought each quality 
of this noble animal to the highest perfection, the same 
author tells us, that the horse is in some places found 
wild ; that these are less than the domestic kinds, of a 
mouse colour, have greater heads than the tame, their 
foreheads remarkably arched, go in great herds, will 
often surround the horses of the Mongals and Kalkas 
while they are grazing, and carry them away. These 
are excessively vigilant; a sentinel placed on an emi- 
nence gives notice to the herd of any approaching dan- 
ger, by neigliing aloud, when they all run off with amaz- 
ing swiftness. These are sometimes taken by the means 
of hawks, which fix on then- heads, and distress them so 
as to give the pursuers time to overtake them. In the inte- 
rior parts of Ceylon is a small variety of the horse, not 
exceeding thirty inches in height, which is sometimes 
brought to Europe as a rarity. It may not, in this 
place, be impertinent to inform the reader, that in the 
East the riding on a horse is deemed very honourable, 
and that Europeans are very seldom permitted to do it. 
In the book of Ecclesiastes, chap. x. ver. 7. we meet 
with this expression, " I have seen servants on horses," 
which we may of course understand to be spoken of as 
a thing very unusual and improper. 

To conclude this subject, I have only to observe, that 
the Arabian horses are justly allowed to be the finest in 
the world in point of beauty and of swiftness, and are 
sent into ali parts to improve the breed of this animal 
— T. 



THALIA. 



173 



They possess likewise a kind of plant, which, 
instead of fruit, produces wool, 4 of a finer and 
better quality than that of sheep : of this the 
natives make their clothes. 

CVII. The last inhabited country towards 
the south is Arabia, the only region of the earth 
which produces frankincense, 5 myrrh, cinna- 
mon, G cassia, 7 and ledanum. 8 Except the 
myrrh, the Arabians obtain all these aromatics 
without any considerable trouble. To collect 
the frankincense, they burn under the tree which 
produces it a quantity of the styrax, 9 which the 
Phenicians export into Greece j for these trees 
are each of them guarded by a prodigious num- 
ber of flying serpents, small of body, and of dif- 
ferent colours, which are dispersed by the smoke 
of the gum. It is this species of serpent which, 
in an immense body, infests Egypt. 

CVIII. The Arabians, moreover, affirm, 
that their whole country would be filled with 
these serpents, if the same thing were not to 

4 Produces wool.'} — This was doubtless the cotton 
shrub, called by the ancients byssus. This plant grows 
to the height of about four feet : it has a yellow flower 
streaked with red, not unlike that of the mallow ; the 
pistil becomes a pod of the size of a small egg ; in this 
are from three to four cells, each of which, on bursting, 
is found to contain seeds involved in a whitish substance, 
which is the cotton. The time of gathering the cotton is 
when the fruit bursts, which happens in the months of 
March and April. The scientific name of this plant is 
gossypium. — T. 

5 Frankincense.']— This, of all perfumes, was the most 
esteemed by the ancients ; it was used in divine worship, 
and was in a manner appropriated to princes and great 
men. Those employed in preparing it were naked, they 
had only a girdle about their loins, which their master 
had the precaution to secure with Ms own seal. — T. 

6 Cinnamon}— is a species of laurel, the bark of which 
constitutes its valuable part. Tliis is taken off in the 
months of September and February. "When cut into 
small slices, it is exposed to the sun, the heat of which 
curls it up into the form in which we receive and use it. 
The berry, when boiled in water, yields, according to 
Raynal, an oil, which, suffered to congeal, acquires a 
whiteness. Of this candles are made, of a very aromatic 
smell, which are reserved for the sole use of the king of 
Ceylon, in which place it is principally found. — T. 

7 Cassia.} — This is, I believe, a bastard kind of cinna- 
mon, called in Europe, cassia lignea ; the merchants mix 
it with true cinnamon, which is four times its value ; it 
is to be distinguished by a kind of viscidity perceived in 
chewing it. — T. 

8 Ledanum.} — Ledanum, or ladanum, according to 
Pliny, was a gum made of the dew which was gathered 
from a shrub called lada, — T. 

9 Styrax.}— This is the gum of the storax tree, is very 
aromatic, and brought to this country in considerable 
quantities from the Archipelago. It is obtained by making 
incisions in the tree. The Turks adulterate it with saw- 
dust. Another species of storax is imported to Europe 
from America, and is procured from the liquid amber- 
tree.— T. 



happen with respect to them which we know 
happens, and, as it should seem, providentially, 
to the vipers. Those animals, which are more 
timid, and which serve for the purpose of food, 
to prevent their total consumption are always 
remarkably prolific,' which is not the case with 
those which are fierce and venomous. The 
hare, for instance, the prey of every beast and 
bird, as well as of man, produces young abun- 
dantly. It is the singular property of this ani- 
mal, 11 that it conceives a second time, when it is 
already pregnant, and at the same time carries 
in its womb young ones covered with down, 
others not yet formed, others just beginning to 
be formed, whilst the mother herself is again 
ready to conceive. But the lioness, of all ani- 
mals the strongest and most ferocious, produces 
but one young one ia in her life, for at the birth 
of her cub she loses her matrix. The reason of 
this seems to be, that as the claws of the lion - 
are sharper by much than those of any other 
animal, the cub, as soon as it begins to stir in 
the womb, injures and tears the matrix, which 
it does still more and more as it grows bigger, 
so that at the time of its birth no part of the 
womb remains whole. 

CIX. Thus, therefore, if vipers and those 
winged serpents of Arabia were to generate in 
the ordinary course of nature, the natives could 
not live. But it happens, that when they are 
incited by lust to copulate, at the very instant 
of emission, the female seizes the male by the 
neck, and does not quit her hold till she has 
quite devoured it. 13 The male thus perishes, 
but the female is also punished ; for whilst the 
young are still within the womb, as the time of 
birth approaches, to make themselves a passage 

10 Remarkably prolific.} — Sec Berhani's'chapter on the 
balance of animals, Physico-Theology, b. iv. ch. x. and 
ch. xiv. § 3. 

11 The singular property of this animal.} — With re- 
spect to the superfcetation of this animal, Puny makes 
the same remark, assigning the same reason. Lepus 
omnium praedre nascens, solus prater Dasypodem super- 
fcetat, aliud educans, aliud in utero pilis vestitum, aliud 
implume, aliud inchoatum gerens par iter. This doctrine 
of superfcetation is strenuously defended by Sir T. Brown, 
in his vulgar Errors ; and, as far as it respects the ani- 
mal in question, is credited by Larcher : but Mr Pennant 
very sensibly remarks, that as the hare breeds very fre- 
quently in the course of the year, there is no necessity 
for having recourse to this doctrine for their numbers. 
—T. 

12 But one young one.}— This assertion is perfectly ab- 
surd and false. The lioness has from two to six young 
ones, and the same lioness has been known to litter four 
or five times. — T. 

13 Quite devoured it.} — This narrative must also be con. 
sidered as entirely fabulous. — T. 



174- 



HERODOTUS. 



they tear iit pieces the matrix, thus avenging 
their father's death. Those serpents which are 
not injurious to mankind lay eggs, and produce 
a great quantity of young. There are vipers in 
every part of the world, but winged serpents are 
found only in Arabia, where there are great 
numbers. 

CX. We have described how the Arabians 
procure their frankincense ; their mode of ob- 
taining the cassia is this : — The whole of their 
body, and the face, except the eyes, they cover 
with skins of different kinds ; they thus proceed 
to the place where it grows, which is in a marsh 
not very deep, but infested by a winged species 
of animal much resembling a bat, very strong, 
and making a hideous noise ; they protect their 
eyes from these, and then gather the cassia. 

CXI. Their manner of collecting the cin- 
namon ' is still more extraordinaiy. In what 
particular spot it is produced, they themselves 
are unable to certify. There are some who 
assert that it grows in the region where Bac- 
chus was educated, and their mode of reasoning 
is by no means improbable. These affirm that 
the vegetable substance, which we, as instructed 
by the Phenicians, 2 call cinnamon, is by certain 

1 Cinnamon.']— The substance of Larcher's very long 
and learned note on this subject, may, if I mistake not, 
be comprised in very few words : by cinnamomum the 
ancients understood a branch of that tree, bark and all, of 
which the cassia was the bark only. The cutting of these 
branches is now prohibited, because found destructive of 
the tree. I have before observed, that of cinnamon there 
are different kinds ; the cassia of Herodotus was, doubt- 
less, what we in general understand to be cinnamon, of 
which our cassia, or cassia lignea, is an inferior kind. — T. 

2 As instructed by the Phenicians.~\ — I cannot resist 
the pleasure of giving at full length the note of Larcher 
on this passage, which detects and explains two of the 
most singular and unaccountable errors ever committed 
in literature. 

" The above is the true sense of the passage, which 
Pliny has mistaken. He makes Herodotus say that the 
cinnamon and cassia are found in the nests of certain 
birds, and in particular of the phoenix. Cinnamomum et 
casias, fabulose narravit antiquitas, princepsve Herodo- 
tus, avium nidis et privatim phoenicis, in quo situ Liber 
Pater educatus esset, ex inviis rupibus arboribusque 
decuti. The above passage from Pliny, Dupin has tran- 
slated.most ridiculously,' l'antiquite fabuleuse, et le prince 
des menteurs, Herodote, disent,' &c. He should have 
said Herodotus first of all, for princeps, in this place, does 
not mean prince, and menteur cannot possibly be implied 
from the text of Pliny. Pliny had reason to consider 
the circumstance as fabulous, but he ought not to have 
imputed it to our historian, who says no such thing. But 
the authority of Pliny has imposed not only on Statlus, 

Phariaeque exempta volucri 
Cinnama, 

where Pharia volucris means the phoenix, and on 

Avienus, 

Internis etiam procul undique ab oris 

A\es arnica deo iaigum congessit amomum ; 



large birds carried to their nests constructed of 
clay, and placed in the cavities of inaccessible 
rocks. To procure it thence, the Arabians 
have contrived this stratagem : — they cut in very 
large pieces the dead bodies of oxen, asses, or 
other beasts of burden, and carry them near 
these nests : they then retire to some distance ; 
the birds soon fly to the spot, and carry these 
pieces of flesh to their nests, which not being 
able to support the weight, fall in pieces to the 
ground. The Arabians take this opportunity 
of gathering the cinnamon, which they after- 
wards dispose of to different countries. 

CXII. The ledanum, 3 or as the natives 
term it, ladanum, is gathered in a more remarka- 
ble manner than even the cinnamon. In itself 
it is particularly fragrant, though gathered from 
a place as much the contrary. It is found 
sticking to the beards of he- goats, like the 
mucus of trees. It is mixed by the Arabians 
in various aromatics, and indeed it is with this 
that they perfume themselves in common. 

CXIII. I have thought it proper to be thus 
minute on the subject of the Arabian perfumes ; 
and we may add, that the whole of Arabia ex- 
hales a most delicious fragrance. There are 
also in this country two species of sheep, well 
deserving admiration, and to be found no where 
else. One of them is remarkable for an enor- 
mous length of tail, 4 extending to three cubits, 

but also on Van Stapel,in his Commentaries on Theophras- 
tus. Pliny had, doubtless, read too hastily this passage 
of Herodotus, which is sufficiently clear. Suidas and 
the Etymologicum Magnum, are right in the word 

3 Ledanum.']— The following further particulars con- 
cerning this aromatic are taken from Tournefort. 

It is gathered by the means of whips, which have long 
handles, and two rows of straps ; with these they brush 
the plants, and to these will stick the odoriferous glue 
which hangs on the leaves ; when the whips are suffi- 
ciently laden with this glue, they take a knife and scrape 
it clean off the straps. 

In the time of Dioscorides, and before,they used to gath- 
er the ledanum not only with whips, but they also were 
careful in combing off such of it as was found sticking to 
the beards and thighs of the goats, which fed upon no- 
thing but the leaves of the cistus. They still observe the 
same process. 

The ledum is a species of cistus. 

4 Enormous length of tail. ]— The folio wing description 
of the broad-tailed sheep, from Pennant, takes away from 
the seeming improbability of this account. 

" This species," says Mr Pennant, " is common in 
Syria, Barbary, and Ethiopia. Some of their tails end in 
a point, but are oftener square or round. They are so 
long as to trail on the ground, and the shepherds are ob- 
liged to put boards with small wheels under the tails to 
keep them from galling. These tails are esteemed a great 
delicacy, are of a substance between fat and marrow, 

j and are eaten with the lean of the mutton. Some of 

I these tails weigh 50 lb. each." 



THALIA. 



175 



if not more. If they were permitted to trail 
them along the ground, they would certainly 
ulcerate from the friction. But the shepherds 
of the country are skilful enough to make little 
carriages, upon which they secure the tails of 
the sheep : the tails of the other species are of 
the size of one cubit. 

CXIV. Ethiopia, which is the extremity 
of the habitable world, is contiguous to this 
country on the south-west. This produces 
gold in great quantities, elephants with their 
prodigious teeth, trees and shrubs of every kind, 
as well as ebony ; its inhabitants are also re- 
markable for their size, their beauty, and their 
length of life. 

CXV. The above are the two extremes of 
Asia and Africa. Of that part of Europe 
nearest to the west, I am not able to speak 
with decision. I by no means believe that the 
Barbarians give the name of Eridanus 5 to a 
river which empties itself into the Northern 
Sea, whence, as it is said, our amber comes. 
Neither am I better acquainted with the islands 
called the Cassiterides, 6 from which we are 

5 Eridanus.'] — Bellanger was of opinion, that Hero- 
dotus intended here to speak of the Eridanus, a river in 
Italy ; Pliny thought so too, and expresses Ins surprise 
that Herodotus should be unable to meet with a person 
who had seen this river, although part of his life was 
6pent at Thuria in Magna Grsecia. 

But this very reflection ought to have convinced both 
Pliny and Bellanger, that Herodotus had another Erida- 
nus in view. 

The Eridanus here alluded to, could not possibly be 
any other than the Rho-daune, which empties itself 
into the Vistula, near Dantzic, and on the banks of 
which amber is now found in large quantities. — Lar- 
cher. 

6 Cassiterides.]— Pliny says, these islands were thus 
called from their yielding abundance of lead} Strabo 
says, that they were known only to the Phenicians ; 
Larcher is of opinion that Great Britain was in the num- 
ber of these. 

The Phenicians, who were exceedingly jealous of 
their commerce, studiously concealed the situation of the 
Cassiterides, as long as they were able ; which fully ac- 
counts for the ignorance so honestly avowed by Hero- 
dotus. Camden and d'Anville agree in considering the 
Scilly Isles as undoubtedly the Cassiterides of the an- 
cients. Strabo makes them ten in number, lying to the 
north of Spain ; and the principal of the Scilly isles are 
ten, the rest being very inconsiderable. Dionysius Per- 
iegetes expressly distinguishes them from the British 
isles. 

tJ-zuroi's 6"EoTT£f/Si34? 7061 zct<ro-iTZ%oio ytvtBXr,— 

AXXcct h' ajx.ioe.voio TCct^au ~Qo§iwrih<z.s ttxrots 
Aura-at VYio-oi lottri Bg6T«n§jf. — V. 563. 

Yet it is not an improbable conjecture of his commen- 
tator Hill, that the promontory of Cornwall might per- 
haps at first be considered as another island. Diodorus 
Sicnlus describes the carrvinar of tin from the Cassiteri- 



said to have our tin. The name Eridanus is 
certainly not barbarous, it is of Greek deriva- 
tion, and, as I should conceive, introduced by 
one of our poets. I have endeavoured, but 
without success, to meet with some one who 
from ocular observation might describe to me 
the sea which lies in that part of Europe. It 
is nevertheless certain, that both our tin and 
our amber 7 are brought from those extreme 
regions. 

CXVI. It is certain that in the North of 
Europe there is a prodigious quantity of gold ; 
but how it is produced I am not able to tell 
with certainty. It is affirmed indeed, that the 
Arimaspi, a people who have but one eye, take 
this gold away violently from the griffins ; but 
I can never persuade myself that there are any 
men who, having but one eye, enjoy in all other 
respects the nature and qualities of other hu- 
man beings. Thus much seems unquestionable, 
that these extreme parts of the world contain 
within themselves things the most beautiful as 
well as rare. 

CXVI I. There is in Asia a large plain, 
surrounded on every part by a ridge of hills, 
through which there are five different apertures. 
It formerly belonged to the Chorasmians, who 
inhabit those hills in common with the Hyr- 
canians, Parthians, Sarangensians, and Tho- 
maneans ; but after the subjection of these 
nations to Persia, it became the property of the 
great king. From these surrounding hills there 
issues a large river called Aces ; this formerly, 
being conducted through the openings of the 



des, and from Britain, to the northern coast of France, 
and thence on horses to Marseilles, thirty days' journey; 
this must be a new trade established by the Romans, 
who employed great perseverance to learn the secret 
from the Phenicians. Strabo tells us of one Phenician 
captain, who finding himself followed by a Roman vessel, 
purposely steered into the shallows, and thus destroyed 
both his own ship and the other ; his life, however, was 
saved, and he was rewarded by Ms countrymen for his 
patriotic resolution. 

Eustathius, in his comment on Dionysius, reckons 
also ten Cassiterides; but his account affords no new 
proof, as it is manifestly copied from Strabo, to the text 
of which author it affords a remarkable correction. T. 

7 Amber.] — Amber takes its name from ambra, the 
Arabian name for this substance ; the science of elec- 
tricity is so called from electntm, the Greek word for 
amber. This term of electricity is now applied not only 
to the power of attracting lighter bodies, which amber 
possesses, but to many other powers of a similar nature. 
Amber is certainly not of the use, and consequently not 
of the value, which it has been, but it is still given in 
medicine, and is, as I am informed, the basis of all var- 
nishes. It is found in various places, but Prussia is 
said to produce the most and the best. — T. 



176 



HERODOTUS. 



mountain, watered the several countries above 
mentioned. But when these regions came 
under the power of the Persians, the apertures 
were closed, and gates placed at each of them, 
to prevent the passage of the river. Thus on the 
inner side, from the waters having no issue, this 
plain became a sea, and the neighbouring 
nations, deprived of their accustomed resource, 
were reduced to the extremest distress from 
the want of water. In winter they, in common 
with other nations, had the benefit of the rains, 
but in summer, after sowing their millet and 
sesanum, they required water, but in vain. Not 
being assisted in their distress, the inhabitants 
of both sexes hastened to Persia, and presenting 
themselves before the palace of the king, made 
loud complaints. In consequence of this, the 
monarch directed the gates to be opened to- 
wards those parts where water was most im- 
mediately wanted ; ordering them again to be 
closed after the lands had been sufficiently re- 
freshed : the same was done with respect to 
them all, beginning where moisture was wanted 
the most. I have, however, been informed, 
that this is only granted in consideration of a 
large donative above the usual tribute. 

C XVIII. Intaphernes, one of the seven 
who had conspired against the magus, lost his 
life from the following act of insolence. Soon 
after the death of the usurpers, he went to the 
palace, with the view of having a conference 
with the king ; for the conspirators had mutually 
agreed, that, except the king should happen to 
be in bed with his wife, they might any of 
them have access to the royal presence, without 
sending a previous messenger. Intaphernes, 
not thinking any introduction necessary, was 
about to enter, but the porter and the intro- 
ducing officer prevented him, pretending that 
the king was retired with one of his wives. 
He, not believing their assertion, drew his 
sword, and cut off their ears and noses ; then 
talcing the bridle from his horse, he tied them 
together, and so dismissed them. 

CXIX. In this condition they presented 
themselves before the king, telling him why 
they had been thus treated. Darius, thinking 
that this might have been done with the con- 
sent of the other conspirators, sent for them 
separately, and desired to know whether they 
approved of what had happened. As soon as 
he was convinced that Intaphernes had perpe- 
trated this without any communication with 
the rest, he ordered him, his son, and all his 
family, to be taken into custody ; having many 



reasons to suspect that in concert with his 
friends he might excite a sedition : he after- 
wards commanded them all to be bound, and 
prepared for execution. The wife of Inta- 
phernes then presented herself before the royal 
palace, exhibiting every demonstration of grief. 
As she regularly continued this conduct, her 
frequent appearance at length excited the com- 
passion of Darius ; who thus addressed her by 
a messenger : ' { Woman, king Darius offers 
you the liberty of any individual of your family, 
whom you may most desire to preserve." After 
some deliberation with herself, she made this 
reply : " If the king will grant me the life of 
any one of my family, I choose my brother in 
preference to the rest." Her determination 
greatly astonished the king ; he sent to her 
therefore a second message to this effect ; 
" The king desires to know why you have 
thought proper to pass over your children and 
your husband, and to preserve your brother; 
who is certainly a more remote connection than 
your children, and cannot be so dear to you as 
your husband ?" She answered thus ; " O 
king ! if it please the deity, I may have another 
husband ; and if I be deprived of these, may 
have other children ; but as my parents are both 
of them dead, it is certain that I can have no 
other brother." 1 The answer appeared to 

1 I can have no other brother.]— -This very singular, 
and I do not scruple to add, preposterous sentiment, is 
imitated very minutely by Sopliocles, in the Antigone. 
That the reader may the better understand, by compar- 
ing the different application of these words, in the histo- 
rian and the poet, I shall subjoin a part of the argument 
of the Antigone. 

Eteocles and Polynices were the sons of CEdipus, and 
successors of his power : they had agreed to reign year 
by year alternately ; but Eteocles breaking the contract, 
the brothers determined to decide the dispute in a single 
combat; they fought and mutually slew each other. 
The first act of their uncle Creon, who succeeded to the 
throne, was to forbid the rites of sepulture to Polynices, 
denouncing immediate death upon whoever should dare 
to bury Mm. Antigone transgressed this ordinance, and 
was detected in the fact of burying her brother ; she 
was commanded to be interred alive, and what follows is 
part of what is suggested by her situation and danger : 
And thus, my Polynices, for my care 
Of thee, I am rewarded, and the good 
Alone shall praise me : for a husband dead, 
Nor, had I been a mother, for my children 
Would I have dnred to violate the laws.— 
Another husband and another child 
Might soothe affliction : but, my parents dead, 
A brother's loss could never be repair'd. 

Franklin's Sophocles. 

The reader will not forget to observe, that the piety 
of Antigone is directed to a lifeless corpse, but that of the 
wife of Intaphernes to her living brother, winch is 
surely less repugnant to reason, and the common feelings 
of the human heart, not to speak of the superior claims 
of duty. 



THALIA. 



177 



Darius very judicious ; indeed he was so well 
pleased with it, that he not only gave the woman j 
the life of her brother, but also pardoned her 
eldest son : the rest were all of them put to ! 
death. Thus, at no great interval of time, 
perished one of the seven conspirators. 

CXX. About the time of the last illness of 
Cambyses, the following accident happened. 
The governor of Sardis was a. Persian, named 
Oroetes, who had been promoted by Cyrus. J 
This man conceived the atrocious design of ac- j 
complishing the death of Polycrates of Samos, j 
by whom he had never in word or deed been in- | 
jured, and whose person he never had beheld, j 
His assigned motive was commonly reported to 
be this ; Oroetes one day sitting at the gates of 
the palace * with another Persian, whose name 
was Mitrobates, governor of Dascylium, entered 
into a conversation with him, which at length 
terminated in dispute. The subject about 
which they contended was military virtue : 
" Can you," says Mitrobates to Oroetes, " have 
any pretensions to valour, who have never 
added Samos to the dominions of your master, 
contiguous as it is to your province ; and which 
indeed may so easily be taken, that one of its 
own citizens made himself master of it, with the 
help of fifteen men in arms, and still retains the 
supreme authority?" This made a deep im- 
pression upon the mind of Oroetes ; but without 
meditating revenge against the person who had 
affronted him, he determined to effect the death 
of Polycrates, on whose account he had been 
reproached. 

CXXI. There are some, but not many, who 
affirm that Oroetes sent a messenger to Samos, 
to propose some question to Polycrates, but of 

There is an incident similar to this in Lucian : — See the 
Tract called Toxaris, or Amicitia, where a Scythian is 
described to neglect his wife and children, whilst he in- 
curs the greatest danger to preserve his friend from the 
flames. " Other children," says he, " I may easily have, 
and they are at best but a precarious blessing, but such a 
friend I could no where obtain." — T. 

2 At the gates of the palace. ~\ — In the Greek it is at the 
king's gate. The grandees waited at the gate of the 
Persian kings : — This custom, established by Cyrus, con- 
tinued as long as the monarchy, and at this day, in Tur- 
key, we say the Ottoman port, for the Ottoman court. — j 
Lurcher. 

Ignorance of this custom has caused se /eral mistakes, ' 
particularly in the history of Mordecai, in the book of 
Esther, who is by many authors, and even by Prideaux, 
represented as meanly situated when placed there. Many 
traces of this custom may be found in Xenophon's Cyro- 
paedia. Plutarch, in his life of Themistocles, uses the 
expression of those at the king's gate, -'*» em O^ocit (3ciffi- 
a'.cu;, as a general designation for nobles and state offi- 
cers.— See Brisson, de Regno Persamtm, lib. i —T. 



what nature is unknown : and that he found 
Polycrates in the men's apartment, reclining on 
a couch, with Anacreon of Teos 3 by his side. 
The man advanced to deliver his message ; but 
Polycrates, either by accident, or to demonstrate 
the contempt 4 in which he held Oroetes, con- 
tinued all the time he was speaking, with his 
face towards the wall, and did not vouchsafe 
any reply. 

CXXII. These are the two assigned mo- 
tives for the destruction of Polycrates : every 
one will prefer that which seems most probable. 
Oroetes, who lived at Magnesia, which is on the 
banks of the Maeander, 5 sent Myrsus the Lydian, 
son of Gyges, with a message to Polycrates at 
Samos. With the character of Polycrates, 
Oroetes was well acquainted ; for, except Minos" 
the Cnossian, or whoever before him accom- 
plished it, he was the first Greek who formed 
the design of making himself master of the sea. 
But as far as historical tradition may be de- 
pended upon, Polycrates is the only individual 
who projected the subjection of Ionia and the 
islands. Perfectly aware of these circumstances, 
Oroetes sent this message : 



3 Anacreon of Teos.~\ — It is by no means astonishing 
to find, in the court of a tyrant, a poet who is eternally 
singing in praise of wine and love ; his verses are full uf 
the encomiums of Polycrates. How different was tho 
conduct of Pythagoras! That philosopher, perceiving 
that tyranny was established in Samos, went to Egypt, 
and from thence to Babylon, for the sake of improve- 
ment : returning to his country, he found that tyranny 
still subsisted j he went therefore to Italy, and there 
finished his days. — Larcher. 

This poet was not only beloved by Polycrates, he was 
the favourite also of Hipparchus the Athenian tyrant. 
And, notwithstanding the inference which Larcher seems 
inclined to draw, from contrasting his conduct with that 
of Pythagoras, he was called c-oQo; by Socrates himself; 
and the terms v/i$os xai cc.ya.8os, are applied to him by 
Athenseus. By the way, much as has been said on the 
compositions of Anacreon by H. Stephens, Scaliger, M. 
Dacier, and others, many of the learned are in doubt 
whether the works ascribed to him by the moderns are 
genuine. Anacreontic verse is so called, from its being 
much used by Anacreon j it consists of three Iambic feet 
and a half, of which there is no instance in the lyrics of 
Horace. — See the Prolegomena to Barnes' Anacreon, § 12. 

4 Demonstrate the contempt."} — This behaviour of Poly- 
crates, which was doubtless intended to be expressive of 
contempt, brings to mind the story of Charles the Twelfth 
of Sweden, who at an interview with the Grand Vizier, 
expressed his contempt and indignation by tearing the 
minister's robe with his spur, and afterwards leaving the 
apartment without saying a word. 

5 On the bunks of the M&ander.}— This is added in 
order to distinguish that city from the Magnesia on the 
Sipylus, lying between Sardes and Phocaa. 

6 Except Minos,~\— What, Herodotus says of the mari- 
time power of Minos, is confirmed by Thucydides and 
Diodorus Siculus. His testimony concerning Polycratca 
is supported also by Thucydides and Strabo.— Larcher 



178 



HERODOTUS. 



OftOETES TO POLYCRATES. 

<< I understand that you are revolving some 
vast project in your mind, but have not money 
responsible to your views. Be advised by me, 
and you will at the same time promote your 
own advantage and preserve me. I am in- 
formed, and I believe it to be true, that king 
Cambyses has determined on my death. Re- 
ceive, therefore, me with my wealth, part of 
which shall be at your disposal, part at mine : 
with the assistance of this, you may easily ob- 
tain the sovereignty of Greece. If you have 
any suspicions, send to me some one who is in 
your intimate confidence, and he shall be con- 
vinced by demonstration." 

C XXIII. With these overtures, Polycrates 
was so exceedingly delighted, that he was eager 
to comply with them immediately, for his love 
of money was excessive. He sent, first of all, 
to examine into the truth of the affair, Maean- 
drius his secretary, called so after his father. 
This Mseandrius, not long afterwards, placed 
as a sacred donative in the temple of Juno, the 
rich furniture of the apartment of Polycrates. 
Orcetes, knowing the motive for which this 
man came, contrived and executed the follow- 
ing artifice : he filled eight chests nearly to the 
top with stones, then covering over the surface 
with gold, they were tied together ; l as if ready 
to be removed. Maeandrius on his arrival 
saw the above chests, and returned to make his 
report to Polycrates. 

CXXIV. Polycrates, notwithstanding the 
predictions of the soothsayers, and the remon- 
strances of his friends, was preparing to meet 
Orcetes, when his daughter in a dream saw 
this vision : she beheld her father aloft in the 



1 Tied together.]— Before the use of locks, it was the 
custom in more ancient times to secure things with 
knots : of these some were so difficult, that he alone 
who possessed the secret was able to unravel them. The 
famous Gordian knot must be known to every one ; this 
usage is often also alluded to by Homer : 

Then tending with full force, around he roll'd 

A labyrinth of bands in fold on fold, 

Closed with Circaean art. 

According to Eustathius, keys were a more modern 
invention for which the Lacedaemonians are to be 
thanked. 

Upon the above passage from Eustathius, Larcher re- 
marks, that it is somewhat singular, that the Lacedae- 
monians, whose property was in common, should be the 
inventors of keys. 

The version of Pope which I have given in the fore- 
going lines is very defective, and certainly inadequate to 
the expression of 

AwTiti tv/i^rvi "Taipei, &au; §' iti hto'f/.ov lyXi 
Ueixthov, iv jrori ,uiv l&o>,t ${i<ri noma. Kiezy — T. 



air, washed by Jupiter, and anointed by the 
sun. Terrified by this incident, she used every 
means in her power to prevent his going to 
meet Orcetes ; and as he was about to embark 
for this purpose, on board a fifty-oared galley, 
she persisted in auguring unfavourably of his 
expedition. At this he was so incensed, as to 
declare, that if he returned safe she should re- 
main long unmarried. To this she expressed 
herself very desirous to submit ; being willing 
to continue long a virgin,* rather than be de- 
prived of her father. 

CXXV. Polycrates, disregarding all that 
had been said to him, set sail to meet Orcetes. 
He was accompanied by many of his friends, 
and amongst the rest by Democedes, 3 the son 
of Calliphon ; he was a physician of Crotona, 
and the most skilful practitioner of his time. 
As soon as Polycrates arrived at Magnesia, 
he was put to a miserable death, unworthy of 
his rank and superior endowments. Of all the 
princes who ever reigned in Greece, those of 
Syracuse alone excepted, none equalled Poly- 
crates in magnificence. Orcetes having basely 
put him to death, 4 fixed his body to a cross ; 
his attendants he sent back to Samos, telling 
them, " They ought to be thankful, that he 
had not made them slaves." The strangers, 
and the servants of those who had accompanied 

2 Long a virgin.]— To die a virgin, and without hav- 
ing any children, was amongst the ancients esteemed a 
very serious calamity. Electra in Sophocles enumerates 
this in the catalogue of her misfortunes : 

Atixvo? 

Ta,Xu.lll\ OUVfAQlVTOS KltV OIXi£> — 166. 

Electra makes a singular complaint in the Orestes of 
Euripides; as does also Polyxena at the point of death, 
in the Hecuba of Euripides. — T. 

3 Democedes.] — Of this personage a farther account is 
given in the fourth book. He is mentioned also by iElian, 
in his Various History, book viii. cap. 17 ; and also by 
Athenseus, book xii. chap. 4, which last author informs 
us, that the physicians of Crotona were, on account of 
Democedes, esteemed the first in Greece.— See also chap. 
131, of this book.— T. 

4 Put him to death.]— The Persians generally behead- 
ed or flayed those whom they crucified ; see an account ol 
their treatment of Histiaeus, book vi. chap. 30. and ol 
Leonidas, book vii. 238. — T. 

The beautiful and energetic lines which Juvenal ap- 
plied to Sejanus, are remarkably apposite to the circum- 
stances and fate ol Polycrates. 

Qui iniiniros optabat honores, 
Et nimias poscebal opes, numerosa parabat 
Excelsae turris tabulata, unde altior esset 
Casus, et impulsae prsectps immane ruinse — X. 
For he who grasp'd the world's exhausted stoie, 
Vet never had enough, but wish'd for more, 
Raised a top-heavy tower of monstrous height, 
AVhich mouldering crush'd him underneath the weight. 
Drydtn. 



THALIA. 



179 



Polycrates, he detained in servitude. The 
circumstance of his being suspended on a cross, 
fulfilled the vision of the daughter of Polycra- 
tes : for he was washed by Jupiter, that is to 
say by the rain, and he was anointed by the 
sun, for it extracted the moisture from his 
body. The great prosperity of Polycrates ter- 
minated in his unfortunate death, which indeed 
had been foretold him by Amasis king of 
Egypt. 

CXXVI. But it was not long before Orce- 
tes paid ample vengeance to the manes of 
Polycrates. After the death of Cambyses, and 
the usurpation of the magi, Oroetes, who had 
never deserved well of the Persians, whom the 
Medes had fraudulently deprived of the su- 
preme authority, took the advantage of the dis- 
order of the times, 5 to put to death Mitrobates, 
the governor of Dascylium, and his son Crana- 
pes. Mitrobates was the person who had for- 
merly reproached Oroetes ; and both he and his 
son were highly esteemed in Persia. In addi- 
tion to his other numerous and atrocious crimes, 
he compassed the death of a messenger, sent to 
him from Darius, for no other reason but be- 
cause the purport of the message was not 
agreeable to him. He ordered the man to be 
way-laid in his return, and both he and his 
horse were slain, and their bodies concealed. 

CXXVII. As soon as Darius ascended the 
throne, he determined to punish Oroetes for 
his various enormities, but more particularly 
for the murder of Mitrobates and his son. He 
did not think it prudent to send an armed force 
openly against him, as the state was still un- 
settled, and as his own authority had been so 
recently obtained ; he was informed, moreover, 
that Oroetes possessed considerable strength : 
his government extending over Phrygia, Lydia, 
and Ionia, and he was regularly attended by a 
guard of a thousand men. Darius was, there- 
fore, induced to adopt this mode of proceeding : 
he assembled the noblest of the Persians, and 
thus addressed them : " Which of you, O 
Persians ! will undertake for me the accom- 
plishment of a project which requires sagacity 
alone, without military aid, or any kind of vio- 
lence ? for where wisdom is required, force is 
of little avail ; — which of you will bring me the 
body of Oroetes, alive or dead ? He has never 
deserved well of the Persians ; and, in addition 



5 Disorder of the times.'] — For tv roLwryrvi ct^xv, which 
prevailed in preceding- editions, Wesseling proposes to 
read ev ravrvi t<x.0kx?> which removes all perplexity. T. 



to his numerous crimes, he has killed two of 
our countrymen, Mitrobates and his son. He 
has also, with intolerable insolence, put a mes- 
senger of mine to death : we must prevent, 
therefore, his perpetrating any greater evils 
against us, by putting him to death." 

CXXVIH. When Darius had thus spoken, 
thirty Persians offered to accomplish what he. 
wished. As they were disputing on the sub- 
ject, the king ordered the decision to be made 
by lot, which fell upon Bagaeus, the son of 
Artontes. To attain the end which he pro- 
posed, he caused a number of letters to be 
written on a variety of subjects, and prefixing 
to them the seal of Darius, he proceeded with, 
them to Sardis. As soon as he came to the 
presence of Oroetes, he delivered the letters 
one by one to the king's secretary ; one of 
whom is regularly attendant upon the governors 
of provinces. The motive of Bagaeus in de- 
livering the letters separately was to observe 
the disposition of the guards, and how far they 
might be inclined to revolt from Oroetes. 
When he saw that they treated the letters with 
great respect, 6 and their contents with still 
greater, he delivered one to this effect : " Per- 
sians, king Darius forbids you serving any 
longer Oroetes as guards :" in a moment they 
threw down their arms. Bagaeus, observing 
their prompt obedience in this instance, as- 
sumed still greater confidence, he delivered the 
last of his letters, of which these were the con- 
tents : " King Darius commands the Persians 
who are at Sardis to put Oroetes to death:" 
without hesitation they drew their swords and 
killed him. In this manner was the death of 
Polycrates of Samos revenged on Oroetes the 
Persian. 

CXXIX. Upon the death of Oroetes, his 
effects were all of them removed to Susa. Not 
long after which, Darius, as he was engaged in 
the chace, in leaping from his horse, twisted 
his foot with so much violence, that the ancle 
bone was quite dislocated. Having at his court 
some Egyptians, supposed to be the most skil- 
ful of the medical profession, he trusted to 
their assistance. They, however, increased the 
evil, by twisting and otherwise violently hand- 
ling the part affected : from the extreme pain 

6 Treated the letters with great respect.]— At the pre- 
sent period the distinction observed with regard to let- 
ters in the east is this: those sent to common persons 
are rolled up, and not sealed ; those sent to noblemen 
and princes are sealed up, and inclosed in rich bags of 
silk or satin curiously embroidered. — T. 



180 



HERODOTUS. 



which he endured, the king passed seven days 
and as many nights without sleep. In this 
situation, on the eighth day, some one ventured 
to recommend Democedes of Crotona, having 
before heard of his reputation at Sardis. Da- 
rius immediately sent for him • he was dis- 
covered amongst the slaves of Oroetes, where 
he had continued in neglect, and was brought 
to the king just as he was found, in chains and 
in rags. 

CXXX. As soon as he appeared, Darius 
asked him if he had any knowledge of medi- 
cine ? In the apprehension that if he discovered 
his art, he should never have the power of re- 
turning to Greece, Democedes for a while dis- 
sembled ; which Darius perceiving, he ordered 
those who had brought him, to produce the 
instruments of punishment and torture. De- 
mocedes began then to be more explicit, and 
confessed that, although he possessed no great 
knowledge of the art, yet by his communication 
with a physician he had obtained some little 
proficiency. The management of the case was 
then intrusted to him ; ht accordingly applied 
such medicines and strong fomentations as 
were customary in Greece, by which means 
Darius, who began to despair of ever recover? 
ing the entire use of his foot, was not only en- 
abled to sleep, but in a short time perfectly 
restored to health. In acknowledgment of his 
cure, Darius presented him with two pair of 
fetters of gold : upon which Democedes ven- 
tured to ask the king, whether, in return for his 
restoring him to health, he wished to double his 
calamity ?* The king, delighted with the reply, 
sent the man to the apartments of his women : 
the eunuchs who conducted him informed them, 
that this was the man who had restored the king 
to life ; accordingly, every one of them taking 
out a vase of gold, 3 gave it to Democedes with 

1 Double 7iis calamity.'} — The ancients were very fond 
of this play upon words : — See in the Septem contra The- 
bas of iEschylus, a play on the word Polynices. 

O* }>YIT Ci$(ilS 5J04T tsrcovvfAiiiv 
K#< XoXwiiXU? 

ClXovr a.<nfiu hocvota. — V. 835. 

The particular point in this passage, is omitted by Mr 
Potter, probably because he did not find it suited to the 
genius of the English language. 

See also Ovid's description of the flower : 

Ipse suos gemitus foliis inscribit et ai ai 
Flos habet inscriptam— T. 

2 Taking out a vase of gold.'] — This is one of the most 
perplexed passages in Herodotus; and the conjectures 
of the critics are proportionably numerous. The great 
difficulty consists in ascertaining what is designed by 
turGTvxroutrcc. and fo^. The ?<«>/<; appears to have been 



the case. The present was so very valuable 
that a servant who followed him behind, whose 
name was Sciton, by gathering up the staters 
which fell to the ground, obtained a prodigious 
sum of money. 

CXXXI. The following was what induced 
Democedes to forsake Crotona, and attach him- 
self to Polycrates. At Crotona he suffered 
continual restraint from the austere temper of 
his father ; this becoming insupportable, he left 
him, and went to JEgina. In the first year of 
his residence at this place, he excelled the most 
skilful of the medical profession, without hav- 
ing had any regular education, and indeed with- 
out the common instruments of the art. His 
reputation, however, was so great, that in the 
second year the inhabitants of iEgina, by gen- 
eral consent, engaged his services at the price 
of one talent. In the third year the Athenians 
retained him, at a salary of one hundred minee; 3 
and in the fourth year Polycrates engaged to 



a jar or vase, probably itself of gold. Few have doubted 
that the passage is corrupt : the best conjectural reading 
gives this sense, " that each, talcing gold out of a chest 
in a vase (<p/aA-<). gave it, vase and all, to Democedes. 
'TxoTwnovorce. is thus made to signify plunging the vase 
imong the gold to fill it, as a pitcher into water ; which 
sense is confirmed by good authorities. The idea more 
immediately excited by the word is, that they struck the 
bottom of the vase to shake out all the gold ; but accord- 
ing to this interpretation, the A-ase itself is the 6y,zr„ or 
case.— T. 

3 One hundred mince.] — Valcnaer suspects that this 
place has been altered by some copyists. Athens, in the 
time of its greatest splendour, allowed their ambassadors 
but two drachma? a day ; and a hundred drachma? make 
but one mina If when the Athenians were rich, they gave 
no more to an ambassador, how is it likely that, when they 
were exceedingly poor, they should give a pension of a 
hundred mina? to a physician ? Thus far Valcnaer. 
From this and other passages in the ancient writers, it 
appears that in remoter times it was usual to hire phy- 
sicians for the assistance of a whole city, by the year. 
The fees which were given physicians for a single inci- 
dental visit, were very inconsiderable, as appears from the 
famous verses of Crates, preserved by Diogenes Laertiiis. 
T/0s; /jcccya^ti) [mo.; "Biz , lar^Z dget%u,'s,v, 
TLoXaxi iu.Xoc.tTa. srivn, crvufiovXui xoe.trvov, 
Tlt>£vr,Ta.X«.vT0v, fiXocroQa T^tu^oXov. 
" To a cook 30/. ; to a physician two groats ; to a flat- 
terer 900/. ; to a counsellor nothing ; to a whore ISO/. ; 
to a philosopher a groat." The above is supposed to 
describe part of the accounts of a man of fortune. See 
Arbuthnot on Coins, p. 198.— The yearly pension paid 
Democedes the physician, by the Athenians, was one 
hundred mina?, or 3221. 18s- id. The Egineta? paid him 
yearly the pension of a talent, or 193/. 155. He had a 
pension from Polycrates of Samos of two talents, 387/. 10s. 
The daily allowance of two drachma? to an ambassador 
is \5d, or 23/. 11*. 5|<f. per annum. All that can be said 
of the difference is the high opinion entertained of a 
skilful physician both at Athens and in Terna. — T 



THALIA. 



J81 



give him two talents. His residence was then 
fixed at Samos ; and to this man the physicians 
of Crotona are considerably indebted for the 
reputation which they enjoy ; for at this period, 
in point of medical celebrity, the physicians of 
Crotona held the first, and those of Cyrene the 
next place. At this time also the Argives had 
the credit of being the most skilful musicians 4 
of Greece. 

CXXXIL Democedes having in this man- 
ner restored the king to health, had a sumptuous 
house provided him at Susa, was entertained at 
the king's own table, and, except the restriction 
of not being able to return to Greece, enjoyed 
all that he could wish. The Egyptian physi- 
cians, who had before the care of the king's 
health, were on account of their inferiority to 
Democedes, a Greek, condemned to the cross, 
but he obtained their pardon. He also procured 
the liberty of an Elean soothsayer, who having 
followed Polycrates was detained and neglected 
amongst his other slaves. It may be added, 
that Democedes remained in the highest estima- 
tion with the king. 

CXXXIII. It happened not long after- 
wards, that Atossa, daughter of Cyrus, and 
wife of Darius, had an ulcer on her breast, 
which finally breaking, spread itself considera- 
bly. As long as it was small, she was induced 
by delicacy to conceal it; but when it grew 
more troublesome, she sent for Democedes, and 
showed it to him. He told her he was able to 
cure it ; but exacted of her an oath, that in re- 
turn she should serve him in whatever he might 
require, which he assured her, should be nothing 
to disgrace her. 

CXXXIV. Atossa was cured by his skill, 
and, observant of her own promise and his in- 
structions, she took the opportunity of thus 
addressing Darius, while she was in bed with 
him : " It is wonderful, my lord, that having 
such a numerous army at command, you have 
neither increased the power of Persia, nor at 
all extended your dominions. It becomes a 
man like you, in the vigour of your age, and 
master of so many and such powerful resources, 
to perform some act which may satisfy the Per- 
sians of the spirit and virtue of their prince. 
There are two reasons which give importance 

4 Musicians.] — Music was an important part of Grecian 
education. Boys till they were ten years old \\ ere taught 
to read by the grammatistes; they were then taught music 
three years by the citharistes ; after the thirteenth year 
they learned the gymnastic exercises, under the care of 
the paidotades.— T. 



to what I recommend : — The one, that your 
subjects may venerate the manly accomplish- 
ments of their master : the other, that you may 
prevent the indolence of peace exciting them to 
tumult and sedition. Do not therefore con- 
sume your youth in inactivity, for the powers 
of the mind s increase and improve with those 
of the body ; and in like manner, as old age 
comes on they become weaker and weaker, till 
they are finally blunted to every thing." " What 
you say," 6 answered Darius, " coincides with 
what was passing in my mind. I had intended 
to make war against Scythia, and to construct 
a bridge to unite our continent with the other, 
which things shall soon be executed." " Will 
it not, Sir," returned Atossa, " be better to de- 
fer your intentions against the Scythians, who 
will at any time afford you an easy conquest ? 
Rather make an expedition against Greece : I 
wish much to have for my attendants some wo- 
men of Sparta, Argos, Athens, and Corinth, 7 
of whom I have heard so much. You have, 
moreover, in the man who healed the wound of 
your foot, the properest person in the world to 
describe and explain to you every thing which 
relates to Greece." " If it be your wish," re- 
plied Darius, " that I should first make a mili- 
tary excursion against Greece, it will be proper 
to send thither previously some Persians as 



5 Powers of the mind.] — This opinion is thus express- 
ed by Lucretius, which I give the reader from the ver- 
sion of Creech. 

Besides 'tis plain that souls are born and grow, 

And all by age decay as bodies do : 

To prove this truth, in infants, minds appear 

Infirm and tender, as their bodies are ; 

In man the mind is strong; when age prevails, 

And the quick vigour of each member fails, 

The mind's powers to decrease and waste apace, 

And grave and reverend folly takes the place. 

6 What you say.] — I have not translated fi ■yvveti, 
which is in the original, because I do not think Ave have 
any correspondent word in our language. O woman! 
would be vulgar; and according to our norma loquendi, 
O wife ! would not be adequate. In the Ajax of Sopho- 
cles, v. 293, yvvou is used to express contempt; but in the 
passage before us it certainly denotes tenderness. The 
address of our Saviour to his mother proves tliis most 
satisfactory: — See also Homer. 

Kxi ipcoi rcthi ■roc.vTX fjuku, ■ywxi. — T. 
As co ywtx.1 is used here, the word mulier frequently 
occurs in Latin, which Dacier translates " Madame," 
and which Jortin thinks corresponds with our word 
Madam. 

7 Corinth.'] — The women of Corinth were celebrated 
for their beauty. See Anacreon, Ode xxxii. Consult also 
Athenaeus, 1. Xiii. c. 4. where it is a little singular to re- 
mark, that in an epigram assigned to Simonides, we are 
told that the interposition of the Corinthian w omen with 
Venus, their tutelary goddess, delivered Greece from the 
arms of Xerxes. 



182 



HERODOTUS. 



spies, in company with the man to whom you 
allude. As soon as they return, and have in- 
formed me of the result of their observations, ' 
I will proceed against Greece. " 

CXXXV. Darius having delivered his sen- | 
timents, no time was lost in fulfilling them. 
As soon as the morning appeared, he sent for 
fifteen Persians of approved reputation, and j 
commanded them, in company with Democedes, I 
to examine every part of the sea coast of Greece, 
enjoining them to be very watchful of Democe- 
des, and by all means to bring him back with 
them. When he had done this, he next sent j 
for Democedes himself, and after desiring him ! 
to examine and explain to the Persians every 
thing which related to Greece, he entreated him 
to return in their company. All the valuables 
which he possessed, he recommended him to 
take, as presents to his father and his brethren, j 
assuring him that he should be provided with a ; 
greater number on his return. He moreover 
informed him, that he had directed a vessel to j 
accompany him, which was to be furnished with ! 
various things of value. In these professions 
Darius, as I am of opinion, was perfectly sin- ! 
cere ; but Democedes, apprehending that the 
king meant to make trial of his fidelity, accept- j 
ed these proposals without much acknowledg- 
ment. He desired, however, to leave his own I 
effects, that they might be ready for his use at 
his return ; but he accepted the vessel which [ 
was to carry the presents for his family. Darius, 
after giving these injunctions to Democedes, 
dismissed the party to prosecute their voyage. 

CXXXVI. As soon as they arrived at Si- 
don, in Phenicia, they manned two triremes, 
and loaded a large transport with different arti- 
cles of wealth; after this they proceeded to 
Greece, examining the sea-coasts with the most 
careful attention. When they had informed 
themselves of the particulars relating to the 
most important places in Greece, they passed 
over to Tarentum ' in Italy. Here Aristophi- 
lides, prince of Tarentum, and a native of 
Crotona, took away the helms of the Median 
vessels, and detained the Persians as spies. 
Whilst his companions were in this predicament, 
Democedes himself went to Crotona. Upon 
his arrival at his native place, Aristophilides 
gave the Persians their liberty, and restored 
what he had taken from them. 



1 Tarentum.] — These places, with the slightest vara* 
tion possible, retain their ancient names. We now say 
the gulf of Tarento, and Crotona is now called Cot- 
trone.— T. 



CXXX VII. The Persians, as soon as they 
recovered their liberty, sailed to Crotona, in 
pursuit of Democedes, and meeting with him 
in the forum, seized his person. Some of the 
inhabitants, through fear of the Persian power, 
were willing to deliver him up ; others, on the 
contrary, beat the Persians with clubs • who 
exclaimed, " Men of Crotona, consider what ye 
do, in taking away from us a fugitive from our 
king. Do you imagine that you will derive any 
advantage from this insult to Darius ; will not 
rather your city be the first object of our hos- 
tilities, the first that we shall plunder and re- 
duce to servitude ?" These menaces had but 
little effect upon the people of* Crotona, for 
they not only assisted Democedes to escape, but 
also deprived the Persians of the vessel which 
accompanied them. They were, therefore, un- 
der the necessity of returning to Asia, without 
exploring any more of Greece, being thus de- 
prived of their conductor. On their departure, 
Democedes commissioned them to inform Da- 
rius, that he was married to a daughter of Milo, 
the name of Milo the wrestler being well known 
to the Persian monarch. To me it seems that 
he hastened his marriage, and expended a vast 
sum of money on the occasion, to convince 
Darius that he enjoyed in his own country no 
mean reputation. 

CXXXVIII. The Persians, leaving Cro- 
tona, were driven by contrary winds to Japy- 
gia, 8 where they were made slaves. Gillus, an 
exile of Tarentum, ransomed them, and sent 
them home to Darius. For this service, the 
king declared himself willing to perform what- 
ever Gillus should require, who accordingly 
explaining the circumstances of his misfortune, 
requested to be restored to his country. But 
Darius thinking that if, for the purpose of 
effecting the restoration of this man, a large 
fleet should be fitted out, all Greece would take 
alarm; he said that the Cnidians would of them- 
selves be able to accomplish it : imagining that 
as this people were in alliance with the Taren- 
tines, it might be effected without difficulty. 
Darius acceded to his wishes, and sent a mes- 
senger to Cnidos, 3 requiring them to restore 

2 Japygia.~\ — This place is now called Cape de Leuca. 
— T. 

3 Cnidos.] — At this remote period, when navigation 
was certainly in its infancy, it seems not a little singular 
that there should be any communication or alliance be- 
tween the people of Tarentum and of Cnidos. The dis- 
tance is not inconsiderable, and the passage certainly in- 
tricate. Ctesias, the historian, was a native of Cnidos ; 
here also was the beautiful statue of Venus, by Praxi- 



THALIA. 



183 



Gill us to Tarentum. The Cnidians were de- 
sirous to satisfy Darius ; but their solicitations 
had no effect on the Tarentines, and they were 
not in a situation to employ force. — Of these 
particulars, the above is a faithful relation, and 
these were the first Persians, who, with the 
view of examining the state of Greece, passed 
over thither from Asia. 

CXXXIX. Not long afterwards, Darius 
besieged and took Samos. This was the first 
city, either of Greeks or barbarians, which felt 
the force of his arms, and for these reasons : 
Cambyses, in his expedition against Egypt, was 
accompanied by a great number of Greeks. 
Some, as it is probable, attended him from com- 
mercial views, others as soldiers, and many from 
no other motive than curiosity. Among these last 
was Syloson, an exile of Samos, son of iEaces, 
and brother of Polycrates. It happened one 
day very fortunately for this Syloson, that he 
was walking in the great square of Memphis 
with a red cloak folded about him. Darius, 
who was then in the king's guards, and of no 
particular consideration, saw him, and was so 
delighted with his cloak, that he went up to him 
with the view of purchasing it. Syloson, ob- 
serving that Darius was very solicitous to have 
the cloak, happily, as it proved for him, expressed 
himself thus ; — " I would not part with this 
cloak for any pecuniary consideration whatever : 
but if it must be so, I will make you a present 
of it." Darius praised his generosity, and ac- 
cepted the cloak. 

CXL. Syloson for a while thought he had 
foolishly lost his cloak, but afterwards when 
Cambyses died, and the seven conspirators had 
destroyed the Magus, he learned that Darius, 
one of these seven, had obtained the kingdom, 
and was the very man to whom formerly at his 
request, in Egypt, he had given his cloak. He 
went, therefore, to Susa, and presenting himself 
before the royal palace, said that he had once 
done a service to the king. Of this circum- 
stance the porter informed the king ; who was 
much astonished, and exclaimed, " To what 
Greek can I possibly be obliged for any ser- 
vices ? I have not long been in possession of my 
authority, and since this time no Greek has been 
admitted to my presence, nor can I at all re- 
member being indebted to one of that nation. 
Introduce him, however, that I may know what 



teles ; here also was Venus worshipped. O Venus, 
regina Cnidi Paphique, &c 

It is now a very miserable place, and called Cape Chic 
or Cnio.— T. 



he has to say. " Syloson was accordingly admit- 
ted to the royal presence ; and being interrogated 
by interpreters who he was, and in what cir- 
cumstance he had rendered service to the king, 
he told the story of the cloak, and said that he 
was the person who had given it. In reply, 
Darius exclaimed, "Are you then that generous 
man, who, at a time when I was possessed of 
no authority, made me a present, which, though 
small, was as valuable to me then, as any thing 
of importance would be to me now ? I will give 
you in return, that you may never repent of 
your kindness to Darius, the son of Hystaspes, 
abundance of gold and silver," " Sir," replied 
Syloson, " I would have neither gold nor sil- 
ver ; give me Samos my country, and deliver it 
from servitude. Since the death of Polycrates 
my brother, whom Oroetes slew, it has been in 
the hands of one of our slaves. Give me this, 
Sir, without any effusion of blood, or reducing 
my countrymen to servitude." 

CXL I. On hearing this, Darius sent an 
army, commanded by Otanes, one of the seven, 
with orders to accomplish all that Syloson had 
desired. Otanes proceeded to the sea, and 
embarked with his troops. 

CXLII. The supreme authority at Samos was 
then possessed by Mseandrius, son of Maeandrius, 
to whom it had been confided by Polycrates him- 
self. He was desirous of proving himself a very 
honest man, but the times would not allow him. 
As soon as he was informed of the death of Poly- 
crates, the first thing he did was to erect an 
altar to Jupiter Liberator, 4 tracing round it the 
sacred ground, which may now be seen in the 
neighbourhood of the city. Having done this, 
he assembled the citizens of Samos, and thus 
addressed them : " You are well acquainted 
that Polycrates confided to me his sceptre and 
his power, which if I think proper I may re- 
tain ; but I shall certainly avoid doing that my- 
self which I deemed reprehensible in another. 
The ambition of Polycrates to rule over men 
who were his equals, always seemed to me un- 
just ; nor can I approve of a like conduct in 
any man. Polycrates has yielded to his des- 
tiny ; and for my part I lay down the supreme 
authority, and restore you all to an equality of 
power. I only claim, which I think I reason- 
ably may, six talents to be given me from the 
wealth of Polycrates, as well as the appoint- 

4 Jupiter Liberator.]— The Greeks, after being de- 
livered from the Persian invasion, worshipped Jupiter 
under the title of Jupiter Servator (varr^.) On the 
coins of Dioclesian, he is called Jupiter Conservator. 



184 



HERODOTUS. 



ment in perpetuity, to me and my posterity, of 
the priesthood of Jupiter Liberator, whose 
temple I have traced out ; and then I restore 
you to liberty." When Meeandrius had thus 
spoken, a Samian exclaimed from the midst of 
the assembly, " You are not worthy to rule 
over us, your principles are bad, and your con- 
duct reproachable. Rather let us make you 
give an account of the wealth which has passed 
through your hands." The name of this person 
was Telesarchus, a man much respected by his 
fellow-citizens. 

. CXLIII. Maeandrius revolved this cir- 
cumstance in his mind ; and being convinced 
that if he resigned his power, some other 
would assume it, he determined to continue as 
he was. Returning to the citadel, he sent for 
the citizens, as if to give them an account of 
the moneys which had been alluded to, instead 
of which he seized and confined them. "Whilst 
they remained in imprisonment, Maeandrius 
was taken ill ; his brother Lycaretus not think- 
ing he would recover, that he might the more 
easily succeed in his views upon Samos, put 
the citizens who were confined to death ; indeed 
it did not appear that they were desirous of 
life under the government of a tyrant. 1 

CXLIV. When, therefore, the Persians 
arrived at Samos, with the view of restoring 
Syloson, they had no resistance to encounter. 
The Maeandrian faction expressed themselves 
on certain conditions ready to submit ; and Mae- 
andrius himself consented to leave the island. 
Their propositions were accepted by Otanes ; 
and whilst they were employed in ratifying 
them, the principal men of the Persians had 
seats brought, on which they placed themselves 
in front of the citadel. 

CXLV. Maeandrius had a brother, whose 
name was Charileus, who was of an untoward 
disposition, and for some offence was kept chain- 
ed in a dungeon. As soon as he heard what was 
doing, and beheld from his place of confinement 
the Persians sitting at their ease, he clamorously 
requested to speak with Maeandrius. Maeandri- 
us, hearing this, ordered him to be unbound, and 
brought before him. As soon as he came into 
his presence, he began to reproach and abuse 
him, earnestly importuning him to attack the 
Persians. " Me," he exclaimed, "who am your 
brother, and who have done nothing worthy of 



1 The government of a tyrant.] — See Wesseling-'s note 
and Pauw's conjecture upon this passage.— T. 



chains, you have most basely kept bound in a 
dungeon ; but on the Persians, who would 
afford you an easy victory, and who mean tp 
drive you into exile, you dare not take revenge. 
If your fears prevent you, give me your aux- 
iliary troops, who am equally disposed to pun- 
ish them for coming here, and to expel you 
yourself from our island." 

CXLVI. To this discourse Maeandrius 
gave a favourable ear, not, I believe, that he 
was absurd enough to imagine himself equal to 
a contest with the forces of the king, but from 
a spirit of envy against Syloson, and to prevent 
his receiving the government of Samos without 
trouble or exertion. He wished, by irritating 
the Persians, to debilitate the power of Samos, 
and then to deliver it into their hands ; for he 
well knew that the Persians would resent 
whatever insults they might receive, upon the 
Samians, and as to himself, he was certain that 
whenever he pleased he could depart unmolest- 
ed, for he had provided a secret path, which 
led immediately from the citadel to the sea, by 
which he afterwards escaped. In the mean- 
while Charileus, having armed the auxiliaries, 
opened the gates and sallied forth to attack the 
Persians, who, so far from expecting any thing 
of the kind, believed that a truce had been 
agreed upon, and was then in force. Upon 
these Persians, who were sitting at their ease, 
and who were persons of distinction, the 
Samians sallied, and put them to death j the 
rest of the troops, however, soon came to their 
assistance, by whom the party of Charileus was 
repulsed, and obliged again to seek shelter in 
the citadel. 

CXLVII. Otanes, the commander-in-chief, 
had hitherto observed the orders of Darius, not 
to put any Samian to death, or to take any 
prisoners, but to deliver the island to Syloson, 
secure and without injury; but seeing so great 
a slaughter of his countrymen, his indignation 
prevailed, and he ordered his soldiers to put 
every Samian they could meet with to death, 
without any distinction of age. Part of his 
forces immediately blockaded the citadel, 
whilst another were putting the inhabitants to 
the sword, not suffering the sacred places to 
afford any protection. 

CLVIII. Maeandrius, leaving Samos, sail- 
ed to Lacedaemon. On his arrival there with 
his wealth, he set in order his goblets of gold 
and silver, and directed his servants to clean 
them. Having entered into conversation with 



THALIA. 



18. r > 



Cieomenes," son of Anaxandrides, the king of 
Sparta, he invited him to his house. Cieome- 
nes saw his plate, and was struck with aston- 
ishment. Mseandrius desired him to accept of 
what he pleased, 3 but Cieomenes was a man of 
the strictest probity, and although Maeandrius 
persisted in importuning him to take some- 
thing, he would by no means consent ; but 
hearing that some of his fellow-citizens had re- 
ceived presents from Mseandrius, he went to 
the ephori, and gave it as his opinion, that it 
would be better for the interests, of Sparta to 
expel this Samian from the Peloponnese, lest 
either he himself, or any other Spartan, should 
be corrupted by him. The advice of Cieome- 
nes was generally approved, and Mseandrius 
received a public order to depart. 

CXLIX. When the Persians had taken the 
Samians as in a net, 4 they delivered the island 
to Syloson almost without an inhabitant. 3 
After a certain interval, however, Otanes, the 
Persian general, re-peopled it, on account of 
some vision which he had, as well as from a 
disorder which seized his privities. 

CL. Whilst the expedition against Samos 
was on foot, the Babylonians, being very well 

2 Cieomenes. .] — Of this Cieomenes a memorable saying 
is preserved in the Apophthegms of Plutarch. It relates 
to Homer and Hesiod ; the former he called the poet of 
the Lacedaemonians, the latter the poet of the Helots, or 
the slaves ; because Homer gave directions for military 
conduct, Hesiod, about the cultivation of the earth.— T. 

3 To accept of what he pleased.]— This sett '-denial will 
appear less extraordinary to an English reader, when he 
is informed, that according to the institutions of Lycur- 
gus, it was a capital offence for a Spartan to have any 
gold or silver in liis possession. This we learn from 
Xenophon ; and it is also ascertained by the following 
passage from Athenaeus, see the sixth book of the Deip- 
nosoph : " The divine Plato and Lycurgus of Sparta 
would not suffer in their republics either gold or silver, 
thinking that of all the metals iron and brass were suffi- 
cient." Plutarch, in the life of Lysander, tells us of a 
man named Therax, who, though the friend and col- 
league of Lysander, was put to death by the ephori, be- 
cause some silver was found in his house. The self- 
denial, therefore, or rather forbearance of the ancient 
Romans, amongst whom no such interdiction existed, 
seems better entitled to our praise. This sumptuary law, 
with respect to gold and silver, took its rise from an ora- 
cle, which affirmed that the destruction of Sparta would 
be owing to its avarice :— it was this, 

'A qilcxevuecTix, Stfagrav o\u. T. 

4 As in a vet.']— The Greek is <r«.yv l vw<ra.vn$, which 
was the custom of the Persians, and this was also done 
with respect to the islands of Chios, Lesbos, and Tene- 
dos, see book vi. chap. 31, where their manner of doing 
it is described.— T. 

5 Without an inhabitant.']— Strabo imputes this want 
of inhabitants to the cruelty of Syloson, and not to the 
severity of the Persians.— Larcher. 



prepared, revolted. During the reign of the 
Magus, and whilst the seven were engaged in 
their conspiracy against him, they had taken 
advantage of the confusion of the times to 
provide against a siege, and their exertions had 
never been discovered. When they had once 
resolved on the recovery of their liberties, they 
took this measure : — excepting their mothers, 
every man chose from his family the female 
whom he liked best, the remainder were all of 
them assembled together, and strangled. 6 Their 
reserve of one woman was to bake their bread ; T 
the rest were destroyed to prevent a famine. 

CLI. On the first intelligence of this event, 
Darius assembled his forces, and marched 
against them : on his arrival before the city, he 
besieged it in form. This, however, made so 
little impression upon them, that they assem- 
bled upon the ramparts, amused themselves 
with dancing, and treated Darius and his army 
with the extremest contempt. One amongst 
them exclaimed, " Persians, why do you lose 
your time ? if you be wise, depart. When 
mules produce young 8 you shall take Babylon." 



6 Assembled together and strangled.] — Prideaux, mak- 
ing mention of this strange and unnatural action, omits 
informing his readers that the Babylonians made an ex- 
ception in favour of their mothers; but by this barba- 
rous action the prophecy of Isaiah against this people 
was very signally fulfilled : — 

" But these two things shall come to thee in a moment, 
in one day, the loss of children and widowhood ; they 
shall come upon thee in their perfection, for the multi- 
tude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of 
thine enchantments." Isaiah xlvii. 9. — T. 

7 Bake their bread.] — This anciently was the employ- 
ment of the women, see book vii. chap. 1ST. — T. 

8 Mules produce young.]— Upon this passage M. Lar- 
cher remarks, that mules but seldom engender. As I 
have never seen nor heard of any well authenticated 
account of such a circumstance, I give the reader the 
following passage from Pennant, with some confidence 
of its being invariably the case, " Neither mules, nor the 
spurious offspring of any other animal, generate any far- 
ther : all these productions may be looked upon as mon- 
sters ; therefore, nature, to preserve the original spe- 
cies of animals entire and pure, wisely stops, in instances 
of deviation, the powers of propagation." 

What Theophrastus or Pliny may have asserted, in 
contradiction to the above, will weigh but very little 
against the unqualified assertion of so able a naturalist 
as Mr Pennant. The circumstance was ever considered 
as a prodigy, as appears from the folloAving lines of Ju- 
venal: 

Egregium, sanctumque viium si cerno, bimembri 
Hoc monstrum puero, vel miranti sub aratro 
Piscibus inventis etfatte comparo mulce — T. 

The following is the translation of, or rather paiody 
upon these lines of Juvenal, 

Now if one honest man I chance to view, 
Contemning interest, and to viitue true, 
I rank him with the prodigies of fame; 
With ploughed-up fishes, and with icv flame; 

2 A 



186 



HERODOTUS. 



This was the speech of a Babylonian, not be- 
lieving such a thing possible. 

CLII. A whole year and seven months hav- 
ing been consumed before the place, Darius 
and his army began to be hopeless with respect 
to the event. They had applied all the offen- 
sive engines, and every stratagem, particularly 
those which Cyrus had before successfully used 
against the Babylonians ; but every attempt 
proved ineffectual, from the unremitting vigi- 
lance of the besieged. 

CLIII. In the twentieth month of the siege, 
the following remarkable prodigy happened to 
Zopyrus, son of Megabyzus, who was one of 
the seven that dethroned the Magus : one of 
the mules employed to carry his provisions, pro- 
duced a young one ; which, when it was first 
told him, he disbelieved, and desired to see it; 
forbidding those who had witnessed the fact to 
disclose it, he revolved it seriously in his mind ; 
and remembering the words of the Baylonian, 
who had said the city should be taken when a 
mule brought forth, he from this conceived that 
Babylon was not impregnable. The saying it- 
self, and the mule's having a young one, seemed 
to indicate something preternatural. 

CLIV. Having satisfied himself that Baby- 
lon might be taken, he went to Darius, and 
inquired if the capture, of this city was of par- 
ticular importance to him. Hearing that it 
really was, he began to think how he might 
have the honour of effecting it by himself ; for in 
Persia there is no more certain road to greatness, 
than by the performance of illustrious actions. 
He conceived there was no more probable means 
of obtaining his end, than first to mutilate him- 
self, and thus pass over to the enemy. He made 
no scruple to wound himself beyond the power 
of being healed, for he cut off his nose and his 
ears, and clipping his hair close, so as to give 
it a mean appearance, 1 he scourged himself; and 
in this condition presented himself before Darius. 

CLV. When the king beheld a man of his 
illustrious rank in so deplorable a condition, he 



With things which start from nature's common rules; 
With bearded infants, and with teeming mules. 

Creech. 

1 To give it a mean appearance.'} — I do not remember 
an instance of the hair being cut off as a punish- 
ment ; it was frequently done as expressive of mourning 
in the most remote times ; and it was one characteristic 
mark of the servile condition. See Juvenal, sat. v. book i. 
170. 

Omnia ferre 
Si notes et debes pulsandum vertice raso 
Preebebis quandoque caput nee dura tcnebis 
Flaffra pati, bis epulis et tali riignus amico. 



instantly leaped in anger from his throne,* and 
asked who had dared to treat him with such 
barbarity ? Zopyrus made this reply, " No man, 
Sir, except yourself, could have this power over 
my person ; I alone have thus disfigured my 
body, which I was prompted to do from vexa- 
tion at beholding the Assyrians thus mock us." 
— « Wretched man," answered the king, " do 
you endeavour to disguise the shameful action 
you have perpetrated, under an honourable 
name V Do you suppose that because you 
have thus deformed yourself, the enemy will 
the sooner surrender ? I fear what you have 
done has been occasioned by some defect 01 
your reason." " Sir," answered Zopyrus, "it 
I had previously disclosed to you my intentions, 
you would have prevented their accomplishment; 
my present situation is the result of my own 
determination only. If you do not fail me, 
Babylon is our own. I propose to go, in the 
condition in which you see me, as a deser- 
ter to the Babylonians ; it is my hope to per- 
suade them that I have suffered these cruelties 
from you, and that they will, in consequence, 
give me some place of military trust. Do you, 
on the tenth day after my departure, detach to 
the gate of Semiramis 3 a thousand men of your 
army, whose loss will be of no consequence ; at 
an interval of seven days more, send to the 
Ninian gates other two thousand ; again, after 
twenty days, let another party, to the number 
of four thousand, be ordered to the Chaldean 
gates, but let none of these detachments have 
any weapons but their swords ; after this last- 



2 Leaped in anger from his throne.} — This incident, 
with the various circumstances attending it, properly 
considered, would furnish an artist with an excellent 
subject for an historical painting — The city of Babylon at 
a distance, the Persian camp, the king's tent, himself and 
principal nobles in deep consultation, with the sudden 
appearance of Zopyrus in the mutilated condition here 
described, might surely be introduced and arranged with 
the most admirable effect. — T. 

3 The gate of Semiramis.} — Mr Bryant's remark on 
this word is too curious to be omitted : — 

Semiramis was an emblem, and the name was a com- 
pound of Sama-Ramas, or Ramis : it signified the divine 
token, the type of providence ; and as a military ensign, 
it may with some latitude be interpreted the standard of 
the Most High. It consisted of the figure of a dove, 
which was probably encircled with the Iris, as those two 
emblems were often represented together. All who 
went under that standard, or who paid any deference to 
that emblem, were stiled Semarim and Samorim. One 
of the gates of Babylon was styled the gate of Semiramis, 
undoubtedly from having the sacred emblem of Sama- 
Ramas, or the dove, engraved by way of distinction over 
it. Probably the lofty obelisk of Semiramis, mentioned 
by Diodorus, was named from the same hieroglyphic. 



Til ALIA. 



187 



mentioned period, let your whole army advance, i 
and surround the walls. At the Belidian and 
Cissian gates be careful that Persians are sta- 
tioned. I think that the Babylonians, after 
witnessing my exploits in the field, will entrust 
me with the keys of those gates. Doubt not 
but the Persians, with my aid, will then ac- 
complish the rest." 

CLVI. After giving these injunctions, he 
proceeded towards the gates : and, to be con- 
sistent in the character which he assumed, 4 he 
frequently stopped to look behind him. The 
centinels on the watch-towers, observing this, 
ran down to the gate, which opening a little, 
they inquired who he was, and what he want- 
ed ? When he told them his name was Zopy- 
rus, and that he had deserted from the Persians, 
they conducted him before their magistrates. 
He then began a miserable tale of the injuries 
he had suffered from Darius, for no other rea- 
son but that he had advised him to withdraw 
his army, seeing no likelihood of his taking the 
city. " And now," says he, " ye men of Baby- 
lon, I come a friend to you, but a fatal ene- 
my to Darius and his army. I am well ac- 
quainted with all his designs, and his treatment 
of me shall not be unrevenged." 

CLVII. When the Babylonians beheld a 
Persian of such high rank deprived of his ears 
and his nose, covered with wounds and blood, 
they entertained no doubts of his sincerity, or 
of the friendliness of his intentions towards 
them. They were prepared to accede to all 
that he desired ; and on his requesting a mili- 
tary command, they gave it him without hesi- 
tation. He then proceeded to the execution 
of what he had concerted with Darius. On 
the tenth day, at the head of some Babylonian 
troops, he made a sally from the town, and en- 
countering the Persians, who had been station- 



4 The character lohich he assumed.] — Many circum- 
stances in the history of Zopyrus resemble those of Si- 
non in the iEneid. 



————— Qui se ignotum venientibus ultro 
Hocipsum ut strueret, Trojimque aperiret Acliivi*, 
Obtulerat, fidens animi, atque in utrumque paratus 
Seu versare dolos, seu certee occumbere morti.— 

Both tell a miserable tale -of i nj ones received from their 
countrymen, and both affect an extraordinary zeal to 
distinguish themselves in the service of their natural 
enemies. Sinon says of himself 

Cui neque apud Danaos usquam locus, et super ipsi 
Dardanidoe infensi poen.is cum sanguine poscunt. 

Again he says, 

Fas mihi Graiorum sacrata resolvere jura, 

Fas odisse viro-^, atque omnia ferre sub auras 

Si qui tegunt : teneor patriw nee legilmj uHs — T. 



ed for this purpose by Darius, he put every one 
of them to death. The Babylonians, observ- 
ing that his actions corresponded with his pro- 
fessions, were full of exultation, and were 
ready to yield him the most implicit obedience. 
A second time at the head of a chosen detach- 
ment of the besieged, he advanced frorLi the 
town at the time appointed, and slew the two 
thousand soldiers of Darius. The joy of the 
citizens at this second exploit was so extreme 
that the name of Zopyrus resounded with 
praise from every tongue The third time also, 
after the number of the days agreed upon had 
passed, he led forth his troops, attacked and 
slaughtered the four thousand. Zopyrus, after 
this, was every thing with the Babylonians, so 
that they made him the commander of their 
army, and guardian of their walls. 

CLVIII. At the time appointed, Darius 
advanced with all his forces to the walls. The 
perfidy of Zopyrus then became apparent; for 
as soon as the Babylonians mounted the wall 
to repel the Persian assault, he immediately 
opened to his countrymen what are called the 
Belidian and Cissian gates. Those Babylon- 
ians who saw this transaction fled for refuge to 
the temple of Jupiter Belus ; they who saw it 
not, continued in their posts, till the circum- 
stance of their being- betrayed became notorious 
to all. 

CLIX. Thus was Babylon a second time 
taken. As soon as Darius became master of 
the place, 5 he levelled the walls, and took away 
the gates, neither of which thing Cyrus had 
done before. Three thousand of the most dis- 
tinguished nobility he ordered to be crucified : 
the rest were suffered to continue where they 
were. He took care also to provide them with 
women, for the Babylonians, as we have be- 
fore remarked, to prevent a famine, had strang- 
led their wives. Darius ordered the neigh- 
bouring nations to send females to Babylon, 
each being obliged to furnish a stipulated 



5 Master of the place.] — Plutarch informs us, in liis 
Apophthegms, that Xerxes being- incensed against the 
Babylonians for revolting, after having conquered them 
a second time, forbade their carrying arms, and com- 
manded them to employ then- time in singing, music, and 
all kinds of dissipation, &c. 

The Babylonians did not revolt under Xerxes. Plu- 
tarch assigns to him a fact, which regards Darius ; how- 
ever this may be, after the reduction of Babylon, tho 
Persian monarchs fixed their residence in three great 
cities j the winter they passed at Babylon, the summer 
at Media, doubtless at Ecbatane and the greater part of 
the spring at Susa.— Larcher. 



188 



HERODOTUS. 



number. These in all amounted to fifty thou- 
sand, from whom the Babylonians of the pre- 
sent day are descended. 

CLX. With respect to the merit of Zopyrus, 
in the opinion of Darius it was exceeded by no 
Persian of any period, unless by Cyrus ; to 
him, indeed, he thought no one of his country- 
men could possibly be compared. It is affirmed 
of Darius, that he used frequently to assert, 
that he would rather Zopyrus had suffered no 
injury, than have been master of twenty Baby- 
Ions more. He rewarded him magnificently : 
every year he presented him with the gifts 
deemed most honourable in Persia ; he made 
him also governor of Babylon for life, free from 
the payment of any tribute, and to these he 



added other marks of liberality. Megabyzus, 
who commanded in Egypt against the Athenians 
and allies, was a son of this Zopyrus ; which 
Megabyzus had a son named Zopyrus, 1 who 
deserted from the Persians to the Athenians. 



1 A son named Zopyrus.] — Zopyrus, sou of Megaby- 
zus, and grandson of the famous Zopyrus, revolted from 
Artaxerxes after the death of his father and mother, and 
advanced towards Athens, on account of the friendship 
which subsisted betwixt his mother and the Athenians. 
He went by sea to Caunus, and commanded the inhabi- 
tants to give up the place to the Athenians who were 
with liim. The Caunians replied, that they were willing 
to surrender it to him, but they refused to admit auy 
Athenians. Upon this he mounted the wall; but a 
Caunian, named Alcides, knocked him on the head with 
a stone. His grandmother Amistris afterwards crucified 
this Caunian.— Lurcher. 



HERODOTUS- 



book IV. 



MELPOMENE. 



I. Darius, after the capture of Babylon, 
undertook an expedition against Scythia. Asia 
was now both populous and rich, and he was 
desirous of avenging on the Scythians the in- 
juries they had formerly committed by entering 
Media, and defeating those who opposed them. 
During a period of twenty-eight years, the 
Scythians, as I have before remarked, retained 
the sovereignty of the Upper Asia ; entering 
into which, when in pursuit of the Cimmerians, 1 
they expelled the Medes, its ancient possess- 
ors. After this long absence from their coun- 
try, the Scythians were desirous to return, but 
here as great a labour awaited them as they 
had experienced in their expedition into Media ; 
for the women, deprived so long of their hus- 
bands, had connected themselves with their 
slaves, and they found a numerous body in arms 
ready to dispute their progress. 

1 Cimmerians.]— From this people came the proverb 
of Cimmerian darkness. 

We reach'd old ocean's utmost bounds, 
Where rocks control his waves with ever-during mounds ; 
There in a lonely land, and gloomy cells, 
The dusky nation of Cimmeria dwells. 
The .sun ne'er views the uncomfortable seats, 
When radiant he advances or retreats. 
Unhappy race! whom endless night invades, 
Clouds the dull air, and wraps them round in shades. 

Odyss. book xi. 

Of this proverb Ammianus Marcellinus makes a happy 
use when censuring the luxury and effeminacy of the 
Roman nobility. " If," says he, (I use the version of 
Mr Gibbon) " a fly should presume to settle in the silken 
folds of their gilded umbrellas, should a sun-beam pene- 
trate through some unguarded and imperceptible cbink, 
they deplore their intolerable hardships, and lament in 
affected language that they were not born in the land of 
the Cimmerians, the regions of eternal darkness." 

Ovid also chooses the vicinity of Cimmeria as the pro- 
perest place for the palace of the god of sleep. 
Est prope Cimmerios, longo spelunca recessu, 
Moris cavus, ignavi domus et penetralia Somni, 
Quo nunquam radiis oriens, mediusve, cadensve 
Phoebus adire potest, nebulae caligine mixta: 
Exhalantur huino, dubiieque crepuscula lucis. 

The region assigned to this people in ancient geo- j 
graphy was part of European Scythia, now called Little 
Tartar y.—T. 



II. It is a custom with the Scythians to 
deprive all their slaves of sight * on account of 
the milk, s which is their customary drink. 
They have a particular kind of bone, shaped 
like a flute : this is applied to the private parts 
of a mare, and blown into from the mouth. It 
is one man's office to blow, another's to milk 
the mare. Their idea is, that, the veins of the 
animal being thus inflated, the dugs are pro- 



2 Deprive all their slaves of sight.] — Barbarous as tliis 
conduct will appear to every humane reader, although 
practised amongst an uncivilized race of men, he will be 
far more shocked when I remind him that in the most 
refined period of the Roman empire, those who were 
deemed the wisest and most virtuous of mankind did 
not scruple to use their slaves with yet more atrocious 
cruelty. It was customary at Rome to expose slaves 
who were sick, old, and useless, to perish miserably in 
an island of the Tyber. Plutarch tells us, in his Life of 
Cato, that it was his custom to sell his old slaves for any 
price, to get rid of the burden. They were employed, 
and frequently in chains, in the most laborious offices, 
and for trivial offences, and not seldom on mere sus- 
picion, were made to expire under the most horrid tor- 
tures that can be imagined.— T 

3 On account of the milk.]— Of this people, Homer 
speaks in the following lines : 

And where the far-famed Hippomolgian strays, 
Renown'd for justice and for length of days, 
Thrice happy race, that, innocent of blood, 
From milk innoxious seek their simple food.—//, xii. 

Upon this subject Larcher gives the following passage 
from Niebhur : — 

" J'entendis et vis moi-meme, a Bafra, que lorsqu'un 
Arabe trait la femelle du bufle, un autre lui fourre la 
main etle bras jusqu'au coude, dans la vulva, parce qu'on 
pretend savoir par experience qu'etant chatouille de la 
sorte, elle donne plus dc lait. Cette methode ressemble 
beaucoup a celle des Scythes." — We learn, from some 
lines of Antiphanes, preserved in Athenaeus, that the 
Scythians gave this milk to their children as soon as they 
were born. 

E/t' ov irotpoi hv)T ticrty el J,kuOoc.i o~$oh%u ; 
Ol yivofAivoio-iv tvdiej; rot; >rxihioi; 
Aia.hiSoa.criv Innuv xoti {Sow rwdv y«X«. 

" Do not those Scythians appear to you remarkablv 
wise who give to their children, as soon as ever they are 
born, the milk of mares and cows ?" — T. 



190 



HERODOTUS 



portionably filled. When the milk is thus ob- 
tained, they place it in deep wooden vessels, 
and the slaves are directed to keep it in con- 
tinual agitation. Of this, that which remains 
at the top ' is most esteemed, what subsides is 
of inferior value. This it is which induces 
the Scythians to deprive all their captives of 
sight, for they do not cultivate the ground, but 
lead a pastoral life. 2 

III. From the union of these slaves with 
the Scythian women, a numerous progeny was 
born, who, when informed of their origin, 
readily advanced to oppose those who were 
returning from Media. Their first exertion 
was to intersect the country by a large and deep 
trench, which extended from the mountains of 
Tauris 3 to the Palus Maoris. They then 
encamped opposite to the Scythians, who were 
endeavouring to effect their passage. Various 
engagements ensued, in which the Scythians 
obtained no advantage. " My countrymen," at 
length one of them exclaimed, " what are we 
doing? In this contest with our slaves, every 
action diminishes our number, and by killing 
those who oppose us, the value of victory de- 
creases : let us throw aside our darts and our 



1 Remains at the top.]— Is it not surprising, asks M. 
Larcher in this place, that neither the Greeks nor the 
Latins had any term in their language to express cream? 

Butter also was unknown to the Greeks and Romans 
till a late period. Pliny speaks of it as a common article 
of food among barbarous nations, and used by them as 
an unction. The very name of butter (0ovtv%ov) winch 
signifies cheese, or coagulum of cows' milk, implies fsu 
imperfect notion of the thing. It is clear that Herodo- 
tus here describes the making of butter, though he 
knew no name for the product. Pliny remarks, that 
the barbarous nations were as peculiar in neglecting 
cheese, as in making butter. Spuma lactis, which that 
author uses in describing what butter is, seems a very 
proper phrase for cream. Butter is often mentioned in 
Scripture ; see Harmer's curious accounts of the modes 
of making it in the East, vol. i. and iii. — T. 

2 Lead a pastoral life.] — The influence of food or 
climate, which in a more improved state of society is 
suspended or subdued by so many moral causes, most 
powerfully contributes to form and to maintain the na- 
tional character of barbarians. In every age, the im- 
mense plains of Scythia or Tartary have been inhabited 
by vagrant tribes of hunters and shepherds, w hose in- 
dolence refuses to cultivate the earth, and whose restless 

spirit disdains the confinement of a sedentary life. 

Gibbon. 

3 Mountains of Tauris.]— This peninsula is sometimes 
called the Taurica Chersonesus, sometimes simply Tau- 
rus, and here, by Herodotus, the mountains of Tauris. 
It signifies, as I undertand, in the Chaldaic and Syriac 
languages, the Peninsula of Oxen. From these beasts, 
of which the inhabitants were celebrated feeders, Eus- 
tathius, Not. in Dion. v. 30(5, tells us, that mount Taurus 
received its name. 



arrows, and rush upon them only with the whip 
which we use for our horses. Whilst they see 
us with arms, they think themselves our equals 
in birth and importance ; but as soon as they 
shall perceive the whip in our hands, they will 
be impressed with the sense of their servile 
condition, and resist no longer." 

IV. The Scythians approved the advice ; 
their opponents forgot their former exertions, 
and fled : so did the Scythians obtain the 
sovereignty of Asia ; and thus, after having 
been expelled by the Medes, they returned to 
their country. From the above motives Darius, 
eager for revenge, prepared to lead an army 
against them. 

V. The Scythians affirm of their country 
that it was of all others the last formed 4 and 
in this manner : — When this region was in its 
original and desert state, the first inhabitant 
was named Targitaus, a son, as they say (but 
which to me seems incredible) of Jupiter, by a 
daughter of the Borysthenes. This Targitaus 
had three sons, Lipoxais, Arpoxais, and lastly 
Colaxais. Whilst they possessed the country, 
there fell from heaven into the Scythian district 
a plough, a yoke, an ax, and a goblet, all of 
gold. The eldest of the brothers was the first 
who saw them ; who running to take them, 
was burnt by the gold. On his retiring, the 
second brother approached, and was burnt also. 
When these two had been repelled by the 
burning gold, last of all the youngest brother 
advanced; upon him the gold had no effect, 
and he carried it to his house. The two elder 
brothers, observing what had happened, resign- 
ed all authority to the youngest. 

VI. From Lipoxais those Scythians were 
descended who are termed the Auchatee ; from 
Arpoxais, the second brother, those who are 
called the Catiari and the Traspies ; from the 
youngest, who was king, came the Para- 
latse. 5 Generally speaking, these people are 
named Scoloti, from a surname of their king, 
but the Greeks call them Scythians. 

VII. This is the account which the Scy- 
thians give of their origin ; and they add, that 
from their first king Targitaus, to the invasion 
of their country by Darius, is a period of a 
thousand years, and no more. The sacred 
gold is preserved by their kings with the great- 

4 Last formed.] — Justin informs us, that the Scythians 
pretended to be more ancient than the Egyptians. — T. 

5 Paralatce.] — This passage will be involved in much 
perplexity, unless for tovs $u.oihY,<x.t be read tcv (Sua Saw 
— T. 



M ELPOMENE. 



1S1 



est care ; it is every year carried with great 
solemnity to every part of the kingdom, and 
upon this occasion there are sacrifices, with 
much pomp, at which the prince presides. 
They have a tradition, that if the person in 
whose custody this gold remains sleeps in the 
open air during the time of their annual festi- 
val, he dies before the end of the year; as much 
land is therefore given him s as he can pass 
over on horseback in the course of a day. 7 
As this region is extensive, king Colaxais 
divided the country into three parts, which he 
gave to three sons, making that portion the 
largest in which the gold was deposited. As 
to the district which lies farther to the north, 
and beyond the extreme inhabitants of the 
country, they say that it neither can be passed, 
nor yet discerned with the eye, on account of 
the feathers 8 which are continually falling : with 
these both the earth and the air are so filled, as 
effectually to obstruct the view. 

VIII. Such is the manner in which the 
Scythians describe themselves and the country 
beyond them* The Greeks who inhabit Pontus 
speak of both as follows : Hercules, when he 
was driving away the heifers of Geryon, 3 came 

6 As much land is therefore given him.'} — This is, be- 
yond doubt, a very perplexed and difficult passage ; and 
all that the different aunotators have done has been to 
intimate their conjectures. I have followed that which 
to my judgment seemed the happiest. 

7 On horseback in the course of a day.}— Larcher ad- 
duces, from Pliny, Ovid, and Seneca, the three following 
passages, to prove that anciently tins was the mode of 
rewarding merit : 

Dona amplissima imperatorum et fortium civhun 
quantum quis uno die plurimum cireiunaravisset. — Pliny. 
This from Ovid is more pertinent : — 

At Proceres, 

Runs honorati tantum tibi Cipe dedere 
Quintuin dtrpresso suhjectis bobus aratro 
Complecti posses ad finem solis ab oitu. — 

See also Seneca : — 

Illi ob virtutem et bene gestam rempublicam tantum 
agri decerneretur, quantum arando uno die circuire po- 
tuisset. 

8 On account of the feathers.}— It mast immediately 
occur to the reader that these feathers can be notliing 
else but snow. — T. 

9 Geryon.} — To this personage the poets assigned 
three heads and three bodies. Hesiod calls him 
T£ty,u$cx.\ov and Euripedes t^ht*) [aktov. See also Horace : 

Oui tcr amplum 
Geryonem, Tityonique tristi 
Compescit undn — 

Virgil calls him Tergeminus : but the minutest descrip- 
tion is found in Silius Italicus, the most satisfactory, in 
Pahephatus de incredibiJibus : — 

Qualis Atlantiaco memoralur litore quondam 
Monstrum Geryones immane tricorporis iru>, 
Cui tres in pugna dextra; varia arma gereLaut 
Una ignes ssevos, ast altera pone sagittas 
Fundebat, validam torquebat tenia coniura, 
Atque uno diversa dabat tria vulnera ni.su — 

Punic. Bell. 15. 300. 



to this region, now inhabited by the Scythians, 
but which then was a desert. This Geryon 
lived beyond Pontus, in an island which the 
Greeks call JErythia, near Gades, which is sit- 
uate in the ocean, and beyond the columns of 
Hercules. The ocean, they say, commencing 
at the east, flows round all the earth ;' u this, how- 
ever, they affirm without proving it. Hercules 
coming from thence, arrived at this country, 
now called Scythia, where, finding himself over • 
taken by a severe storm, and being exceedingly 
cold, he wrapped himself up in his lion's skin, 
and went to sleep. They add, that his mares, 
which he had detached from his chariot to feed, 
by some divine interposition disappeared during 
his sleep. 

IX. As soon as he awoke, he wandered over 
all the country in search of his mares, till at 
length he came to the district which is called 
Hylsea : there in a cave he discovered a female 
of most unnatural appearance, resembling a 
woman as far as the thighs, but whose lower 
parts were like a serpent. 11 Hercules beheld 
her with astonishment, but he was not deterred 
from asking her whether she had seen his mares ? 



Pahephatus says, he lived at Tricarenia ; and that, being 
called the Tricarenian Geryon, he was afterwards said 
to have had three heads. — T. 

10 Flows round all the earth.}— Upon this passage the 
following remark occurs in Stillingfleet's Origin. Sac? . 
book i. c. 4. — 

" It cannot be denied but a great deal of useful history 
may be fetched out of Herodotus ; yet who can excuse 
his ignorance, when he not only denies there is an ocean 
compassing the land, but condemns the geographers for 
asserting it ?" Herodotus, however, neither denies the 
fact, nor condemns the geographers. 

11 Like a serpent.}— M. Pelloutier calls this monster a 
Syren, but Homer represents the Syrens as very lovely 
women. 

Diodorus Siculus speaks also of this monster, describ- 
ing it like Herodotus. He makes her the mistress of 
Jupiter, by whom she had Scythes, who gave Ins name 
to the nation. — Larcher. 

This in a great measure corresponds with Virgil's 
description of Scylla : 

Prima hominis fades, et pulchro pectore virgo 
Pube tenus: postiema immani corpore pistrix 
Delphinum caudas utero commissa luporum. 

See also Spenser's description of the mermaids : 

They were fair ladies till they fondly strived 
With lh" Heliconian maids for maistery, 
Of whom the overcomen were deprived 
Of their proud beauty, and th' one moiety 
Transformed to fish, for their bold surquedry; 
But the upper half their hue retained slill, 
And their sweet skill in wonted melody, 
Which ever after they abused to ill, 
To allure weak travellers, whom gotten they did kill. 
See also his description of Echidna : 

Vet did her face and former parts piofesa 
A fair young maiden full of comely glee; 
But all her hinder parts did plain express, 
A monstrous dragon, full of fearful ugliness. 



192 



HERODOTUS. 



She made answer, that they were in her cus- 
tody : she refused, however, to restore them, 
but upon condition of his cohabiting with her. 
The terms proposed induced Hercules to 
consent ; but she still deferred restoring his 
mares, from the wish of retaining him longer 
with her, whilst Hercules was equally anxious 
to obtain them and depart. After a while she 
restored them with these words : " Your mares, 
which wandered here, I have preserved ; you 
have paid what was due to my care, I have con- 
ceived by you three sons ; I wish you to say 
how I shall dispose of them hereafter ; whether 
I shall detain them here, where I am the sole 
sovereign, or whether I shall send them to you." 
The reply of Hercules was to this effect : " As 
soon as they shall be grown up to man's estate, 
observe this, and you cannot err ; whichever of 
them you shall see bend this bow, and wear 
this belt 1 as I do, him detain in this country : 
the others, who shall not be able to do this, you 
may send away. By minding what I say, you 
will have pleasure yourself, and will satisfy my 
wishes." 

X. Having said this, Hercules took one of 
his bows, for thus far he had carried two, and 
showing her also his belt, at the end of which 
a golden cup was suspended, he gave her them, 
and departed. As soon as the boys of whom 
she was delivered grew up, she called the eldest 
Agathyrsus, the second Gelonus, and the 
youngest Scytha. She remembered also the 
injunctions she had received; and two of her 
sons, Agathyrsus and Gelonus, who were in- 
competent to the trial which was proposed, 
were sent away by their mother from this 
country, Scytha the youngest was successful in 
his exertions, and remained. From this Scytha, 
the son of Hercules, the Scythian monarchs 
are descended, and from the golden cup the 
Scythians to this day have a cup at the end of 
their belts. 

XI. This is the story which the Greek in- 
habitants of Pontus relate ; but there is also 
another, to which I am more inclined to assent : 



1 This belt.~\—\t was assigned Hercules as one of his 
labours by Eurystheus, to Avhom he was subject, to de- 
prive Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, of her belt. 
Ausonius, in the inscription which he probably wrote 
for some ancient relievo, mentions it as the sixth la- 
bour ; 

Threiciam sexto spoliavit Amazona baltheo. 

This labour is also mentioned thus by Martial : 

Peltatam Scythico discinxit Amazona nodo. 

Whether Herodotus means to speak of this belt, I pre- 
tend not to determine. — T. 



— The Scythian Nomades of Asia, having been 
harassed by the Massagetae in war, passed the 
Araxis, and settled in Cimmeria ; for it is to be 
observed, that the country now possessed by 
the Scythians, belonged formerly to the Cim- 
merians. This people, when attacked by the 
Scythians, deliberated what it was mostadvise- 
able to do against the inroad of so vast a multi- 
tude. Their sentiments were divided ; both 
were violent, but that of the kings appears pre- 
ferable. The people were of opinion, that it 
would be better not to hazard an engagement, 
but to retreat in security ; the kings were at all 
events for resisting the enemy. Neither party 
would recede from their opinions, the people 
and the princes mutually refusing to yield ; the 
people wished to retire before the invaders, the 
princes determined rather to die where they 
were, reflecting upon what they had enjoyed 
before, and alarmed by the fears of future cal- 
amities. From verbal disputes they soon came 
to actual engagement, and they happened to be 
nearly equal in number. All those who per- 
ished by the hands of their countrymen were 
buried by the Cimmerians near the river Tyre, 
where their monuments may still be seen. The 
survivors fled from their country, which in its 
abandoned state was seized and occupied by the 
Scythians. 

XII. There are still to be found in Scythia 
wails and bridges which are termed Cim- 
merian ; the same name is also given to a whole 
district, as well as to a narrow sea. It is cer- 
tain that when the Cimmerians were expelled 
their country by the Scythians, they fled to the 
Asiatic Chersonese, where the Greek city of 
Sinope 3 is at present situated. It is also ap- 
parent, that whilst engaged in the pursuit, the 
Scythians deviated from their proper course, 
and entered Media. The Cimmerians in their 
flight kept uniformly by the sea-coast ; but the 
Scythians, having Mount Caucasus to their 
right, continued the pursuit, till by following an 
inland direction they entered Media. 



2 Sinope.J — There were various opinions amongst the 
ancients concerning this city. Some said it was built by 
an Amazon so called ; others affirm it was founded by 
the Milesians ; Strabo calls it the most illustrious city of 
Pontus. It is thus mentioned by Valerius Flaccus, an 
author not so much read as he deserves : 

Assyrios complexa sinus stat opima, Sinope 
Nympha prius, blandosque Jovis quce luserat ignes 
Coelicolis immota procis. 

There was also a celebrated courtesan of this name, 
from whom Sinopissare became a proverb for being very 
lascivious. 

The modern name of the place is Sinub, and it stands 
at the mouth of a river called Sinope.— T. 



MELPOMENE. 



93 



XIII. There is still another account, which 
has obtained credit both with the Greeks and 
barbarians. Aristeas" the poet, a native of Pro- 
connesus, and son of Caustrobius, relates, that 
under the influence of Apollo he came to the 
Issedones, that beyond this people he found the 
Arimaspi, 4 a nation who have but one eye ; far- 
ther on were the Gryphins, 5 the guardians of 
the gold ; and beyond these the Hyperboreans, 6 
who possess the whole country quite to the sea, 
and that all these nations, except the Hyper- 
boreans, are continually engaged in war with 
their neighbours. Of these hostilities the 
Arimaspians were the first authors, for they 
drove out the Issedones, the Issedones the Scy- 
thians : the Scythians compelled the Cimmer- 
ians, who possessed the country towards the 
south, to abandon their native land. Thus it 
appears, that the narrative of Aristeas differs 
also from that of the Scythians. 

XIV. Of what country the relator of the 



3 Aristeas.'] — This person is mentioned also by Pliny 
and Aulus Gellius ; it is probable that he lived in the time 
of Cyrus and Croesus. Longinus has preserved six of 
his verses ; see chap. 10, of which he remarks, that they 
are rather florid than sublime. Tzetzes has preserved 
six more. The account given of him by Herodotus is 
far from satisfactory. 

4 Arimaspi.'] — The Arimaspians were Hyperborean 
Cyclopeans, and had temples named Charis or Charisia, 
in the top of which were preserved a perpetual fire. 
They were of the same family as those of Sicily , and had the 
same rites, and particularly worshipped the Ophite deity 
under the name of Opis. Aristeas Proconnesius wrote 
their history, and among other things mentioned that 
they had but one eye, which was placed in their graceful 
forehead. How could the front of a Cyclopean, one of 
the most hideous monsters that ever poetic fancy framed, 
be styled graceful ? The whole is a mistake of terms, 
and what this writer had misapplied related to Charis a 
tower, and the eye was a casement in the top of the 
edifice, where a light and fire were kept up.— Bryant. 

5 Gryphins. 

Thus the Gryphins, 
Those dumb and ravenous dogs of Jove, avoid 
The Arimaspian troops, whose frowning foreheads 
Glare with one blazing eye : along the banks 
Where Pluto rolls his stream of gold, they rein 
Their foaming steeds. 

Promitheus Vinctus ; Mschyl. Potter's Translation. 

Pausanias tell us, that the Gryphins are represented 
by Aristeas as monsters resembling lions, with the 
beaks and wings of eagles. By the way, Dionysius of 
Halicaroassus is of opinion that no such poem as this of 
Aristeas ever existed. 

G Hyperboreans.] — The ancients do not appear to have 
had any precise ideas of the country of this people. The 
Hyperborean mountains are also frequently mentioned, 
which, as appears from Virgil, were the same as the 
Ryphean : 

Talis Hyperboreo septem subjecta trioni 

Gens effraena virum Ithipseo tunditur Euro 

Et pecudum fulvis vplatur cctpora satis. T. 



above account was, we have already seen ; but 
I ought not to omit what I have heard of this 
personage, both at Proconnesus and Cyzicus. 7 
It is said of this Aristeas, that he was of one of 
the best families of his country, and that he 
died in the workshop of a fuller, into which he 
had accidentally gone. The fuller immediately 
secured his shop, and went to inform the rela- 
tions of the deceased of what had happened. 
The report having circulated through the city, 
that Aristeas was dead, there came a man of 
Cyzicus, of the city of Artaces, who affirmed 
that this assertion was false, for that he had met 
Aristeas going to Cyzicus, 8 and had spoken with 
him. In consequence of his positive assertions, 
the friends of Aristeas hastened to the fuller's 
shop with every thing which was necessary for 
his funeral, but when they came there, no Aris- 
teas was to be found, alive or dead. Seven 
years afterwards it is said that he re- appeared 
at Proconnesus, and composed those verses 
which the Greeks call Arimaspian, after which 
he vanished a second time. 

XV. This is the manner in which these 
cities speak of Aristeas ; but I am about to re- 
late a circumstance which to my own knowledge 
happened to the Metapontines of Italy, three 
hundred and forty years after Aristeas had a 
second time disappeared, according to my con- 
jecture, as it agrees with what I heard at Pro- 
connesus and Metapontus. The inhabitants of 
this latter place affirm, that Aristeas having 
appeared in their city, directed them to construct 
an altar to Apollo, and near it a statue to Aris- 
teas of Proconnesus. Pie told them that they 
were the only people of Italy whom Apollo had 
ever honoured by his presence, and that he him- 
self had attended the god under the form of a 
crow: a having said this he disappeared. The 



7 Cyzicus.] — This was one of the most flourishing 
cities of Mysia, situate in a small island of the Propontis, 
and built by the Milesians. It is thus mentioned by Ovid : 

Inde Propontiacis hcerentem Cyzicon oris 
Cyzicon iEmoniee nobile gentis opus. 

The people of this place were remarkable for their 
effeminacy and cowardice, whence tinctura Cyzicena bo- 
came proverbial for any dastardly character. It lias now 
become a peninsula, by the filling up of the small channel 
by which it was divided from the continent. — T. 

8 Going to Cyzicus.] — Upon this story Larcher remarks, 
that there are innumerable others like it, both among 
the ancients and moderns. A very l idiculous one is re- 
lated by Plutarch, in his Life of Romulus : — A man nam- 
ed Cleomedes, seeing himself ptirsued, jumped into a 
great chest, which closed upon him ; after many ineffec- 
tual attempts to open it, they broke it in pieces, but no 
Cleomedes was to be found, alive or dead. 

9 Under the form of a crow.]— Pliny relates this some- 

2 B 



194 



HERODOTUS. 



Metapontines relate, that in consequence of this 
they sent to Delphi, to inquire what that un- 
natural appearance might mean; the Pythian 
told them in reply, to perform what had been 
directed, for that they would find their obedience 
rewarded ; they obeyed accordingly, and there 
now stands near the statue of Apollo himself, 
another bearing the name of Aristeas : it is 
placed in the public square of the city surrounded 
with laurels. 

XVI. Thus much of Aristeas — No certain 
knowledge is to be obtained of the places which 
lie remotely beyond the country of which I 
before spake : on this subject I could not meet 
with any person able to speak from his own 
knowledge. Aristeas above-mentioned confes- 
ses, in the poem which he wrote, that he did 
not penetrate beyond the Issedones ; and that 
what he related of the countries more remote, 
he learned of the Issedones themselves. For 
my own part, all the intelligence which the most 
assiduous researches, and the greatest attention 
to authenticity, have been able to procure, shall 
be faithfully related. 

XVII. As we advance from the port of the 
Borysthenites, which is unquestionably the 
centre of all the maritime parts of Scythia, the 
first people who are met with are the Callipi- 
dae, 1 who are Greek Scythians : beyond these is 
another nation, called the Halizones. 8 These 
two people in general observe the customs of 
the Scythians : except that for food they sow 
corn, onions, garlic, lentils, and millet. Be- 
yond the Halizones dwell some ploughing Scy- 
thians, who sow corn not to eat, but for 
sale. Still more remote are the Neuri, 3 whose 
country towards the north, as far as I have 
been able to learn, is totally uninhabited. All 

what differently. He says, it was the soul of Aristeas, 
which having left his body appeared in the form of a crow. 
His words are these: Aristeae etiani visam evolantem 
ex ore in Proconneso, corvi effigie magna quae sequitur 
fabulositate. — Lurcher. 

The crow was sacred to Apollo, as appears from iElian 
de Animalibus, book vii. 18. We learn also from Scali- 
ger, in Ms Notes on Manilius, that a crow sitting on a 
tripod was found on some ancient" coins, to which Statius 
also alludes in the following line : 

Non comes obscurus tripodum. — T. 

1 Cnttipidce.] — Solinus calls these people Callipodes. 
— T. 

2 Hulizones.] — So called, because surrounded on all 
sides by the sea, as the word itself obviously testifies. — T. 

3 Neuri.] — Mela, book ii. 1, says of this people, that 
they had the power of transforming themselves into 
wolves, and resuming their former shape at pleasure. — 
Neuris statum singulis tenipus est, quo si velint in lupos, 
iterumque in eos qui fuere mutentur. — T. 



these nations dwell near the river Hypanis, to 
the west of the Borysthenes. 

XVIII. Having crossed the Borysthenes, 
the first country towards the sea is Hylsea, con- 
tiguous to which are some Scythian husband- 
men, who call themselves Olbiopolitae, but who, 
by the Greeks living near the Hypanis, are 
called Borysthenites. 3 The country possessed 
by these Scythians towards the east, is the 
space of a three days' journey, as far as the 
river Panticapes ; to the north, their lands ex- 
tend to the amount of an eleven days' voyage 
along the Borysthenes. The space beyond 
this is a vast inhospitable desert ; and remoter 
still are the Androphagi, or men-eaters, a sepa- 
rate nation, and by no means Scythian. As 
we pass farther from these, the country is alto- 
gether desert, not containing, to our knowledge, 
any inhabitants. 

XIX. To the east of these Scythians, who 
are husbandmen, and beyond the river Panti- 
capes, are the Scythian Nomades or shepherds, 
who are totally unacquainted with agriculture : 
except Hylsea, all this country is naked of trees. 
These Nomades inhabit a district to the ex- 
tent of a fourteen days' journey towards the 
east, as far as the river Gerrhus. 

XX. Beyond the Gerrhus is situate what is 
termed the royal province of Scythia, possessed 
by the more numerous part and the noblest of 
the Scythians, who consider all the rest of their 
countrymen as their slaves. From the south 
they extend to Tauris, and from the east as far 
as the trench which was sunk by the descend- 
ants of the blinded slaves, and again as far as 
the port of the Palus Maeotis, called Chemni, 
and indeed many of them are spread as far as 
the Tanais. Beyond these, to the north, live 
the Melanchlaeni, another nation who are not 
Scythians. Beyond the Melanchlaeni, the lands 
are low and marshy, and as we believe entirely 
uninhabited. 

XXI. Beyond the Tanais the region of 
Scythia terminates, and the first nation we 
meet with are the Sauromatae, who, commenc- 
ing at the remote parts of the Palus Maeotis, 
inhabit a space to the north, equal to a fifteen 
days' journey ; the country is totally destitute 
of trees, both wild and cultivated. Beyond 
these are the Budini, who are husbandmen, 
and in whose country trees are found in great 
abundance. 



4 Borysthenites. ,] — These people are called by Pro- 
pertius the Borysthenidae : 

Gloria ad hjbernos lata Borysthenidas.— T. 



MELPOMENE 



195 



XXII. To the north, beyond the Budini, 
is an immense desert of an eight days' journey j 
passing which to the east are the Thyssagetae, a 
singular but populous nation, who support 
themselves by hunting. Contiguous to these, 
in the same region, are a people called Iyrcae ; 5 
they also live by the chace, which they thus 
pursue: — Having ascended the tops of the 
trees, which every where abound, they watch 
for their prey. Each man has a horse, in- 
structed to lie close to the ground, that it may 
not be seen ; they have each also a dog. As 
soon as the man from the tree discovers his 
game, he wounds it with an arrow, then mount- 
ing his horse he pursues it, followed by his 
dog. Advancing from this people still nearer 
to the east we again meet with Scythians, who 
having seceded from the royal Scythians, es- 
tablished themselves here. 

XXIII. As far as these Scythians, the 
whole country is flat, and the soil excellent ; 
beyond them it becomes barren and stony. 
After travelling over a considerable space, a 
people are found living at the foot of some 
lofty mountains, who, both male and female, 
are said to be bald from their birth, having 
large chins, and nostrils like the ape species. 
They have a language of their own, but their 
dress is Scythian; they live chiefly upon the 
produce of a tree which is called the ponticus ; 
it is as large as a fig, and has a kernel not un- 
like a bean: when it is ripe they press it 
through a cloth ; it produces a thick black 
liquor which they call aschy ; this they drink, 
mixing it with milk ; the grosser parts which 
remain they form into balls and eat. They 
have but few cattle, from the want of proper 
pasturage. Each man dwells under his tree ; 
this during the winter they cover with a thick 
white cloth, which in the summer is removed; 
they live unmolested by any one, being con- 
sidered as sacred, and having amongst them no 
offensive weapon. Their neighbours apply to 
them for decision in matters of private contro- 
versy ; and whoever seeks an asylum amongst 
them is secure from injury. They are called 
the Argippaei. 6 



5 Iyrcae.]— It is in vain that Messieurs Falconnet and 
Mallet are desirous of reading Tu^xoi, the Turks, the 
same as it occurs in Pomponius Mela ; it would be bet- 
ter, with Pintianus, to correct the text of the geo- 
grapher by that of Herodotus. Pliny also joins this 
people with the Thyssagetae. — Lurcher. 

6 Argippcei.]— These people are said to have derived 
their name from the white horses with which their 



XXIV. As far as these people who are 
bald, the knowledge of the country and inter- 
mediate nations is clear and satisfactory; it 
may be obtained from the Scythians, who have 
frequent communication with them, from the 
Greeks of the port on the Borysthenes, and 
from many other places of trade on the Euxine. 
As these nations have seven different languages, 
the Scythians who communicate with them 
have occasion for as many interpreters. 

XXV. Beyond these Argippaei, no certain 
intelligence is to be had, a chain of lofty and 
inaccessible mountains precluding all discovery. 
The people who are bald, assert, what I can by 
no means believe, that these mountains are 
inhabited by men, who in their lower parts 
resemble a goat ; and that beyond these are a 
race that sleep away six months of the year : 
neither does this seem at all more probable. 
To the east of the Argippaei it is beyond all 
doubt that the country is possessed by the Is- 
sedones ; but beyond them to the north neither 
the Issedones nor the Argippaei know any thing 
more than I have already related. 

XXVI. The Issedones have these, among 
other customs : — As often as any one loses his 
father, his relations severally provide some 
cattle ; these they kill, and having cut them in 
pieces, they dismember also the body of the 
deceased, and, mixing the whole together, feast 
upon it ; the head alone is preserved, from this 
they carefully remove the hair, and cleansing it 
thoroughly set it in gold : 7 it is afterwards es- 
teemed sacred, and produced in their solemn 
annual sacrifices. Every man observes the 
above rites in honour of his father, as the 
Greeks do theirs in memory of the dead. 8 In 



country abounded. The Tartars of the present day are 
said to hold white horses in great estimation ; how much 
they were esteemed in ancient times, appears from 
various passages of different writers, who believed that 
they excelled in swiftness all horses of a different 
colour. 

Qui candore nives anteirent, cursihus auras T. 

7 Set it in gold.]— We learn from Livy, that the Boii, 
a people of Gaul, did exactly the same with respect to 
the sculls of their enemies.— Purgato inde capite ut moa 
iis est, calvum auro caelavere : idque sacrum vas iis erat, 
quo solennibus libarent. — See Liry, chnp. xxiv. book ^3. 

8 In memory of the dead.] — The Greeks had anniver- 
sary days in remembrance of departed friends. These 
were indifferently termed Nipttriec, as being solemnized 
on the festival of Nemesis, ^^iot, and Yinatu.. This 
latter word seems to intimate that these were feasts in- 
stituted to commemorate the birth-days ; but these it 
appears, were observed by surviving relations and 
friends upon the anniversary of a person's death. 
Amongst many other customs which distinguished these 



196 



HERODOTUS. 



other respects it is said that they venerate the 
principles of justice ; and that their females 
enjoy equal authority with the men. 

XXVIL The Issedones themselves affirm, 
that the country beyond them is inhabited by a 
race of men who have but one eye, and by 
Gryphins who are guardians of the gold. — 
Such is the information which the Scythians 
have from the Issedones, and we from the 
Scythians ; in the Scythian tongue they are 
called Arimaspians, from Arima, the Scythian 
word for one, and spu, an eye. 

XXVIII. Through all the region of which 
we have been speaking, the winter season, 
which continues for eight months, is intolerably 
severe and cold. At this time if water be 
poured upon the ground, unless it be near a 
fire, it will not make clay. The sea itself, 1 
and all the Cimmerian Bosphorus, 2 is congealed ; 

Ttvaria., some were remarkable for their simplicity and 
elegance. Thgy strewed flowers on the tomb, they en- 
circled it with myrtle, they placed locks of their hair 
upon it, they tenderly invoked the names of those de- 
parted, and lastly they poured sweet ointments upon the 
grave. 

These observances with little variation, took place both 
in Greece and Rome. — See the beautiful Ode of Ana- 
creon : 

T/ a. 5s< kiOov pvgigttv, 
T/ §= yri x iilv ftMTKKz ; 

~E[Al /LCXX\0V, ii tTI Z,Ct) 

Uvaatrov. 
Thus rendered by Cowley : 

Why do we precious ointments shower, 
Noble wines why do we p ur, 
Beauteous flowers why do we spread 
Upon the mon'ments of ihe dead ? 
Nothing they hut dust can show, 
Or bones that hasten to be so ; 
Crown me with roses whilst I live. 

See also the much admired apostrophe addressed by 
Virgil to the memory of Marcellus : 

Hen miserande puer, si qua fata aspera rumpas, 
Tu Marcellus eris : manibus date lilia plenis, 
Purpureas spargam flores, animamque nepotis 
His saltern accumulem donis. T. 

1 The sea itself. 2— The Greeks, who had no knowledge 
of this country, were of opinion that the sea could not 
be congealed ; they consequently considered this passage 
of Herodotus as fabulous. The moderns, who are better 
acquainted with the regions of the north, well know 
that Herodotus was right. — Larcher. 

Upon this subject the following whimsical passage 
occurs in Macrobius. — Nam quod Herodotus historiarum 
scriptor, contra omnium ferme qui hsec qusesiverunt 
opinionem scripsit, mare Bosporicum, quod et Cimmer- 
ium appellat, earumque partium mare omne quod Scythi- 
cum dicitur, id gelu constringi et consistere, aliter est 
quam putatur; nam non marina aqua contrahitur, sed 
quia plurimum in illis regionibus fluviorum est, et palu- 
dum in ipsa maria influentium, superficies maris cui dul- 
ces aquae innatant, congelascit, et incolumi aqua marina 
videtur in mari gelu, sed de advenis undis coactum, &c. 

2 Bospliorus.~\ — It is indifferently written Bosphorus, 



and the Scythians who live within the trench 
before mentioned make hostile incursions upon 
the ice, and penetrate with their waggons as far 
as Sindica. During eight months the climate 
is thus severe, and the remaining four are suffi- 
ciently cold. In this region the winter is by 
no means the same as in other climates ; for at 
this time, when it rains abundantly elsewhere, 
it here scarcely rains at all, whilst in the sum- 
mer the rains are incessant. At the season 
when thunder is common in other places, here 
it is never heard, but during the summer it is 
very heavy. If it be ever known to thunder 
in the winter, it is considered as ominous. If 
earthquakes happen in Scythia, in either season 
of the year, it is thought a prodigy. Their 
horses are able to bear the extremest severity 
of the climate, which the asses and mules fre- 
quently cannot ; 3 though in other regions the 
cold which destroys the former has little effect 
upon the latter. 

XXIX. This circumstance of their climate 
seems to explain the reason why their cattle are 
without horns ; 4 and Homer in the Odyssey 

and Bosporus ; both signify the same thing, for 0e?s<v 
and xo%uv both have the same meaning with ay-itv, to 
drive. See Hesychius, at the word *o%tvo-ctt. The in- 
habitants were herdsmen, which indeed the word implies. 
See Apollonius Rhodius, 1. ii. ver. i. Their king Amy. 
cus is described with the herdsman's staff, instead of a 
sceptre, ver. 33. The people are represented as unlike 
the Argonauts in shape and manners, ver. 37; and 
Amycus as a savage giant, or son of the earth, ver. 38, 
9. Valerius Flaccus thus describes the sea passing the 
straits : 

Qua vigidos eructat Bosphorus amnes. 

See also Apollon. Rhod. ver. 322. much better : 

— 'Tts§& £s toXXov ciXa xo^OuiToti ubue 

The pastures Flaccus describes as exceedingly rich : 

Pingue solum et duris regio non invida tauris. 

But the behaviour of the inhabitants as savage and 
lawless : 

Non fcedera legum 
Ulla colunt, placidas aut jura tenentia gentes. 

3 Asses and mules frequently cannot."] — This assertion 
of Herodotus is confirmed by Pliny, who says " Ipsum 
animal (asinus) frigoris maxime impatiens : idco non 
generatur in Ponto, nee sequinoctis vernp, et caetera pecua 
admittitur sed solstitio." The ass is a native of Arabia ; 
the warmer the climate in which they are produced, the 
larger and the better they are. " Their size and their 
spirit," says Mr Pennant, " regularly decline as they 
advance into colder regions." Hollingshed says, that in 
his time "our lande did yeelde no asses." At present 
they appear to be naturalized in our country ; and M. 
Larcher's observation, that they are not common in Eng- 
land, must have arisen from misinformation. That the 
English breed of asses is comparatively less beautiful, 
must be acknowledged. — T. 

4 Without horns.] — Hippocrates, speaking of the Scy 
thian chariots, says, they are drawn by oxen which have 



MELPOMENE. 



197 



has a line which confirms my opinion : — " And 
Libya, where the sheep have always horns ;" 5 
which is as much as to say, that in warm cli- 
mates horns will readily grow ; but in places 
which are extremely cold, they either will not 
grow at all, or are always diminutive. 

XXX. The peculiarities of Scythiaare thus 
explained from the coldness of the climate ; but 
as I have accustomed myself from the commence- 
ment of this history to deviate occasionally 
from my subject, I cannot here avoid expressing 
my surprise, that the district of Elis never pro- 
duces mules ; yet the air is by no means cold, 
nor can any other satisfactory reason be assigned. 
The inhabitants themselves believe that their 
not possessing mules is the effect of some curse." 

no horns, and that the cold prevents then- having- any. — 
Lurcher. 

5 Always horns.] — The line here quoted from Homer 
is thus rendered by Pope : 

And two fair crescents of translucent horn 
The brows of all their young increase adorn. 

6 Of some curse.]—- The following passage is found in 
Plutarch's Greek questions. 

Q. Why do the men of Elis lead their mares beyond 
their borders when they would have them covered? 

A. Was it because iEnomaus, being remarkable for his 
great love of horses, imprecated many horrid curses upon 
mares that should be (thus) covered in Elis, and that the 
people in terror of his curses will not suffer it to be done 
within their district ? 

It is indisputably evident, that something is omitted or 
corrupted in this passage of Plutarch. As it stands at 
present it appears that the mares were to be covered by 
horses, and so the translators have rendered it ; but the 
love of iEnomaus for horses, would hardly lead him to 
so absurd an inconsistency as that of cursing the breed 
of them within his kingdom. The truth is, it was the 
breed of mules which he loaded with imprecations ; and 
it was only when the mares were to be covered by asses, 
that it was necessary to remove them, to avoid falling 
under his curse. Some word expressing this ought there- 
fore to be found in Plutarch, and the suspicion of corrup- 
tion naturally falls at once on the unintelligible word 
tvodcci, which is totally omitted in the Latin version, and 
given up by Xylander as inexplicable ; Wesseling would 
change it to UBo^vs, but that does not remove the fault : 
if we read Uoloxov; all will be easy. The question will 
then stand thus : " Why do the men of Elis lead those 
mares which are to receive asses, beyond their borders to 
be covered ?" And we must render afterwards, " that 
should be thus covered," instead of covered only : ovoloxos 
being a compound formed at pleasure, according to the 
genius of the Greek language, but not in common use, 
might easily be corrupted by a careless or ignorant trans- 
criber. I should not have dwelt so long on a verbal criti- 
cism of this kind, had not the emendation appeared im- 
portant, and calculated to throw additional light on tins 
passage of Herodotus. 

Conformable to this, is the account of Pausanias : — " In 
Elis," says he, " mares will not produce from asses, though 
they will in the places contiguous : this the people im- 
pute to some curse." Book v. p. 381. 

And Eustathius has a similar remark in his Comment 
on Dionysius, 1. 409. 



When their mares require the male, the Eleans 
take them out of the limits of their own terri- 
tories, and there suffer asses to cover them j 
when they have conceived they return. 

XXXI. Concerning those feathers, which, 
as the Scythians say, so cloud the atmosphere 
that they cannot penetrate nor even discern 
what lies beyond them, my opinion is this : — 
In those remoter regions there is a perpetual 
fall of snow, which, as may be supposed, is less 
in summer than in winter. Whoever observes 
snow falling continually, will easily conceive 
what I say ; for it has a great resemblance to 
feathers. These regions, therefore, which are 
thus situated remotely to the north, are unin- 
habitable from the unremitting severity of the 
climate ; and the Scythians, with the neighbour- 
ing nations, mistake the snow for feathers. 7 — 
But on this subject I have said quite enough. 

XXXII. Of the Hyperboreans 8 neither the 
Scythians nor any of the neighbouring people, 
the Issedones alone excepted, have any know- 
ledge j and indeed what they say merits but 
little attention. The Scythians speak of these 
as they do of the Arimaspians. It must be 
confessed that Hesiod mentions these Hyper- 
boreans, as does Homer also in the Epigonoi, 9 
if he was really the author of those verses. 

XXXIII. On this subject of the Hyper- 
boreans the Delians are more communicative. 
They affirm, that some sacred offerings of this 
people, carefully folded in straw, were given to 



Upon the above Larcher remarks, that this doubtless 
was the reason why the race of chariots drawn by mules 
was abolished at the Olympic games, which had been 
introduced there in the seventieth Olympiad by Thersias 
of Thessaly.— T. 

7 Snow for feathers.] — The comparison of falling snow 
to fleeces of wool as being very obvious and natural, is 
found in abundance of writers, ancient and modern. 

See Psalm cxlvii. ver. 5. — Who sendeth his snow like 
wool. Martial beautifully calls snow densum tacitarum 
vellus aquarum. 

\ In whose capacious womb 

A vapoury deluge lies to snow congeal'd ; 
Heavy they roll their fleecy world along — Thomson. 

8 Hyperboreans.] — It appears from the Scholiast on 
Pindar, that the Greeks called the Thracians, Boreans ; 
there is therefore great probability that they called the 
people beyond these the Hyperboreans. — Larcher. 

9 Epigonoi.] — That Homer was the author of various 
poems besides the Iliad and the Odyssey, there seems 
little reason to doubt ; that he was the author of these 
in question can hardly be made appear. The Scholiast of 
Aristophanes assigns them to Antimachus ; but Antima- 
chus of Colophon was later than Herodotus, or at least his 
cotemporary. The subject of these verses were, the sup- 
posed authors of the second Theban war. At the time in 
which Homer flourished, the wars of Thebes and of Troy 
were the subjects of universal curiosity and attention. — T. 



198 



HERODOTUS. 



the Scythians, from whom descending regularly 
through every contiguous nation, 1 they arrived 
at length at the Adriatic. From hence, trans- 
ported towards the south, they were first of all 
received by the Dodoneans of Greece ; from 
them again they were transmitted to the gulf 
of Melis ; whence passing into Eubcea, they 
were sent from one town to another, till they 
arrived at Carystus ; not stopping at Andros, 
the Carystians carried them to Tenos, the 
Tenians to Delos ; at which place the Delians 
affirm they came as we have related. They 
farther observe, that to bring these offerings 
the Hyperboreans 3 sent two young women, 
whose names were Hyperoche and Laodice : 
five of their countrymen accompanied them as a 
guard, who are held in great veneration at Delos, 
and called the Peripheres. 3 As these men 
never returned, the Hyperboreans were greatly 
offended, and took the following method to 
prevent a repetition of this evil : — They carried 



1 Through every contiguous nation."] — On this subject 
the Athenians have another tradition. — See Pausanias, 
c. xxxi. p. 77. 

According to them, these offerings were given by the 
Hyperboreans to the Arimaspians, by the Arimaspians 
to the Scytliians, by the Scythians, carried to Sinope. 
The Greeks from thence passed them from one to another, 
till they arrived at Prasis, a place dependant on Athens ; 
the Athenians ultimately sent them to Delos. " This," 
says M. Larcher, " seems to me a less probable account 
than that of the Delians." 

2 Hyperboreans.] — Upon the subject of the Hyper- 
boreans, our learned mythologist Mr Bryant has a very 
curious chapter. The reader will do well to consult the 
whole ; but the following extract is particularly appli- 
cable to the chapter before us. 

Of all other people the Hyperboreans seem most to 
have respected the people of Delos. To this island they 
used to send continually mystic presents, which were 
greatly reverenced : in consequence of this, the Delians 
knew more of their history than any other community 
of Greece. Callimachus, in his hymn to Delos, takes 
notice both of the Hyperboreans and their offerings. 

This people were esteemed very sacred ; and it is said 
that Apollo, when exiled from heaven, and when he had 
seen his offspring slain, retired to their country. It 
seems he wept; and there was a tradition that every 
tear was amber. 

See Apollonius Rhodius, book iv. 611. 

The Celtic sages a tradition hold, 

That every drop of amber was a tear 

Shed by Apollo, when he fled from heaven; 

For sorely did he weep, and sorrowing pass'd 

Through many a doleful region, till he reach'd 

The sacred Hyperboreans. 

See Bryant, vol. iii. 491. 

3 Peripheres. 1 — Those whom the different states of 
Greece sent to consult Apollo, or to offer him sacrifice 
in the name of their country, they called Theoroi. They 
gave the name of Deliastoi to those whom they sent to 
Delos ; and of Pythastoi to those who went to Delphi. 
'—Larcher. 



to their frontiers their offerings, folded in barley- 
straw, and committing them to the care of their 
neighbours, directed them to forward them pro- 
gressively, till, as is reported, they thus arrived. 
This singularity observed by the Hyperboreans 
is practised, as I myself have seen, amongst the 
women of Thrace and Paeonia, who in their 
sacrifices to the regal Diana make use of barley- 
straw. 

XXXIV. In honour of the Hyperborean 
virgins who died at Delos, the Delian youth of 
both sexes celebrate certain rites, in which they 
cut off their hair ; 4 this ceremony is observed 
by virgins previous to their marriage, who, 
having deprived themselves of their hair, wind 
it round a spindle, and place it on the tomb. 
This stands in the vestibule of the temple of 
Diana, on the left side of the entrance, and is 
shaded by an olive, which grows there naturally. 
The young men of Delos wind some of their 
hair round a certain herb, and place it on the 
tomb — Such are the honours which the Deli- 
ans pay to these virgins. 

XXXV. The Delians add, that in the same 
age, and before the arrival of Hyperoche and 
Laodice at Delos, two other Hyperborean vir- 
gins came there, whose names were Argis and 
Opis ; 5 their object was to bring an offering to 
Lucina, in acknowledgment of the happy de- 
livery of their females ; but that Argis and 
Opis were accompanied by the deities them- 
selves. They are, therefore, honoured with 



4 Cut off their hair. 2 — The custom of offering the hair 
to the gods is of very great antiquity. Sometimes it 
was deposited in the temples, as in the case of Berenice, 
who consecrated hers in the temple of Venus; some- 
times it was suspended upon trees. — Larcher. 

When the hair was cut off in honour of the dead, it 
was done in a circular form. Allusion is made to this 
ceremony in the Electra of Sophocles, line 52. See 
also Ovid : 

Scissae cum veste capillos. 

This custom, by the way, was strictly forbidden by the 
Jews. Pope has a very ludicrous allusion to it : 

When fortune or a mistress frowns, 
Some plunge in business, others shave their crowns T. 

5 Ojris.] — Orion, who was beloved by Aurora, and 
whom Pherecydes asserts to have been the son of Nep- 
tune and Euryale, or, according to other authors, of 
Terra, endeavouring to offer violence to Opis, was slain 
with an arrow by Diana. 

The first Hyperboreans who carried offerings to Delos 
were, according to Callimachus, named Oupis, Loxo, 
and Hecaerge, daughter of Boreas. — Larcher. 

Opis is thus mentioned by Virgil : 

Opis ad jEtherium pennis aufertur Olympum. 

According to Servius, Opis, Loxo, and Hecaerge, 
were synonymous terms for the moon. Opis was also 
the name of a city of the Tigris.— T. 



MELPOMENE. 



199 



other solemn rites. The women assemble to- 
gether, and, in a hymn composed for the occasion 
by Olen of Lycia, 6 they call on the names of 
Argis and Opis. Instructed by these, the 
islanders and Ionians hold similar assemblies, 
introducing the same two names in their hymns. 
This Olen was a native of Lycia, who com- 
posed other ancient hymns in use at Delos. 
When the thighs of the victims are consumed 
on the altar, the ashes are collected and scat- 
tered over the tomb of Opis and Argis. This 
tomb is behind the temple of Diana, facing the 
east, and near the place where the Ceians cele- 
brate their festivals. 

XXXVI. On this subject of the Hyper- 
boreans we have spoken sufficiently at large, for 
the story of Abaris, 7 who was said to be an 
Hyperborean, and to have made a circuit of the 
earth without food, and carried on an arrow, 8 
merits no attention. As there are Hyperbo- 
reans, or inhabitants of the extreme parts of 
the north, one would suppose there ought also 
to be Hypernotians, or inhabitants of the cor- 
responding parts of the south. For my own 
part, I cannot but think it exceedingly ridicu- 

6 Olen of Lycia.]— Olen, a priest and very ancient 
poet, was before Homer ; he was the first Greek poet, 
and the first also who declared the oracles of Apollo. 
The inhabitants of Delphi chanted the hymns which he 
composed for them. In one of his hymns he called 
Ilithya the mother of Love ; in another he affirmed that 
Juno was educated by the Hours, and was the mother 
of Mars and Hebe. — Larcher. 

The word Olen was properly an Egyptian sacred term, 
and expressed Olen, Olenus, Ailinus, and Linus, but is 
of unknown meaning. We read of Olenium sidus, 
Olenia capella, and the like. 

Nascitur Oleniae sidus pluviale capellte.— Ovid. 

A sacred stone in Elis was called Petra Olenia. If 
then this Olen, styled an Hyperborean, came from Lycia 
and Egypt, it makes me persuaded of what I have often 
suspected, that the term Hyperborean is not of that 
purport which the Grecians have assigned to it. There 
were people of this family from the north, and the name 
has been distorted, and adapted solely to people of those 
parts. But there were Hyperboreans from the east, as 
we find in the history of Olen. — See Bryant farther on 
this subject, vol. iii. 492, 493. 

7 Abaris.] — Jamblicus says of this Abaris, that he was 
the disciple of Pythagoras ; some say that he was older 
than Solon ; he foretold earthquakes, plagues, &c. Au- 
thors differ much as to the time of his coming into 
Greece : Harpocration says it was in the time of Croesus. 

8 On an arrow. ] — There is a fragment preserved in 
the Anecdota Graeca, a translation of which Larcher 
gives in his notes which throws much light upon this 
singular passage ; it is this : a famine having made its 
appearance amongst the Hyperboreans, Abaris went to 
Greece, and entered into the service of Apollo. The 
deity taught him to declare Oracles. In consequence of 
this, he travelled through Greece, declaring oracles, 
having in his hand an arrow, the symbol of Apollo. — T. 



lous to hear some men talk of the circumference 
of the earth, pretending, without the smallest 
reason or probability, that the ocean encom- 
passes the earth ; that the earth is round, as if 
mechanically formed so ; and that Asia is equal 
to Europe. I will, therefore, concisely des- 
cribe the figure and the size of each of these 
portions of the earth. 

XXXVIL The region occupied by the 
Persians extends southward to the Red Sea ; 
beyond these to the north are the Medes, next 
to them are the Sapirians. Contiguous to the 
Sapirians, and where the Phasis empties itself 
into the Northern Sea, are the Colchians. 
These four nations occupy the space between 
the two seas. 

XXXVIIL From hence to the west two 
tracts of land stretch themselves towards the 
sea, which I shall describe : The one on the 
north side commences at the Phasis, and extends 
to the sea along the Euxine and the Hellespont, 
as far as the Sigeum of Troy. On the south 
side it begins at the Marandynian bay, conti- 
guous to Phoenicia, and is continued to the sea 
as far as the Triopian promontoiy ; this space 
of country is inhabited by thirty different nations. 

XXXIX. The other district commences in 
Persia, and is continued to the Red Sea. 9 
Besides Persia, it comprehends Assyria and 
Arabia, naturally terminating in the Arabian 
Gulf, into which Darius introduced 10 a chan- 
nel of the Nile. The interval from Persia to 
Phoenicia is very extensive. From Phoenicia it 
again continues beyond Syria of Palestine, as far 
as Egypt, where it terminates. The whole of 
this region is occupied by three nations only — 
Such is the division of Asia from Persia west- 
ward. 

XL. To the east beyond Persia, Media, the 
Sapirians and Colchians, the country is bounded 
by the Red Sea ; to the north by the Caspian 



9 The Red Sea.] — It is necessary to be observed, that 
not only the Arabian Gulf was known by this name, 
but also the Persian Gulf, and the Southern Ocean, that 
is to say, that vast tract of sea which lies between the 
two gulfs. — Larcher. 

What Herodotus calls the Erythrean Sea, he carefully 
distinguishes from the Arabian Gulf. 

Both Herodotus and Agathemnus industriously distin- 
guish the Erythrean Sea from the Arabian Gulf, though 
the latter was certainly so called, and had the name of 
Erythrean. The Parthic empire, which included Persia, 
is by Pliny said to be bounded to the south by the 
Mare Rubrum, which was the boundary also of the Per. 
sians : by Mare Rubrum he here means the great south- 
ern sea, — Bryant 

10 Darius introduced.]— See book the second, chap. 15a 



200 



HERODOTUS. 



and the river Araxes, which directs its course 
towards the east. As far as India, Asia is well 
inhabited ; but from India eastward the whole 
country is one vast desert, unknown and unex- 
plored. 

XL I. The second tract comprehends Libya, 
which begins where Egypt ends. About Egypt 
the country is very narrow. One hundred 
thousand orgyise, or one thousand stadia, com- 
prehend the space between this and the Red 
Sea. 1 Here the country expands, and takes 
the name of Libya. 

XLII. I am much surprised at those who 
have divided and defined the limits of Libya, 
Asia, and Europe, betwixt which the difference 
is far from small. Europe, for instance, in 
length much exceeds the other two, but is of far 
inferior breadth ; except in that particular part 
which is contiguous to Asia, the whole of Libya 
is surrounded by the sea. The first person who 
has proved this, was, as far as we are able to 
judge, Necho king of Egypt. When he had 
desisted from his attempt to join by a canal the 
Nile with the Arabian Gulf, he despatched 
some vessels, 2 under the conduct of Phenicians, 
with directions to pass by the columns of Her- 
cules, and after penetrating the Northern Ocean 
to return to Egypt. These Phenicians, taking 
their course from the Red Sea, entered into the 
Southern Ocean : on the approach of autumn 
they landed in Libya, and planted some corn in 
the place where they happened to find them- 
selves ; when this was ripe, and they had cut it 
down, they again departed. Having thus con- 
sumed two years, they in the third doubled the 
columns of Hercules, and returned to Egypt. 
Their relation may obtain attention from others, 



1 Tins and the Red Sea."]— Here we must necessarily 
understand the isthmus between the Mediterranean and 
the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea. Herodotus says, book 
ii. chap. 158, that the shortest way betwixt one sea and 
the other was one thousand stadia. Agrippa says, on 
the authority of Pliny, that from Pelusium to Arsinoe 
on the Red Sea was one hundred and twenty-five miles, 
which comes to the same thing, that author always reck- 
oning eight stadia a mile. — Larcher. 

2 Despatched some vessels.]— This Necho is the same 
who in scripture is called Pharaoh- Necho. He made an 
attempt to join the Nile and the Red Sea, by drawing a 
canal from the one to the other ; but after he had con- 
sumed an hundred and twenty thousand men in the work, 
] le was forced to desist from it. But he had better success 
in another undertaking ; for having gotten some of the 
expertest Phenician sailors into his service, lie sent them 
out by the Red Sea through the straits of Babelmandel, 
to discover the coasts of Africa, who having sailed round 
it came home the third year through the straits of Gib- 
raltar and the Mediterranean Sea, which Avas a very ex- 



but to me it seems incredible, 3 for they affirmed, 
that having sailed round Libya, they had the 
sun on their right hand. — Thus was Libya for 
the first time known. 

XLIII. If the Carthaginian account may 
be credited, Sataspes, son of Teaspes, of the 
race of the Achaemenides, received a commis- 
sion to circumnavigate Libya, which he never 
executed : alarmed at the length of the voyage, 
and the solitary appearance of the country, he 
returned without accomplishing the task enjoin- 
ed him by his mother. This man had com- 
mitted violence on a virgin, daughter of Zopyrus, 
son of Megabyzus, for which offence Xerxes 
had ordered him to be crucified ; but the in- 
fluence of his mother, who was sister to Darius, 
saved his life. She avowed, however, that it 
was her intention to inflict a still severer pun- 
ishment upon him, by obliging him to sail round 
Africa, till he should arrive at the Arabian 
Gulf. To this Xerxes assented, and Sataspes 
accordingly departed for Egypt ; he here em- 
barked with his crew, and proceeded to the 
columns of Hercules ; passing these, he doubled 
the promontory which is called Syloes, keeping 
a southern course. Continuing his voyage for 
several months, in which he passed over an im- 
mense tract of sea,he saw no probable termination 
of his labours, and therefore sailed back to Egypt. 
Returning to the court of Xerxes, he amongst 
other things related, that in the most remote 
places he had visited he had seen a people of 
diminutive appearance, clothed in red gar- 
ments, 4 who on the approach of his vessel to 



traordinary voyage to be made in those days, when the 
use of the loadstone was not known. This voyage was 
performed about two thousand one hundred years before 
Vasquez de Gama, a Portugueze, by discovering the Cape 
of Good Hope in 1497, found out the same way from 
hence to the Indies by which these Phenicians came 
from thence. Since that, it hath been made the common 
passage thither from all these western parts of the world. 
— Prideaux. 

3 To me it seems incredible.]— Herodotus does not 
doubt that the Phenicians made the circuit of Africa, 
and returned to Egypt by the straits of Gibraltar ; but 
he could not believe that in the course of the voyage they 
had the sun on their right hand. This, however, must 
necessarily have been the case after the Phenicians had 
passed the line ; and this curious circumstance, Which 
never could have been imagined in an age when as- 
tronomy was yet in its infancy, is an evidence to the 
truth of a voyage, which without this might have been 
doubted. — Larcher. 

4 Red Garments.]— This passage has been indifferently 
rendered Phenician garments, and red garments; the 
original is htQ'/iti Qoinxviir, — Larcher, dissenting from both 
these, translates it " des habits de palmier :" his reason- 
ing upon it does not appear quite satisfactory. " It seems 



MELPOMENE. 



201 



the shore, had deserted their habitations, and 
fled to the mountains. But he affirmed, that 
his people, satisfied with taking a supply of 
provisions, offered them no violence. He de- 
nied the possibility of his making the circuit of 
Africa, as his vessel was totally unable to pro- 
ceed. 5 Xerxes gave no credit to his assertions ; 
and, as he had not fulfilled the terms imposed 
upon him, he was executed according to his 
former sentence. An eunuch belonging to this 
Sataspes, hearing of his master's death, fled 
with a great sum of money to Samos, but he 
was there robbed of his property by a native of 
the place, whose name I know, but forbear to 
mention. 

XLIV. Of Asia, a very considerable part 
was first discovered by Darius. He was very 
desirous of ascertaining where the Indus meets 
the ocean, the only river but one in which cro- 
codiles are found ; to effect this, he sent, amongst 
other men in whom he could confide, Scylax of 
Caryandia. Departing from Caspatyrus in the 



very suspicious," says he, "that people so savage as 
these are described by Herodotus, should either have 
cloth or stuff, or, if they had, should possess the means of 
dying it red. " But in the first place, Herodotus does not 
call these a savage people ; and in the next, the narra- 
tive of Sataspes was intended to excite astonishment, by 
representing to Xerxes what to him at least seemed 
marvellous. That a race of uncivilized men should clothe 
themselves with skins, or garments made of the leaves or 
bark of trees, could not appear wonderful to a subject of 
Xerxes, to whom many barbarous nations were perfectly 
well known. His surprise would be much more power- 
fully excited, at seeing a race of men of whom they had 
no knowledge, habited like the members of a civilized 
society ; add to this, that granting them to be what they 
are not here represented, Barbarians, they might still 
have in their country some natural or prepared sub- 
stances, communicative of different colours. I therefore 
accede to the interpretation of rubra utentes vesto, which 
is given by Valla and Gronovius, and which the word 
<foi]/mr,'i'/i will certainly justify. — T. 

5 Unable to proceed.] — This was, according- to all ap- 
pearances, the east Wind which impeded the progress 
of the vessel, which constantly blows in that sea during 
a certain period. — Lurcher. — See the note of Wesseling. 

6 Scylax of Caryandia.] — About this time, Darius, be- 
ing desirous to enlarge his dominions eastward, in order 
to the conquering of those countries, laid a design of first 
making a discovery of them : for which reason, having 
built a fleet of ships at Caspatyrus, a city on the river 
Indus, and as far upon it as the borders of Scythia, he 
gave the command of it to Scylax, a Grecian of Cary- 
andia, a city in Caria, and one well skilled in maritime 
affairs, and sent him down the river to make the best 
discoveries he could, of all the parts which lay on the 
banks of it on either side ; ordering Mm for this end to 
sail down the current till he should arrive at the mouth 
of the river : and that then passing through it into the 
Southern Ocean, lie should shape his course westward, 
and that way return home. Which orders he having 



Pactyian territories, they followed the eastern 
course ot tne river, till they came to the sea ; 
then sailing westward, they arrived, after a 
voyage of thirty months, at the very point from 
whence, as I have before related, the Egyp- 
tian prince despatched the Phenicians to cir- 
cumnavigate Libya. After this voyage, Da- 
rius subdued the Indians, and became master 
of that ocean : whence it appears that Asia in 
all its parts, except those more remotely to the 
east, entirely resembles Libya. 

XLV. It is certain that Europe has not 
been hitherto carefully examined ; it is by no 
means certain whether to the east and north it 
is limited by the ocean. In length it unques- 
tionably exceeds the other two divisions of the 
earth ; but I am far from satisfied, why to one 
continent three different names, taken from 
women, have been assigned. To one of these 
divisions some have given as a boundary the 
Egyptian Nile, and the Colchian Phasis; 
others the Tanais, the Cimmerian Bosphorus, 
and the Palus Maeotis. The names of those 
who have thus distinguished the earth, or the 
first occasion of their different appellations, 
I have never been able to learn. Libya, 
or Africa, is by many of the Greeks said to 
have been so named from Libya, a woman of 
the country ; and Asia from the wife of Pro- 
metheus. The Lydians contradict this, and 
affirm that Asia 7 was so called from Asias, a 
son of Cotys, and grandson of Manis, and not 
from the wife of Prometheus ; to confirm this, 

exactly executed, he returned by the straits of Babel- 
mandel and the Red Sea ; and on the thirtieth month after 
his first setting out from Caspatyrus landed in Egypt, 
at the same place from whence Necho king of Egypt for- 
merly sent out his Phenicians to sail round the coasts of 
Africa, which it is most likely was the port where now 
the town of Suez stands, at the hither end of the said 
Red Sea. — Prideaux. 

There were three eminent persons of this place, and 
of this name: the one flourished under Darius Hystas- 
pes, the second under Darius Nothus, the third lived in 
the time of Polybius. This was also the name of a cele- 
brated river in Cappadocia, — T. 

7 Asia.]— In reading the poets of antiquity, it is neces- 
sary carefully to have in mind the distinction of this di- 
vision of the earth into Asia Major and Minor. — When 
Virgil says 

Postquam res Asiae, Priamique evertere gentem 
Immeriiam visum superis, 
it is evident that he can only mean to speak of a small 
portion of what we now understand to be Asia ; neither 
may it be amiss to remember, that there was a large lake 
of this name near mount Tmolus, which had its first syl- 
lable long. 

Longa canoros 
Dant per colla modos, sonat amnis tt Asi;i Itinge 
Pulsat palus.— T. 

2 C 



202 



HERODOTUS. 



they adduce the name of a tribe at Sardis, call- 
ed the Asian tribe. It has certainly never 
been ascertained, whether Europe be surround- 
ed by the ocean : it is a matter of equal un- 
certainty, whence or from whom it derives its 
name. We cannot willingly allow that it took 
its name from the Syrian Europa, though we 
know that, like the other two, it was formerly 
without any. "We are well assured that Euro- 
pa was an Asiatic, and that she never saw the 
region which the Greeks now call Europe ; 
she only went from Phenicia to Crete, from 
Crete to Lycia. — I shall now quit this subject, 
upon which I have given the opinions generally 
received. 

XLVI. Except Scythia, the countries of 
the Euxine, against which Darius undertook 
an expedition, are of all others the most bar- 
barous ; amongst the people who dwell within 
these limits, we have found no individual of su- 
perior learning and accomplishments, but Ana- 
charsis ' the Scythian. Even of the Scythian 
nation I cannot in general speak with ex- 
traordinary commendation ; they have, however, 
one observance, which for its wisdom excels 
every thing I have met with. The possibility 
of escape is cut off from those who attack 
them ; and if they are averse to be seen, their 
places of retreat can never be discovered ■ for 
they have no towns nor fortified cities, their 
habitations they constantly carry along with 
them, their bows and arrows they manage on 
horseback, and they support themselves not by 
agriculture, but by their cattle f their constant 



1 Anacharsis."]— Of Anacharsis the life is given at 
some length hy Diogenes Laertius ; Ms moral character 
was of such high estimation, that Cicero does not scruple 
to call him sohrius, continens, abstinens, et temperans. 
He gave rise to the proverb applicable to men of ex- 
traordinary endowments, of Anacharsis inter Scythas : 
he flourished in the time of Solon. The idea of his su- 
perior wisdom and desire of learning, has given rise to 
an excellent modern work by the Abbe Barthelemy, 
called the Voyage du jeune Anacharsis. With respect 
to what Herodotus here says concerning Anacharsis, he 
seemingly contradicts himself in chap. xciv. xcv. of this 
book, where he confesses his belief that Zamolxis, the 
supposed deity of the Scythians, was a man eminent for 
his virtue and his wisdom.* 

Dicenus also was a wise and learned Scythian ; and 
one of the most beautiful and interesting of Lucian's 
works is named from a celebrated Scythian physician, 
called Toxaris. 

It must be remembered, that subsequent to the Chris- 
tian era, many exalted and accomplished characters 
were produced from the Scythians or Goths. — T. 

2 By their cattle.] — " The skilful practitioners of the 
medical art," says Mr Gibbon, "may determine, if they 
are able to determine, how far the temper of the human 



abode may be said to be in their waggons. 3 
How can a people so circumstanced afford the 
means of victory, or even of attack ? 

XL VII. Their particular mode of life may 
be imputed partly to the situation of their 
country, and the advantage they derive from 
their rivers ; their lands are well watered, and 
well adapted for pasturage. The number of 
the rivers is almost equal to the channels of 
the Nile; the more celebrated of them, and 
those which are navigable to the sea, I shall 
enumerate ; they are these : — The Danube, 
having five mouths, the Tyres, the Hypanis, 
the Borysthenes, Panticapes, Hypacyris, Ger- 
rhus, and the Tana'is. 

XL VIII. No river of which we have any 
knowledge is so vast as the Danube ; it is al- 
ways of the same depth, experiencing no varia- 

mind may be affected by the use of animal or of vegetable 
food ; and whether the common association of carnivo- 
rous and cruel, deserves to be considered in any other 
light than that of an innocent, perhaps a salutary pre- 
judice of humanity. Yet if it be true, that the sentiment 
of compassion is imperceptibly weakened by the sight 
and practice of domestic cruelty, we may observe that 
the horrid objects which are disguised by the arts of 
European refinement, are exhibited in their naked and 
most disgusting simplicity in the tent of a Tartarian 
shepherd. The ox or the sheep are slaughtered by the 
same hand from which they were accustomed to receive 
their daily food; and the bleeding limbs are served with 
very little preparation at the table of their unfeeling 
murderer." Mr Gibbon afterwards gives the reader the 
following curious quotation from the Emile of Rousseau. 

" II est certain que les grands mangeurs de viande sont 
en general cruels et feroces plus que les autres hommes. 
Cette observation est de tous les lieux, et de tous les 
tems : la barbarite Angloise est connue," &c. — I hope 
this reproach has long ceased to be applied to England by 
those who really know it, and that the dispositions of 
our countrymen may furnish a proof against the system, 
in favour of which they were thus adduced. 

3 In their waggons. ] — See the advice of Prometheus to 
Io, in JEschylus : — 

First then, from hence 
Turn to the orient sun, and pass the height 
Of these uncultured mountains : thence descend 
To where the wandering Scythians, train'd to bear 
The distant-wounding bow, on wheels aloft 
Roll on their wattled cottages. — Potter. 

See also Gibbon's description of the habitation of more 
modern Scythians. " The houses of the Tartars are no 
more than small tents of an oval form, which afford a 
cold and dirty habitation for the promiscuous youth of 
both sexes. The palaces of the rich consist of wooden 
huts, of such a size that they may be conveniently fixed 
on large waggons, and drawn by a team, perhaps of 
twenty or thirty oxen." The same circumstance re. 
specting the Scythians is thus mentioned by Horace : 

Campestres melius Scythae, 

Quorum plaustra vagas rite trahunt domos, 

Vivunt, etrigidi Getae 

Immetata quibus jugera liberas 

Fruges et Cererem ferunt, 

Nee cultura placet longior annua — T. 



MELPOMENE. 



203 



tion from summer or from winter. It is the 
first river of Scythia to the east, and it is the 
greatest of all, for it is swelled by the influx of 
many others ; there are five which particularly 
contribute to increase its size ; one of these 
the Greeks call Pyreton, the Scythians Porata ; 
the other four are the Tiarantus, Ararus, Na- 
paris, and the Ordessus. The first of these 

rivers is of immense size ; flowing towards the 
east it mixes with the Danube : the second, the 

Tiarantus, is smaller, having an inclination to 
the west : betwixt these, the Ararus, Naparis, 
and Ordessus, have their course, and empty 
themselves into the Danube. These rivers 
have their rise in Scythia, and swell the waters 
of the Danube. 5 

XLIX. The Maris also, commencing among 
the Agathyrsi, is emptied into the Danube, 
which is likewise the case with the three great 
rivers, Atlas, Auras, and Tibisis ; these flow 
from the summit of mount Haemus, and have 
the same termination. Into the same river are 
received the waters of the Athres, Noes, and 
Artanes, which flow through Thrace, and the 
country of the Thracian Crobyzi. The Cius, 
which, rising in Paeonia, near mount Rhodope, 
divides mount Haemus, is also poured into the 
Danube. The Angrus comes from ' Ulyria, and 
with a northward course passes over the Triba- 
lian plains, and mixes with the Brongus ; the 
Brongus meets the Danube, which thus receives 
the waters of these two great rivers. The Car- 
pis, moreover, which rises in the country beyond 
the Umbrici, and the Alpis, which flows to- 
wards the north, are both lost in the Danube. 
Commencing with the Celtae, who, except the 
Cynetae, are the most remote inhabitants in the 
west of Europe, this river passess directly 

5 Waters of the Danube.]— Mr Bryant's observations 
on this river are too curious to be omitted. 

The river Danube was properly the river of Noah, ex- 
pressed Da-Nau, Da-Nauos, Da-Nauvas, Na-Naubus. 
Herodotus plainly calls it the river of Noah, without the 
prefix ; but appropriates the name only to one branch, 
giving the name of Ister to the chief stream. 

It is mentioned by Valerius Flaccus :— 

Quas Tanais, flavusque Lycus, Hypanisque Noasque. 

This, some would alter to Novasque, but the true 
reading is ascertained from other passages where it oc- 
curs ; and particularly by this author, who mentions it 
in another place : 

Hyberna qui terga Noae, gelidumque securi 
Haunt, et in tota non audit Amazona ripa. 

Most writers compound it with the particle Da, and 
express it Da-Nau, Da-Nauvis, Da-Naubis. Stephanus 
Byzantinus speaks of it both by the name of Dauoubis, 
and Danousis, &c: vol. ii. 399. 



I through the centre of Europe, and by a certain 
inclination enters Scythia. 

L. By the union of these and of many other 
waters, the Danube becomes the greatest of all 
rivers ; but if one be compared with another, 
the preference must be given to the Nile, into 
which no stream nor fountain enters. ° The 
reason why in the two opposite seasons of the 
year the Danube is uniformly the same, seems 
to me to be this : in the winter it is at its full 
natural height, or perhaps somewhat more, at 
which season there is, in the regions through 
which it passes, abundance of snow, but very 
i little rain : but in the summer all this snow is 
dissolved, and emptied into the Danube, which 
together with frequent and heavy rains greatly 
augment it. But in proportion as the body of its 
I waters is thus multiplied, are the exhalations of 
J the summer sun. The result of this action 
and reaction on the Danube, is, that its waters 
are constantly of the same depth. 

LI. Thus, of the rivers which flow through 
j Scythia, the Danube is the first ; next to this, 
j is the Tyres, which rising in the north from an 
immense marsh, divides Scythia from Neuris. 
At the mouth of this river, those Greeks 
live who are known by the name of the 
Tyritae. 

LII. The third is the Hypanis ; this comes 
from Scythia, rising from an immense lake, 
round which are found wild white horses, and 
which is properly enough called the mother of 
the Hypanis. 7 This river, through a space of 
five days' journey from its first rise, is small, and 
its waters are sweet, but from thence to the 
sea, which is' a journey of four days more, it 
becomes exceedingly bitter. This is occasion- 
ed by a small fountain, which it receives in its 
passage, and which is of so very bitter a qua- 
lity, 8 that it infects this river, though by no 
means contemptible in point of size : this foun- 
tain rises in the country of the ploughing Scy- 



6 No stream nor fountain enters.] — This is far from 
being the fact, if credit may be given to Mr Bruce. See 
vol. iv. of his travels, p. 6&4, 5, &c. 

7 The Hypanis.] — There were three rivers of this 
name :— one in Scythia, one in the Cimmerian Bosphorus, 
and a third in India, the largest of that region, and the 
limits of the conquests of Alexander the Great.— 1 liis 
last was sometimes called the Hypasis. — T. 

8 Bitter a quality.] — This circumstance respecting the 
Hypanis, is thus mentioned by Ovid : — 

Quid non et Scythicis Hypanis a montibus ortus 
Qui fuerat dulcis salibus vitiatur amaris. 

It is mentioned also by Pomponius Mela, book ii, c. 
l.—T. 



204 



HERODOTUS. 



thians, 1 and of the Alazones. It takes the 
name of the place where it springs, which in 
the Scythian tongue is Exampaeus, correspond- 
ing in Greek to the " Sacred Ways." In the 
district of the Alazones, the streams of the 
Tyres and the Hypanis have an inclination to- 
wards each other, but they soon separate again 
to a considerable distance. 

LIII. The fourth river, and the largest next 
to the Danube, is the Borysthenes. 8 In my 
opinion this river is more productive, not only 
than all the rivers of Scythia, but than every 
other in the world, except the Egyptian Nile. 
The Nile, it must be confessed, disdains all 
comparison ; the Borysthenes nevertheless 
affords most agreeable and excellent pasturage, 
and contains great abundance of the more deli- 
cate fish. Although it flows in the midst of 
many turbid rivers, its waters are perfectly 
clear and sweet ; it banks are adorned by the 
richest harvests, and in those places where 
corn is not sown, the grass grows to a surpris- 
ing height ; at its mouth a large mass of salt is 
formed of itself. It produces also a species of 
large fish, which is called the Antacaeus ; these, 
which have no prickly fins, the inhabitants 
salt : it possesses various other things which 
deserve our admiration. The course of the 
stream may be pursued as far as the country 
called Gerrhus, through a voyage of forty days, 
and it is known to flow from the north. But 
of the remoter places through which it passes, 
no one can speak with certainty ; it seems pro- 
bable that it runs towards the district of the 
Scythian husbandmen, through a pathless de- 
sert. For the space of a ten days' journey, these 
Scythians inhabit its banks. The sources of 
this river only, like those of the Nile, are to 
me unknown, as I believe they are to every 
other Greek. This river, as it approaches the 
sea, is joined by the Hypanis, and they have 
both the same termination : the neck of land 
betwixt these streams is called the Hippoleon 
promontory, in which a temple is erected to 
Ceres. 3 Beyond this temple as far as the Hy- 



1 Herodotus distinguishes the 2»u0«j c^otv^s, from the 
2ku#«< yiugyoi. — T. 

2 Borysthenes. ~\ — The emperor Hadrian had a famous 
horse, to which he gave this name; when the horse 
died, his master, not satisfied with erecting a superb 
monument to his memory, inscribed to Mm some elegant 
verses, which are still in being. — T. 

3 To Ceres.] — Some manuscripts read to " Ceres," 
others to "the Mother;" by this latter expression Ceres 
must be understood, and not Vesta, as Gronovius would 
have it. In his observation, that the Scythians were ac- 



panis, dwell the Borysthenites. — But on this 
subject enough has been said. 

LIV. Next to the above, is a fifth river, 
called the Panticapes; this also rises in the 
north, and from a lake. The interval betwixt 
this and the Borysthenes, is possessed by the 
Scythian husbandmen. Having passed through 
Hylaea, the Panticapes mixes with the Bory- 
sthenes. 

LV. The sixth river is called the Hypacy- 
ris : this, rising from a lake, and passing through 
the midst of the Scythian Nomades, empties 
itself into the sea near the town of Carcinitis. 4 
In its course it bounds to the right Hylaea, and 
what is called the course of Achilles. 

LVI. The name of the seventh river is the 
Gerrhus ; it takes its name from the place 
Gerrhus, near which it separates itself from 
the Borysthenes, and where this latter river is 
first known. In its passage towards the sea, it 
divides the Scythian Nomades from the Royal 
Scythians, and then mixes with the Hypacyris. 

LVH. The eighth river is called the Ta- 
nais ; 5 rising from one immense lake, it emp- 
ties itself into another still greater, named the 
Maeotis, which separates the Royal Scythians 
from the Sauromatae The Tanais is increas- 
ed by the waters of another river, called the 
Hyrgis. 

LVIH. Thus the Scythians have the ad- 
vantage of all these celebrated rivers. The 
grass which this country produces, is, of all that 
we know, the fullest of moisture, which evi- 
dently appears from the dissection of their 
cattle. 



quainted neither with Ceres nor Cybele, he was perfectly 
right ; but he ought to have remembered that the Borys- 
thenites or Olbiopolitse were of Greek origin, and that 
they had retained many of the customs and usages of 
their ancestors. — Larcher. 

4 Carcinitis.] — Many are of opinion that this is what 
is now called Golfo di Moscovia. — T. 

5 Tanais.] — This river is now called the Don. Ac- 
cording to Plutarch, in his Treatise of celebrated Rivers, 
it derived its name from a young man called Tanis, who 
avowing an hatred of the female sex, was by Venus 
caused to feel an unnatural passion for Ins own mother ; 
and he drowned himself in consequence in this river. 
It was also called the river of the Amazons ; and, as 
appears from an old scholiast on Horace, was sometimes 
confounded with the Danube.— It divides Europe from 
Asia: 

EvgsDsw h' Airly*; Tocvuis Siu fA.i<raov o^\u. 

See Dionysius. 
See also Quintus Curtius.— Tanais Europam et Asiam 
medius interfluit. 1. vi. c. 2. Of this river very frequent 
mention is made by ancient writers ; by Horace very 
elegantly, in the Ode beginning with " Extremum Tanaim 
si biberes Lyce, &c."— T 



MELPOMEN E. 



205 



LIX. We have shown that this people pos- 
sess the greatest abundance ; their particular 
laws and observances are these: — Of their 
divinities, 7 Vesta is without competition the 
first, then Jupiter, and Tellus, whom they 
believe to be the wife of Jupiter ; 8 next to 
these are Apollo, the Ccelestial Venus, Her- 
cules, and Mars. All the Scythians revere 
these as deities, but the Royal Scythians pay 
divine rites also to Neptune. In the Scythian 
tongue Vesta is called Tahiti ; Jupiter, and, 
as I think very properly, Papaeus ; 9 Tellus, 
Apia ; Apollo, CEtosyrus ; the Ccelestial Venus, 
Artimpasa ; and Neptune, Thamimasadas. 
Among all these deities, Mars is the only one 
to whom they think it proper to erect altars, 
shrines, and temples. 

LX. Their mode of sacrifice in every place 
appointed for the purpose, is precisely the 
same ; it is this : — The victim is secured with 
a rope, by its two fore feet ; the person who 
offers the sacrifice, lu standing behind, throws 

6 Observances, $c.] — Those who would wish to be 
more intimately acquainted with the virtues and wisdom 
of the ancient Scythians, I beg leave to refer to Lucian. 
His Toxaris, or Dialogue on Friendship, is one of the 
most agreeable of all his performances. Toxaris, who 
is there introduced as the principal personage and speak- 
er, was an accomplished physician, and a native of Scy- 
thia. 

7 Of their divinities.'] — It is not unworthy the atten- 
tion of the English reader, that Herodotus is the first 
author who makes mention of the religion of the Scy- 
thians. In most writings on the subject of ancient my- 
thology, Vesta is placed next to Juno, whose sister she 
was generally supposed to be : Montfaucon also remarks, 
that the figures which remain of Vesta, have a great 
resemblance to those of Juno. With respect to this 
goddess, the ancients were much divided in opinion ; 
Euripides and Dionysius Halicarnassensis, agree in call- 
ing her Tellus. — Ovid seems also to have had this in his 
mind when he said " Stat vi terra sua, vi stando Vesta 
vocatur." Most of the difficulties on this subject may 
be solved, by supposing there were two Vestas. — T. 

8 Tellus, wife of Jupiter.]— See Spenser's Fairy Queen, 
book L canto 1—6 : 

Thus as they past, 
The day with clouds was sudden overcast, 
And angry Jose an hideous storm of lain 
Did pour into his leman's lap so fast, 
That ev'ry wight to shroud it did constrain. 

Lucretius, i. 251 : 

Pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater aether 
In greraium matris terrai precipitavit. 
Virgil, Georg. ii. 325: 

Turn pater omnipotens fcecundis imbribus eether 
Conjugis in gremiutn laetse descendit. 

Joriin on Spenser. 

9 Papceus]— or Pappaeus, signifying father ; as being, 
according to Homer, trarrf *th%uv ri Biav n, the sir eof 
gods and mot. 

10 Who offers the sacrifice.]— Montfaucon, in his account 
of the gods of the Scytluans, apparently gives a trans- 
lation of this passage, except that he says " the sacri- 



the animal down by means of this rope ; as it 
falls he invokes the name of the divinity to 
whom the sacrifice is offered ; he then fastens 
a cord round the neck of the victim, and stran- 
gles it, by winding the cord round a stick ; all 
this is done without fire, without libations, or 
without any of the ceremonies in use amongst 
us. When the beast is strangled, the sacrificer 
takes off its skin, and prepares to dress it. 

LXI. As Scythia is very barren of wood, 
they have the following contrivance to dress 
the flesh of the victim : — Having flayed the 
animal, they strip the flesh from the bones, and, 
if they have them at hand, they throw it into 
certain pots made in Scythia, and resembling 
the Lesbian caldrons, though somewhat larger ; 
under these a fire is made with the bones." If 
these pots cannot be procured, they inclose 
the flesh with a certain quantity of water in the 
paunch of the victim, and make a fire with the 
bones as before. The bones being very in- 
flammable, and the paunch without difficulty 
made to contain the flesh separated from the 
bone, the ox is thus made to dress itself, which 
is also the case with the other victims. When 
the whole is ready, he who sacrifices, throws 
with some solemnity before him the entrails, 
and the more choice pieces. — They sacrifice 
different animals, but horses in particular. 

LXII. Such are the sacrifices and cere- 
monies observed with respect to the other 
deities ; but to the god Mars, the particular 
rites which are paid are these : in every district 
they construct a temple to this divinity of this 

firing priest, after having turned aside part of his veil :" 
Herodotus says no such thing, nor does any writer on 
this subject which I hare had the opportunity of con- 
sulting.— T. 

11 Fire is made with the bones.]— Montfaucon remarks 
on this passage, that he does not see how this could be 
done. Resources equally extraordinary seem to be ap- 
plied in the eastern countries, where there is a great 
scarcity of fuel. In Persia, it appears from Sir John 
Chardin, they burn heath ; in Arabia they burn cow- 
dung ; and according to Dr Russel, they burn parings of 
fruit, and such like things. The prophet Ezekiel was 
ordered to bake his food with human dung. See Ezekiel, 
chap. iv. 12. " Thou shalt bake it with dung that corneth 
out of man." Voltaire, in his remarks on this passage, 
pretends to understand that the prophet was to eat the 
dung with his food.—" Comme il n'est point d'usage 
de manger de telles confitures sur son pain, la plupart 
des hommes trouvent ces commandemens indignes de la 
Majeste divin." The passage alluded to admits of no 
such inference : but it may be concluded, that the burn- 
ing of bones for the purpose of fuel was not a very un- 
usual circumstance, from another passage in !• zekiel.— 
See chap. xxiv. 5. " Take also the choice of the flock, 
and burn the bones under it, and make it boil well."— 7 



206 



HERODOTUS. 



kind; bundles of small wood are heaped to- 
gether, to the length of three stadia, and quite as 
broad, but not so high ; the top is a regular 
square, three of the sides are steep and broken, 
but the fourth is an inclined plane forming the 
ascent. To this place are every year brought 
one hundred and fifty waggons full of these 
bundles of wood, to repair the structure, which 
the severity of the climate is apt to destroy. 
Upon the summit of such a pile, each Scythian 
tribe places an ancient scymetar, 1 which is con- 
sidered as the shrine of Mars, and is annually 
honoured by the sacrifice of sheep and horses ; 
indeed to this deity more victims are offered 
than to all the other divinities. It is their cus- 
tom also to sacrifice every hundredth captive, 2 
but in a different manner from their other 
victims. Having poured libations upon their 
heads, they cut their throats into a vessel 
placed for the purpose. With this, carried to 
the summit of the pile, they besmear the above- 
mentioned scymetar. Whilst this is doing 
above, the following ceremony is observed 
below: — From these human victims they cut 
off the right arms 3 close to the shoulder, and 
throw them up into the air. This ceremony 
being performed on each victim severally, they 

1 Ancient scymetar. — It was natural enough that the 
Scythians should adore with peculiar devotion the god 
of war ; but as they were incapable of forming either an 
abstract idea, or a corporeal representation, they wor- 
shipped their tutelar deity under the symbol of an iron 
cimeter.— Gibbon. 

In addition to this iron scymeter or cimeter, Lucian 
tells us that the Scythians worshipped Zamolxis as a 
god. See also Ammianus Marcellinus, xxx. 2. — Nee 
templum apud eos visitur, eut delubrum, ne tugurium 
quidem culmo tectum cerni usquam potest, sed gladius 
Barbarico ritu humi figitur nudus, e unique et Martem 
regionem quas circumcircant prsesulem vercundius co- 
lunt. 

Larcher, who quotes the above passage from Amm. 
Mar. tells us from Varro, that anciently at Rome the 
head of a spear was considered as a representation of 
Mars.— T. 

2 Hundredth captive.] — M. Monin, who, as I have be- 
fore remarked, controverts the assertion that human 
victims anciently were sacrificed, says, that if allowed at 
all, it must be confined to prisoners of war, or condemn- 
ed criminals. He quotes this sentence from Herodo- 
tus, to prove that even the Scythians, tout Scythes qu'ils 
etoient, were contented to sacrifice the hundredth captive. 

3 Cut off the right arms.'] — We are informed in the 
Memoirs of the Association for promoting the Discovery 
of the interior parts of Africa, that the negroes drive 
their captives like cattle before them. And, it is added, 
that if any of them, exhausted by fatigue, happen to 
linger in their pace, one of the horsemen seizes on the 
oldest, and cutting off his arm, uses it as a club to drive 
on the rest. The authority, however, on which this is 
related, does not seem to deserve the highest credit. 



depart ; the arms remain where they happen to 
fall, the bodies elsewhere. 

LXIII. The above is a description of their 
sacrifices. Swine are never used for this pur- 
pose, nor will they suffer them to be kept in 
their country. 

LXIV. Their military customs are these: 
— Every Scythian drinks the blood of the first 
person he slays : the heads of all the enemies 
who fall by his hand in battle, he presents to 
his king : this offering entitles him to a share 
of the plunder, which he could not otherwise 
claim. Their mode of stripping the skin from 
the head 4 is this: they make a circular incision 
behind the ears, then taking hold of the head 
at the top, they gradually flay it, drawing it 
towards them. They next soften it in their 
hands, removing every fleshy part which may 
remain, by rubbing it with an ox's hide ; they 
afterwards suspend it, thus prepared, from the 
bridle of their horses, when they both use it as 
a napkin, and are proud of it as a trophy. 
Whoever possesses the greater number of these 
is deemed the most illustrious. Some there 
are who sew together several of these portions 
of human skin, and convert them into a kind of 
shepherd's garment. There are others who 
preserve the skins of the right arms, nails and 
all, of such enemies as they kill, and use them 
as a covering for their quivers. The human 
skin is of all others certainly the whitest, and 
of a very firm texture ; many Scythians will 
take the whole skin of a man, and having 
stretched it upon wood, use it as a covering to 
their horses. 

LX V. Such are the customs of this people : 



4 The skin from the head.] — To cut off the heads of 
enemies slain in battle, seems no unnatural action 
amongst a race of fierce and warlike barbarians. The 
art of scalping the head was probably introduced to 
avoid the trouble and fatigue of carrying these sangui- 
nary trophies to any considerable distance. Many inci- 
dents which are here related of the Scythians, will ne- 
cessarily remind the reader of what is told of the native 
Americans. The following war-song, from Bossu's 
Travels through Louisinia, places the resemblance in 
a striking point of view : — " I go to war to revenge 
the death of my brothers — I shall kill — I shall extermi- 
nate — I shall burn my enemies — I shall bring away 
slaves — I shall devour their hearts, dry their flesh, drink 
their blood — I shall tear off their scalps, and make cups 
of their sculls." 

The quickness and dexterity with which the Indians 
perform the horrid operation of scalping, is too well 
known to require any description. This coincidence of 
manners is very striking, and serves greatly to corrobo- 
rate the hypothesis, that America was peopled originally 
from the northern parts of the eld continent. — T. 



MELPOMENE. 



207 



this treatment, however, of their enemies' 
heads, is not universal, it is only perpetrated 
on those whom they most detest. — They cut 
off the skull below the eye-brows, and having 
cleansed it thoroughly, if they are poor, they 
merely cover it with a piece of leather j if they 
are rich, in addition to this they decorate the 
inside with gold ; it is afterwards used as a 
drinking cup. They do the same with respect 
to their nearest connections, if any dissensions 
have arisen, and they overcome them in com- 
bat before the king. If any stranger whom 
they deem of consequence, happen to visit 
them, they make a display of these heads, 5 and 
relate every circumstance of the previous con- 
nection, the provocations received, and their 
subsequent victory : this they consider as a 
testimony of their valour. 

LXVL Once a year the prince or ruler of 
every district, mixes a goblet of wine, of which 
those Scythians drink 6 who have destroyed a 



5 Display of these heads.']— Many instances may be 
adduced, from the Roman and Greek historians, of the 
heads of enemies vanquished in battle being carried in 
triumph, or exposed as trophies ; examples also occur 
in Scripture of the same custom. Thus David carried 
the Philistine's head in triumph ; the head of Ishbosheth 
was brought to David as a trophy ; why did Jael smite 
off the head of Sisera, but to present it triumphantly to 
Barak ? It is at the present day practised in the east, 
many examples of which occur in Niebuhr's Letters. 
This is too well known to require further discussion ; but 
many readers may perhaps want to be informed, that it 
was also usual to cut off the hands and the feet of van- 
quished enemies. — The hands and feet of the sons of 
Rimmon, who slew Ishbosheth, were cut off and hanged 
up over the pool of Hebron. — See also Lady Wortley 
Montague, vol. ii. p. 19. 

" If a minister displeases the people, in three hours' 
tinie he is dragged even from his master's arms : they 
cut off his hands, head, and feet, and throw them before 
the palace gate with all the respect in the world ; while 
the sultan, to whom they all profess unlimited adoration, 
sits trembling in his apartment." — T. 

6 Those Scythians drink.] — These, with many other 
customs of the ancient Scythians> will necessarily bring 
to the mind of the reader various circumstances of the 
Gothic mythology, as represented in the poems imputed 
to Ossian, and as may be seen described at length in 
Mallet's Introduction to the History of Denmark. To 
sit in the hall of Odin, and quaff the flowing goblets of 
mead and ale, was an idea ever present to the minds of 
the Gothic warriors ; and the hope of attaining this glo- 
rious distinction, inspired a contempt of danger, and the 
most daring and invincible courage. See Gray's Descent 
of Odin :— 

O. Tell me what is done below ; 

For whom yon glittering hoard is spread, 
Dress'd for whom yon golden bed. 
Pr. Mantling in the goblet see 
The pure beverage of the bee ; 
O'er it hangs the shield of gold, 
Tis the drink of Balder bold. 



public enemy. But of this, they who have not 
done such a thing are not permitted to taste ; 
these are obliged to sit apart by themselves, 
which is considered as a mark of the greatest 
ignominy. 7 They who have killed a number 
of enemies, are permitted on this occasion to 
drink with two cups joined together. 

LXVII. They have amongst them a great 
number who practise the art of divination ; 8 for 
this purpose they use a number of willow 
twigs, 9 in this manner : — They bring large 



See also in the Edda, the Ode of king Regner Lod- 
brog. 

" Odin sends his goddesses to conduct me to his 
palace.— I am going to sit in the place of honour, to 
drink ale with the gods.— The hours of my life are pass- 
ed away, I die in rapture." Some of my readers may 
probably thank me for giving them a specimen of the 
original stanzas, as preserved by Glaus Wormius 

25. 
Pugnavimus ensibus ; 
Hoc ridere me facit semper, 
Quod Balderi patris scamna 
Parata scio in aula. 
Bibemus cerevisiam 
Ex concavis crateribus craniorum. 
Non gemit vir forlis contra mortem 
Magnifici in Odini domibus, 
Non venis desperabundus 
Verbis ad Odini aulani. 

29. 
Fert animus finire; 
Invitant me Dysae, 
Quas ex Odini aula 
Odinus mihi misit. 
I.oetus cerevisiam cum Asis 
In summa sede bibam : 
Vitoe elapsae sunt horae ; 
Ridens moriar — T. 



7 Greatest ignominy.] — Ut quisque plures inter emit j 
ita apud eos habetur eximius : coeterum expertem esse 
caedis, inter opprobria vel maximum. — Pomp. Mela. L ii. 
c. 1. 

8 Divinalio7i.] — The history of divination is almost 
coeval with the history of mankind. It was first reduced 
to a system in Egypt, the Greeks borrowed it of the 
Egyptians, the Etruscans were taught it by the Greeks, 
and by the Etruscans it was communicated to the Ro- 
mans. The Roman religion (see Middleton's Life of Ci- 
cero) was divided into two branches : the observation of 
the auspices, and the worship of the gods. The pYiests 
of all denominations were of the first nobility of Rome ; 
and the augurs especially were men of consular rank, Avho 
had passed through all the dignities of the republic. This 
constitution of a religion, among a people naturally su- 
perstitious, necessarily threw the chief influence in 
affairs into the hands of the senate, and the better sort, 
who, by this advantage, frequently checked the violences 
of the populace, and the factious attempts of the tri- 
bunes. It is perpetually applauded by Cicero as the main 
bulwark of the republic, though considered all the while 
by men of sense as merely political, and of human inven- 
tion. 

9 Willow twigs.] — Ammianus Marcellinus, in speaking 
of the Huns, says, " Futura miro prassagiunt modo ; 
nam rectiores virgas vimineas colligentes, casque cum 
incantamentis quibusdam secretis pnrstituto tempore 



208 



HERODOTUS. 



bundles of these together, and having untied 
them, dispose them one by one on the ground, 
each bundle at a distance from the rest. This 
done, they pretend to foretell the future, during 
which they take up the bundles separately, and 
tie them again together. — This mode of divina- 
tion is hereditary amongst them. The enaries, 
or " effeminate men," affirm that the art of divi- 
nation 1 was taught them by the goddess Venus. 
They take also the leaves of the lime-tree, 
which dividing into three parts they twine 
round their fingers ; they then unbind it, and 
exercise the art to which they pretend. 

L XVIII. Whenever the Scythian monarch 
happens tD be indisposed, he sends for three of 
the most celebrated of these diviners. When 
the Scythians desire to use the most solemn 
kind of oath, they swear by the king's throne : 2 
these diviners, therefore, make no scruple of 
affirming, that such or such individual, pointing 
him out by name, has forsworn himself by the 
royal throne. — Immediately the person thus 
marked out is seized, and informed that, by their 
art of divination, which is infallible, he has been 
indirectly the occasion of the king's illness, by 
having violated the oath which we have men- 
tioned. If the accused not only denies the 
charge, but expresses himself enraged at the 

discernentes, aperte quid portendatur norunt." — Lar- 
cher, in quoting the above passage, remarks, that he has 
somewhere in the country seen some traces of this super- 
stition practised. There is an animated fragment of 
Ennius remaining, in which he expresses a most cordial 
contempt for all soothsayers : as it is not perhaps familiar 
to every reader, I may be excused inserting it. 

Non vicinos aruspices, non de circo astrologos, 
Non Isiacos r.onjectores, non interpretes somnium, 
Non enim sunt ii aut sapientia aut arte divina, 
Sed superstitiosi vates, impudentesque harioli, 
Aut inertes, aut insani, aut quibus egestas imperat. 

A similar contempt for diviners, is expressed by Jo- 
casta, in the CEdipus Tyrannus of Sophocles : 

~E.ij.lv 'v&zevtrov, y,a.i pad' ovvitc ttrn ffoi 

Let not fear perplex thee, CEdipus ; 
Mortals know nothing of futurity. 
And these prophetic seers are all impostors — T. 

1 Art of divination.} — To enumerate the various modes 
of divination which have at different times been practised 
by the ignorant and superstitious, would be no easy 
task. We read of hydromancy, libanomancy, onycto- 
mancy, divinations by earth, fire, and air : we read in 
Ezekiel of divination by a rod or wand. To some such 
mode of divination, in all probability, the following pas- 
sage from Hosea alludes : "My people ask counsel at 
their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them." 

2 King's throne.'} — " The Turks at this day," says 
Larcher, " swear by the Ottoman Porte." Reiske has 
the same remark : " Adhuc obtinet apud Turcas, per 
Portam Ottomanicam, hoc est domicilium sui principis, 
jurare." — T. 



imputation, the king convokes a double number 
of diviners, who, examining into the mode which 
has been pursued in criminating him, decide ac- 
cordingly. If he be found guilty, he imme- 
diately loses his head, and the three diviners 
who were first consulted, share his effects. If 
these last diviners acquit the accused, others are 
at hand, of whom if the greater number absolve 
him, the first diviners are put to death. 

LXIX. The manner in which they are exe- 
cuted is this : — Some oxen are yoked to a wag- 
gon filled with faggots, in the midst of which, 
with their feet tied, their hands fastened behind, 
and their mouths gagged, these diviners are 
placed ; fire is then set to the wood, and the 
oxen are terrified to make them run violently 
away. It sometimes happens that the oxen 
themselves are burned; and often when the 
waggon is consumed, the oxen escape severely 
scorched. This is the method by which, for 
the above-mentioned, or similar offences, they 
put to death those whom they call false diviners. 

LXX. Of those whom the king condemns 
to death, he constantly destroys the male chil- 
dren, leaving the females unmolested. When- 
ever the Scythians form alliances, 3 they observe 
these ceremonies : —A large earthen vessel is 
filled with wine, into this is poured some of the 
blood of the contracting parties, obtained by a 
slight incision of a knife or sword ; in this cup 
they dip a scymetar, some arrows, a hatchet, and 
a spear. After this, they pronounce some so- 
lemn prayers, and the parties who form the con- 
tract, with such of their friends as are of su- 
perior dignity, finally drink the contents of the 
vessel. 

LXXI. The sepulchres of the kings are in 
the district of the Gerrhi. As soon as the king 
dies, 4 a large trench of a quadrangular form is 
sunk, near where the Borysthenes begins to be 
navigable. When this has been done, the body 
is inclosed in wax, after it has been thoroughly 
cleansed, and the entrails taken out ; before it 
is sown up, they fill it with anise, parsley-seed, 
bruised cypress, and various aromatics. They 
then place it on a carriage, and remove it to 
another district, where the persons who receive 
it, like the Royal Scythians, cut off a part of 
their ear, shave their heads in a circular form, 5 



3 Form alliances.} — See book i. c. 74. 

4 King dies.}— A minute and interesting description of 
the funeral ceremonies of various ancient nations, may 
be found in Montfaucon, vol. v. 12C, &c. 

5 Shave their heads in a circular form.} — The Lycians, 
about Phasclis, plaited and folded their hair into a circu- 



MELPOMENE. 



209 



take a round piece of flesh from their arm, 
wound their foreheads and noses, and pierce 
their left hands with arrows. The body is again 
carried to another province of the deceased 
king's realms, the inhabitants of the former dis- 
trict accompanying the procession. After thus 
transporting the dead body through the different 
provinces of the kingdom, they come at last to j 
the Gerrhi, who live in the remotest parts of i 
Scythia, and amongst whom the sepulchres are. j 
Here the corpse is placed upon a couch, round ; 
which, at different distances, daggers are fixed ; 
upon the whole are disposed pieces of wood, 
covered with branches of willow. In some 
other part of this trench, they bury one of the 
deceased concubines, whom they previously 
strangle, together with the baker, the cook, the 
groom, his most confidential servant, his horses, 
the choicest of his effects, and, finally, some 
golden goblets, for they possess neither silver 
nor brass : to conclude all, they fill up the trench 
with earth, and seem to be emulous in their en- 
deavours to raise as high a mound as possible. 

LXXII. The ceremony does not here ter- 
minate. — They select such of the deceased 
king's attendants, in the following year, as have 
been most about his person ; these are all na- 
tive Scythians, for in Scythia there are no pur- 
chased slaves, the king selecting such to attend 
him as he thinks proper : fifty of these they 
strangle, 6 with an equal number of his best hor- 



lar form, from whence they were called Cabaleis, and the 
hair or lock so plaited was termed Sisse. Hence also they 
were named (r^oxoxov^cch-^ round-heads. The poet 
Chcerilus, in Josephus, liints that this custom had a 
Blovenly and dirty aspect, and for this reason might, in 
later ages, induce the magistrates of Rhodes to enact a 
law, prohibiting the Rhodians to cut their hair. But they 
were so attached to this ancient practice, that neither 
magistrates nor people regarded the prohibition. 

6 They strangle. ]— Voltaire supposes that they impaled 
alive the favourite officers of the khan of the Scythians, 
round the dead body ; whereas Herodotus expressly says 
that they strangled them first. — Larcher. 

Whoever has occasion minutely to examine any of the 
more ancient authors, will frequently feel Ms contempt 
excited, or his indignation provoked, from finding a 
multitude of passages ignorantly misunderstood, or wil- 
fully perverted. This remark is in a particular manner 
applicable to M. Voltaire, in whose work false and 
partial quotations, with ignorant misconceptions of the 
ancients, obviously abound. The learned Pauw cannot 
in this respect be entirely exculpated ; and I have a pas- 
sage now before me, in which the fault I would reprobate 
is eminently conspicuous. — Speaking of the Chinese laws, 
lie says, " they punish the relations of a criminal convict- 
ed of a capital offence with death, excepting the females 
whom they sell as slaves, following in this respect the 
maxim of the Scythians, recorded by Herodotus." On 



ses. Of all these they open and cleanse the 
bodies, which having filled with straw, they 
sew up again : then upon two pieces of wood 
they place a third, of a semicircular form, with 
its concave side uppermost, a second is disposed 
in like manner, then a third, and so on, till a 
sufficient number have been erected. Upon 
these semicircular pieces of wood they place the 
horses, after passing large poles through them, 
from the feet to the neck. One part of the 
structure, formed as we have described, supports 
the shoulders of the horse, the other his hinder 
parts, whilst the legs are left to project upwards. 
The horses are then bridled, and the reins fas- 
tened to the legs ; upon each of these they after- 
wards place one of the youths who have been 
strangled, in the following manner: a pole is 
passed through each, quite to the neck, through 
the back, the extremity of which is fixed to the 
piece of timber with which the horse has been 
spitted ; having done this with each, they so 
leave them. 

LXXIII. The above are the ceremonies 
observed in the interment of their kings : as to 
the people in general, when any one dies, the 
neighbours place the body on a carriage, and carry 
it about to* the different acquaintance of the 
deceased ; these prepare some entertainment 
for those who accompany the corpse, placing 
before the body the same as before the rest. 
Private persons, after being thus carried about 
for the space of forty days, are then buried. 7 
They who have been engaged in the performance 
of these rites, afterwards use the followingmode 
of purgation : — After thoroughly washing the 
head, and afterwards drying it, they do thus 
with regard to the body: they place in the 



the contrary, our historian says, chap. 70, that the females 
are not molested. A similar remark, as it respects M. 
Pauw, is somewhere made by Larcher. — T. 

7 Are then buried.'}— The Scythians did not all of them 
observe the same customs with respect to their funerals : 
there were some who suspended the dead bodies from a 
tree, and in that state left them to putrefy. " Of what 
consequence," says Plutarch, " is it to Theodorus, 
whether he rots in the earth, or upon it : — Such with the 
Scythians is the most honourable funeral." 
Silius Italicus mentions also this custom : 

At gente in Scythica suffixa cadavera truncis 

Lenta dies sepelit, putri liquentia tabo. 

It is not perhaps without its use to observe, that bar- 
barous nations have customs barbarous like themselves, 
and that these customs much resemble each other, in 
nations which have no communication. Captain Cook 
relates, that in Otaheite they leave dead bodies to putrefy 
on the surface of the ground, till the flesh is entirely 
wasted, they then bury the bones.— Larcher. See Hauks- 
tvorth's Voyage!. 
2 D 



210 



HERODOTUS. 



ground three stakes, inclining towards each 
other, round these they bind fleeces of wool as 
thickly as possible, and finally, into the space 
betwixt the stakes they throw red-hot stones. 

L XXI V. They have amongst them a species 
of hemp resembling flax, except that it is both 
thicker and larger ; it is indeed superior to flax, 
whether it is cultivated or grows spontaneously. 
Of this the Thracians 1 make themselves gar- 
ments, which so nearly resemble those of flax, 
as to require a skilful eye to distinguish them s 
they who had never seen this hemp, would con- 
clude these vests to be made of flax. 

LXXV. The Scythians take the seed of 
this hemp, and placing it beneath the woollen 
fleeces which we have before described, they 
throw it upon the red-hot stones, when imme- 
diately a perfumed vapour 2 ascends stronger 
than from any Grecian stove. This, to the 
Scythians, is in the place of a bath, and it ex- 
cites from them cries of exultation. It is to be 
observed, that they never bathe themselves : 
the Scythian women bruise under a stone some 
wood of the cypress, cedar, and frankincense : 
upon this they pour a quantity of water, till it 
becomes of a certain consistency, with which 
they anoint the body 3 and the face ; this at the 

1 Of this the Thracians. ] — Hesychius says that the 
Thracian women make themselves garments of hemp : 
consult him at the word Kctwufiis — " Hemp is a plant 
which has some resemblance to flax, and of which the 
Thracian women make themselves vests." — T. 

2 A perfumed vapour. ,.] — As the story of the magic 
powers imputed to Medea seem in this place particularly 
applicable, I translate, for the benefit of the reader, what 
Palaephatus says upon the subject. 

Concerning Medea, who was said, by the process of 
boiling, to make old men young again, the matter was 
this : she first of all discovered a flower which could make 
the colour of the hair black or white ; such therefore as 
wished to have black hair rather than white, by her means 
obtained their wish. Having also invented baths, she 
nourished with warm vapours those who wished it, but 
not in public, that the professors of the medical art might 
not know her secret. The name of this application was 
xot,%i«\>7i<ri;, or "the boiling." When therefore by these 
fomentations men became more active, and improved in 
health, and her apparatus, namely the caldron, wood, and 
fire, was discovered, it was supposed that her patients 
were in reality boiled. Pelias, an old and infirm man, 
using this operation, died in the process. — T. 

3 Anoint the body.] — When we read in this place of the 
custom of anointing the body amongst an uncivilized race, 
in a cold climate, and afterwards fiud that in warmer 
regions it became an indispensable article of luxury and 
elegance with the politest nations, we pause to admire 
the caprice and versatility of the human mind The mo- 
tive of the Scythians was at first perhaps only to obtain 
agility of body, without any views to cleanliness, or 
thoughts of sensuality. In hot climates, fragrant oils 
were probably first used to disperse those foetid smells 



time imparts an agreeable odour, and when re- 
moved on the following day, gives the skin a 
soft and beautiful appearance. 

LXXVL The Scythians have not only a 
great abhorrence of all foreign customs, but 
each province seems unalterably tenacious of its 
own. Those of the Greeks they particularly 
avoid, as appears both from Anacharsis and 
Scyles. Of Anacharsis it is remarkable, that 
having personally visited a large part of the 
habitable world, and acquired great wisdom, he 
at length returned to Scythia. In his passage 
over the Hellespont, he touched at Cyzicus, * 
at the very time when the inhabitants were cele- 
brating a solemn and magnificent festival to the 
mother of the gods. He made a vow, that if 
he should return safe and without injury to his 
country, he would institute, in honour of this 
deity, the same rites he had seen performed 
at Cyzicus, together with the solemnities ob- 
served on the eve of her festival. 5 Arriving 
therefore in Scythia, in the district of Hylaea, 
near the Course of Achilles, a place abounding 
with trees, he performed all the particulars of 



which heat has a tendency to generate ; precious oint- 
ments therefore soon became essential to the enjoyment 
of life ; and that they really were so, may be easily made 
appear from all the best writers of antiquity. See Ana- 
creon, Ode xv. 

~EfA.oi fjLiKu [Av^ourt 

Ef&oi fA'.Xu pohoifft 

K.MTCltr'rlQtlV XKgTiVM. 

Let my hair with unguents flow, 
With rosy garlands crown my brow. 

See also Horace : 

funde capacibus 

TJnguenta de conchis. 

The same fact also appears from the sacred scriptures ; 
see the threat of the prophet Micah : " Thou shalt tread 

the olive, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil." 

These instances are only adduced to prove that fragrant 
oils were used in private life for the purposes of elegant 
luxury; how they were applied in athletic exercises, 
and always before the bath, is sufficiently notorious. — T. 

4 Cyzicus.] — An account of the ruins of this place may 
be found in Pococke. It now produces a quantity of rich 
wine in great repute at Constantinople. 

This city was once possessed of considerable territory, 
and was governed by its own laws. There was here a 
temple built to Dindymene by the Argonauts. This must 
not be confounded with the Cyzicus, a city of Mysia, on 
the Propontis, built by the Milesians.— T. 

5 Eve of her festival] — These festivals probably com 
menced early on the evening before the day appointed 
for their celebration ; and it seems probable that they 
passed the night in singing hymns in honour of the god 
or goddess to whom the feast was instituted See the 
Pervigilium Veneris. — Larcher. 

The Pervigilia were observed principally in honour of 
Ceres and of Venus, and, as appears from Aulus Gellius, 
and other writers, were converted to the purposes of ex- 
cess and debauchery. — T. 



MELPOMENE. 



211 



the above-mentioned ceremonies, having a num- 
ber of small statues fastened about him, 6 with 
a cymbal in his hand. In this situation he was 
observed by one of the natives, who gave in- 
telligence of what he had seen to Saulius, the 
Scythian king. The king went instantly to the 
place, and seeing Anacharsis so employed, killed 
him with an arrow. — If any one now make in- 
quiries concerning this Anacharsis, the Scythi- 
ans disclaim all knowledge of him, merely be- 
cause he visited Greece, and had learned some 
foreign customs : but as I have been informed 
by Timnes, the tutor of Spargapithes, Anachar- 
sis was the uncle of Idanthyrsus, a Scythian 
king, and that he was the son of Gnurus, grand- 
son of Lycus, and great-grandson of Sparga- 
pithes, If therefore this genealogy be true, 
it appears that Anacharsis was killed by his own 
brother ; for Saulius, who killed Anacharsis, 
was the father of Idanthyrsus. 

L XXVII. It is proper to acknowledge, that 
from the Peloponnesians I have received a very 
different account I they affirm that Anacharsis 
was sent by the Scythian monarch to Greece, 
for the express purpose of improving himself in 
science ; and they add, that at his return he in- 
formed his employer, that all the people of 
Greece were occupied in scientific pursuits, ex- 
cept the Lacedsemonians ; but they alone en- 
deavoured to perfect themselves in discreet and 
wise conversation. This, however, is a tale of 
Grecian invention ; I am convinced that Ana- 
charsis was killed in the manner which has 
been described, and that he owed his destruc- 
tion to the practice of foreign customs and 
Grecian manners. 

LXXVII. Not many years afterwards, Scy- 
les, the son of Aripithes, experienced a similar 
fortune. Aripithes, king of Scythia, amongst 
many other children, had this son Scyles by a 
woman of Istria, who taught him the language) 
and sciences of Greece. It happened that 
Aripithes was treasonably put to death by 
Spargapithes, king of the Agathyrsi. He was 

G Statues fastened about him.'} — These particularities 
are related at length in Apollonius Rhodius, booki. 1139. 
— This circumstance of the small figures tied together, is 
totally omitted, by Mr Fawkes in his version, who satis- 
fies himself by saying. 

The Phrygians still their goddess' favour win 
By the revolving wheel and timbrel's din. 
The truest idea perhaps of the rites of Cybele, may be ob- 
tained from a careful perusal of the Atys of Catullus, one 
of the most precious remains of antiquity, and perhaps 
the only perfect specimen of the old dithyrambic verse. 
— T. 



succeeded in his dominions by this Scyles, who 
married one of his father's wives, whose name 
was Opaea. Opsea was a native of Scythia, 
and had a son named Oricus by her former 
husband. When Scyles ascended the Scythian 
throne, he was exceedingly averse to the man- 
ners of his country, and very partial to those of 
Greece, to which he had been accustomed from 
his childhood. As often therefore as he con- 
ducted the Scythian forces to the city of the 
Borysthenites, who affirm that they are de- 
scended from the Milesians, he left his army 
before the town, and entering into the place, 
secured the gates. He then threw aside his 
Scythian dress, and assumed the habit of 
Greece. In this, without guards or attendants, 
it was his custom to parade through the public 
square, having the caution to place guards at 
the gates, that no one of his countrymen might 
discover him. He not only thus showed his 
partiality to the customs of Greece, but he also 
sacrificed to the gods in the Grecian manner. 
After continuing in the city for the space of a 
month, and sometimes for more, he would re- 
sume his Scythian dress, and depart. This he 
frequently repeated, having built a palace in 
this town, and married an inhabitant of the 
place. 

LXXIX. It seemed however ordained 7 
that his end should be unfortunate, which ac- 
cordingly happened. It was his desire to be 
initiated into the mysteries of Bacchus; and 
he was already about to take some sacred uten- 
sils in his hands, when the following prodigy 
appeared to him. I have before mentioned the 
palace which he had in the city of the Borys- 
thenites ; it was a very large and magnificent 
structure, and the front of it was decorated 
with sphinxes and griffins of white marble : the 
lightning 8 of heaven descended upon it, and it 



7 It seemed however ordained.} — This idea, which oc- 
curs repeatedly in the more ancient writers, is most 
beautifully expressed in the Persae of iEschylus j which 
I give the reader in the animated version of Potter. 

For when misfortune's fraudful hand 
Prepares to pour the vengeance of the sky, 

What mortal shall her force withstand, 
What rapid speed th' impending fury fly ■> 

Gentle at first, with flattering smiles, 

She spreads her soft enchanting wiles; 
So to her toils allures her destined prey, 

Whence man ne'er breaks unhurt away — T. 

8 The lightning.}— The ancients believed that light- 
ning never fell but by the immediate interposition of the 
gods ; and whatever thing or place was struck by it, was 
ever after deemed sacred, and supposed to have been 
consecrated by the deity to himself. There were at 
Rome, as we learn from Cicero de Divinatione, certain 



212 



HERODOTUS. 



was totally consumed. Scyles nevertheless per- 
severed in what he had undertaken. The Scy- 
thians reproach the Greeks on account of their 
Bacchanalian festivals, and assert it to be con- 
trary to reason to suppose that any deity should 
prompt men to acts of madness. When the 
initiation of Scyles was completed, one of the 
Borysthenites discovered to the Scythians what 
he had done. — " You Scythians," says he, 
" censure us on account of our. Bacchanalian 
rites, when we yield to the impulse of the deity. 
This same deity has taken possession of your 
sovereign ; he is now obedient in his service, 
and under the influence of his power. If ye 
disbelieve my words, you have only to follow 
me, and have ocular proof that what I say is 
true." The principal Scythians accordingly 
followed him, and by a secret avenue were by 
him conducted to the citadel. When they be- 
held Scyles approach with his thiasus, and in 
every other respect acting the Bacchanal, 1 they 
deemed the matter of most calamitous impor- 
tance, and returning, informed the army of all 
they had seen. 

LXXX. As soon as Scyles returned, an in- 
surrection was excited against him ; and his 
brother Octomasades, whose mother was the 
daughter of Tereus, was promoted to the 
throne. Scyles having learned the particulars 
and the motives of this revolt, fled into Thrace : 
against which place, as soon as he was inform- 
ed of this event, Octomasades advanced with 
an army. The Thracians met him at the Ister; 
when they were upon the point of engaging, 
Sitalces sent a herald to Octomasades, with 
this message : " A contest betwixt us would 
be absurd, for you are the son of my sister. 
My brother is in your power j if you will deli- 
ver him to me, I will give up Scyles to you, thus 
we shall mutually avoid all danger." As the 
brother of Sitalces had taken refuge with Oc- 
tomasades, the above overtures effected a peace. 
The Scythian king surrendered up his uncle, 
and received the person of his brother. Sital- 

books called " Libri Fulgurates," expressly treating on 
this subject. In Ammianus Marcellinus tins expression 
occurs, " contacta loca nee intueri nee calcari debere 
pronuntiant libri fulgurales." The Greeks placed an urn 
over the place where the Ughtning fell : the Romans had 
a similar observance. 

1 Bacchanal.] — Upon the subject of the rites of Bac- 
chus a whole volume has been written in verse by Non- 
nus ,- and it is not a little remarkable, that to the same 
pen we are indebted for a metrical paraphrase of St 
John's Gospel, which is clear and useful as a commen- 
tary, but has little poetical merit. The author is sup- 
posed to have lived in the beginning of the fifth century. 



ces immediately withdrew his army, taking with 
him his brother ; but on that very day Octoma- 
sades deprived Scyles of his head. Thus tenaci- 
ous are the Scythians of their national customs, 
and such is the fate of those who endeavour to 
introduce foreign ceremonies amongst them. 

LXXXI. On the populousness of Scythia 
I am not able to speak with decision ; they 
have been represented to me by some as a 
numerous people, whilst others have informed 
me, that of real Scythians there are but few. 
I shall relate however what has fallen within 
my own observation. Betwixt the Borysthenes 
and the Hypanis there is a place called Exam- 
paeus : to this I have before made some allu- 
sion, when speaking of a fountain which it con- 
tained, whose waters were so exceedingly bitter as 
to render the Hypanis, into which it flows, per- 
fectly impalatable. In this place is a vessel of 
brass, six times larger than that which is to be 
seen in the entrance of Pontus, consecrated there 
by Pausanias a the son of Cleombrotus. For the 
benefit of those who may not have seen it,. I 
shall here describe it. This vessel, which is 
in Scythia, is of the thickness of six digits, 
and capable of containing six hundred amphorae. 
The natives say that it was made of the points 
of arrows, for that Ariantas, 8 one of their 
kings, being desirous to ascertain the number 
of the Scythians, commanded each of his sub- 
jects, on pain of death, to bring him the point 



2 Consecrated there by Pausanias.'} — Nimphis of He- 
raclea relates, in the sixteenth book of his history of his 
country, that Pausanias, who vanquished Mardonius at 
Platea, in violation of the laws of Sparta, and yielding 
to his pride, consecrated, whilst he was near Byzantium, 
a goblet of brass to those gods whose statues may be 
seen at the mouth of the Euxine, which goblet may still 
be seen. Vanity and insolence had made him so far 
forget himself, that he presumed to specify in the in- 
scription, that it was he himself who had consecrated 
it : " Pausanias of Lacedsemon, son of Cleombrotus, and 
of the ancient race of Hercules, general of Greece, has 
consecrated this goblet to Neptune, as a monument of 
his valour." — Athenaeus. 

What would have been the indignation of this or any 
historian of that period, if he could have foreseen the 
base and servile inscriptions dedicated in after times, in 
almost all parts of the habitable world, to the Caesars 
and their vile descendants ? Many of these have been 
preserved, and are an outrage against all decency. — T. 

3 Ariantas.] — I have now aremarkable instance before 
me, how dangerous it is to take upon trust what many 
learned men put down upon the authority of ancient 
writers. Hoffman, whose Lexicon is a prodigy of learn- 
ing and of industry, speaking of this Ariantas, says, 
" that he made each of lus subjects bring him every year 
the point of an arrow." For the truth of this he refers 
the reader to Herodotus, and the passage before us, 
Herodotus says no such thing. — T. 



MELPOMENE. 



213 



of an arrow. By these means, so prodigious 
a quantity were collected, that this vessel was 
composed from them. It was left by the 
prince as a monument of the fact, and by him 
consecrated at Exampaeus. This is- what I 
have heard of the populousness of Scythia. 

LXXXII. This country has nothing re- 
markable except its rivers, which are equally 
large and numerous. If besides these and its 
vast and extensive plains, it possesses any thing 
worthy of admiration, it is an impression which 
they show of the foot of Hercules. 4 This is 
upon a rock, two cubits in size, but resembling 
the footstep of a man : it is near the river 
Tyras. 

LXXXIII. I shall now return to the sub- 
ject from which I originally digressed. — Darius, 
preparing to make an expedition against Scy- 
thia, despatched emissaries different ways, com- 
manding some of his dependents to raise a 
supply of infantry, others to prepare a fleet, 
and others to throw a bridge over the Thracian 
Bosphorus Artabanus, son of Hystaspes, 
and brother of Darius, endeavoured to persuade 
the prince from his purpose, urging with great 
wisdom the indigence of Scythia ; nor did he 
desist till he found all his arguments ineffectual. 
Darius, having completed his preparations, ad- 
vanced from Susa with his army. 

L XXXIV. Upon this occasion a Persian, 
whose name was (Ebazus, and who had three 
sons in the army, asked permission of the king 
to detain one of them. The king replied, as 
to a friend, that the petition was very modest, 
" and that he would leave him all the three." 
(Ebazus was greatly delighted, and considered 
his three sons as exempted from the service ; 
but the king commanded his guards to put the 
three young men to death ; and thus were the 
three sons of (Ebazus left, deprived of life. 

LXXXV. Darius marched from Susa to 
where the bridge had been thrown over the 
Bosphorus at Chalcedon. Here he embarked 
and set sail for the Cyanean islands, which, if 
the Greeks may be believed, formerly floated. 5 



4 Foot of Hercules.]— The length of the foot of Her- 
cules was ascertained by that of the stadium at Olympia, 
which was said to have been measured by him to the 
length of 600 of his own feet : hence Pythagoras esti- 
mated the size of Hercules by the rule of proportion ; 
and hence too the proverb, ex pede Herculem, a more 
modern substitution for the ancient one of s| owxm XeonTos. 
— See Aul. Gell. 1. i. and Erasmus' Adagia, in which 
the proverb of ex pede Herculem has no place. — T. 

5 Formerly floated.]— The Cyanean rocks were at so 
little distance one from the other, that viewed remotely 
they appealed to touch. This optic illusion probably gave 



Here, sitting in the temple, 8 he cast his eyes 
over the Euxine, which of all seas most deserves 
admiration. Its* length is eleven thousand one 
hundred stadia ; its breadth, where it is greatest, 
is three thousand two hundred. The breadth 
of the entrance is four stadia ; the length of the 
neck, which is called the Bosphorus, where the 
bridge had been erected, is about one hundred 
and twenty stadia. The Bosphorus is connected 
with the Propontis, 7 which flowing into the 
Hellespont, 8 is five hundred stadia in breadth, 
and four hundred in length. The Hellespont 
itself, in its narrowest part, where it enters the 
iEgean sea, is forty stadia long, and seven wide. 

place to the fable, and the fable gained credit from the 
dangers encountered on this sea. — Larcher. 

See a description of these rocks in Apollonius Rhodius : 
I give it from the version of Fawkes. 

When hence your destined voyage you pursue, 
Two rocks will rise, tremendous to the view, 
Just in the entrance of the watery waste, 
Which never mortal yet in safety pass'd. 
Not firmly fix'd, for oft, with hideous shock, 
Adverse they meet, and rock encounters rock. 
The boiling billows dash their airy brow, 
Loud thundering round the ragged shore below. 

The circumstance of their floating is also mentioned by 
Valerius Flaccus ; 

Erranterque per altum 
Cyaneas T. 

6 In the temple.] — Jupiter was invoked in tliis temple, 
under the name of Urius, because this deity was suppos- 
ed favourable to navigation, ou^o; signifying a favourable 
wind. And never could there be more occasion for his as - 
sistance than in a sea remarkably tempestuous. — Larcher. 

7 Propontis.] — Between the Bosphorus and the Helles- 
pont, the shores of Europe and Asia, receding on either 
side, inclose the sea of Marmora, which was known to the 
ancients by the denomination of Propontis. The naviga- 
tion from the issue of the Bosphorus to the entrance of 
the Hellespont, is about one hundred and twenty miles. 
Those who steer their westward course through the 
middle of the Propontis may at once descry the high lands 
of Thrace and Bithynia, and never lose sight of the lofty 
summit of mount Olympus, covered with eternal snows. 
They leave on the left a deep gulf, at the bottom of 
which Nicomedia was seated, the imperial residence of 
Diocletian ; and they pass the small islands of Cyzicus 
and Proconnesus, before they cast anchor at Gallipoli, 
where the sea which separates Asia from Europe is again 
contracted into a narrow channel. — Gibbon. 

8 Hellespont.] — The geographers, who, with the most 
skilful accuracy, have surveyed the form and extent of 
the Hellespont, assign about sixty miles for the winding 
course, and about three miles for the ordinary breadth of 
these celebrated straits. But the narrowest part of 
the channel is found to the northward of the old Turkish 
castles, between the cities of Ccstus and Abydos. It was 
here that the adventurous Leander braved the passage of 
the flood for the possession of his mistress. — It was here 
likewise, in a place where the distance between the 
opposite banks cannot exceed five hundred paces, that 
Xerxes composed a stupendous bridge of boats for the 
purpose of transporting into Europe a hundred and 
seventy myriads of Barbarians. A sea contracted within 
such narrow limits may seem but ill to deserve Ihe 
epithet of broad, which Homer as well as Orpheus has 
frequently bestowed on the Hellespont — Gibbon. 



2H 



HERODOTUS. 



LXXXVI. The exact mensuration of these 
seas is thus determined ; in a long day 1 a ship 
will sail the space of seventy thousand orgyiae, 
and sixty thousand by night. From the entrance 
of the Euxine to Phasis, which is the extreme 
length of this sea, is a voyage of nine days and 
eight nights, which is equal to eleven hundred 
and ten thousand orgyiae, or eleven thousand 
one hundred stadia. The broadest part of this 
sea, which is from Sindica 8 to Themiscyra, on 
the river Thermodon, is a voyage of three 
days and two nights, which is equivalent to 
three thousand three hundred stadia, or three 
hundred and thirty thousand orgyiae. The Pon- 
tus, the Bosphorus, and the Hellespont, were 
thus severally measured by me ; and circum- 
stanced as I have already described. The 
Palus Maeotis flows into the Euxine, which in 
extent almost equals it, and which is justly called 
the mother of the Euxine. 

L XXX VII. When Darius had taken a 
survey of the Euxine, he sailed back again to 
the bridge constructed by Mandrocles the Sa- 
mian. He then examined the Bosphorus, near 
which s he ordered two columns of white marble 
to be erected ; upon one were inscribed in As- 
syrian, on the other in Greek characters, the 
names of the different nations which followed 
him. In this expedition he was accompanied 
by all the nations which acknowledged his 
authority, amounting, cavalry included, to 
seventy thousand men, independent of his fleet, 
which consisted of six hundred ships. These 
columns the Byzantines afterwards removed to 



\ Ina long day.~\ — That is, a ship in a long day would 
sail eighty miles by day, and seventy miles by night. See 
Wessseling's notes on this passage. 

2 Sindica.] — The river Indus was often called the Siu- 
dus. There were people of this name and family in 
Thrace. Some would alter it to Sindicon, but both terms 
are of the same purport. Herodotus speaks of a regio 
Sindica upon the Pontus Euxinus, opposite to the river 
Thermodon. This some would alter to Sindica, but both 
terms are of the same amount. The Ind or Indus of the 
east is at this day called the Sind ; and was called so in 
the time of Pliny. — Bryant. 

3 Near whic7i.2—The new castles of Europe and Asia 
are constructed on either continent upon the foundation 
of two celebrated temples of Serapis, and of Jupiter 
Urius. The old castles, a work of the Greek emperors, 
command the narrowest part of the channel, in a place 
where the opposite banks advance within five hundred 
paces of each other. These fortresses were restored and 
strengthened by Mahomet the Second, when he meditat- 
ed the siege of Constantinople : but the Turkish con- 
queror was most probably ignorant that near two thou- 
sand years before his reign, Darius had chosen the same 
situation to connect the two continents by a bridge of 
boats. — Gibbon. 



their city, and placed before the altar of the 
Orthosian Diana, 4 excepting only one stone, 
which they deposited in their city before the 
temple of Bacchus, and which was covered with 
Assyrian characters. That part of the Bos- 
phorus where Darius ordered the bridge to be 
erected, is, as I conjecture, nearly at the point 
of middle distance between Byzantium and the 
temple at the entrance of the Euxine. 

LXXXVIII. With this bridge Darius was 
so much delighted, that he made many valuable 
presents 5 to Mandrocles the Samian, who con- 
structed it : with the produce of these the artist 
caused a representation to be made of the Bos- 
phorus, with the bridge thrown over it, and the 
king seated on a throne, reviewing his troops as 
they passed. This he afterwards consecrated 
in the temple of Juno, with this inscription : 
Thus was the fishy Bosphorus inclosed, 
"When Samian Mandrocles his bridge imposed : 
Who there, obedient to Darius' will, 
Approved his country's fame, and private skill. 
L XXXIX. Darius, having rewarded the 
artist, passed over into Europe: he had pre- 
viously ordered the Ionians to pass over the 
Euxine to the Ister, where having erected a 
bridge, they were to wait his arrival. To assist 
this expedition, the Ionians and iEolians, with 
the inhabitants of the Hellespont, had assembled 
a fleet ; accordingly, having passed the Cyanean 
islands, they sailed directly to the Ister; and 
arriving after a passage of two days from the 
sea, at that part of the river where it begins to 
branch off, they constructed a bridge. Darius 
crossed the Bosphorus, and marched through 
Thrace ; and arriving at the sources of the river 
Tearus, he encamped for the space of three 
days. 

XC. The people who inhabit its banks, 
affirm the waters of the Tearus to be an excel- 
lent remedy for various diseases, and particularly 
for ulcers, both in men and horses. Its sources 
are thirty-eight in number, issuing from the 
same rock, part of which are cold, and part warm ; 
they are at an equal distance from Heraeum, a 
city near Perinthus, 6 and from Apollonia on the 

4 Orthosian Diana.~\ — We are told by Plutarch, that 
in honour of the Orthosian Diana, the young men of 
Lacedsemon permitted themselves to be flagellated at the 
altar with the extremest severity, without uttering the 
smallest complaint 

5 Valuable presents.] — Gronovius retains the reading 
of touo-i lizot, which is very absurd in itself, and ill agrees 
with the context : the true reading is noun ltx.ot, that is, 
ten of each article presented.— See Casaubon on Athe- 
nseus, and others. — T. 

6 Perinfhu$.%- This place was anciently known by the 



MELPOMENE. 



215 



Euxine, being a two days' journey from both. 
The Teams flows into the Contadesdus, the 
Contadesdus into the Agrianis, the Agrianis 
into the Hebrus, the Hebrus into the sea, near 
the city iEnus. 

XCI. Darius arriving at the Teams, there 
fixed his camp : he was so delighted with this 
river, that he caused a column to be erected on 
the spot, with this inscription : " The sources 
of the Tearus afford the best and clearest waters 
in the world : — In prosecuting an expedition 
against Scythia, Darius son of Hystaspes, the 
best and most amiable of men, sovereign of 
Persia, and of all the continent, arrived here 
with his forces." 

XCII. Leaving this place, Darius advanced 
towards another river, called Artiscus, which 
flows through the country of the Odrysians. 7 
On his arrival here, he fixed upon one certain 
spot, on which he commanded every one of his 
soldiers to throw a stone as he passed : this was 
accordingly done, and Darius, having thus raised 
an immense pile of stones, proceeded on his 
march. 

XCIII. Before he arrived at the Ister, he 
first of all subdued the Getae, a people who pre- 
tend to immortality. The Thracians of Sal- 
mydessus, and they who live above Apollonia, 
and the city of Mesambria, with those who are 
called Cyrmianians, and Mypsaeans, submitted 
themselves to Darius without resistance. The 
Getae 8 obstinately defended themselves, but were 
soon reduced ; these, of all the Thracians, are 
the bravest and most upright. 

XCIV. They believe themselves to be 
immortal; 9 and whenever any one dies, they 

different names of Mygdonia, Heraclea, and Perinthus. 
— It is now called Pera. — T. 

7 Odrysians.] — These people are supposed to be the 
Moldavians: they had a city named Odrysa. Mention 
is made of them by Claudian in his Gigantomachia : 

Primus terrificum Mavots non segiiis in hostem 
Odrisios impellit equos. 

Silius Italicus also speaks of Odrisius Boreas.— T. 

8 Getce.] — It is contended by many learned men, that 
the Scythians, the Getae, and the Goths, were the same 
people. See Pinkerton's Dissertation on the Goths. 

Herodotus in this place makes an obvious distinction 
betwixt the Scythians and the Getae, though it must be 
granted, that he places them very near each other. 

9 They believe themselves to be immortal.] — Arrian calls 
these people Dacians. " The first exploits of Trajan," 
says Mr Gibbon, " were against the Dacians, the most 
warlike of men, who dwell beyond the Danube, and who, 
during the reign of Domitian, had insidted with impunity 
the majesty of Rome. To the strength and fierceness of 
Barbarians, they added a contempt for life, which was 
derived from a vain persuasion of the immortality of the 
soul" 



are of opinion that he is removed to the pre- 
sence of their god Zamolxis, Ju Whom some be- 
lieve to be the same with Gebeleizes. Once 
in every five years they choose one by lot, who 
is to be despatched as a messenger to Zamolxis, 
to make known to him their several wants. 

The ceremony they observe on this occasion 
is this : — Three amongst them are appointed to 
hold in their hands three javelins, whilst 
others seize by the feet and hands the person 
who is appointed to appear before Zamolxis ; 
they throw him up, so as to make him fall upon 
the javelins. If he dies in consequence, they 
imagine that the deity is propitious to them ; if 
not, they accuse the victim of being a wicked 
man. Having disgraced him, they proceed to 
the election of another, giving him, whilst yet 
alive, their commands. This same people, 
whenever it thunders or lightens, throw their 
weapons into the air, as if menacing their god ; 
and they seriously believe that there is no other 
deity. 

XCV. This Zamolxis, as I have been in- 
formed by those Greeks who inhabit the Hel- 
lespont and the Euxine, was himself a man, 
and formerly lived at Samos, in the service of 
Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchus ; having ob- 
tained his liberty, with considerable wealth, he 
returned to his country. Here he found the 
Thracians distinguished equally by their profli- 
gacy and their ignorance ; whilst he himself 
had been accustomed to the Ionian mode of 
life, and to manners more polished than those 
of Thrace ; he had also been connected with 
Pythagoras, one of the most celebrated philo- 
sophers of Greece. He was therefore induced 
to build a large mansion, to which he invited 
the most eminent of his fellow-citizens : he 
took the opportunity of the festive hour to 

The Getae are represented by all the classic -writers as 
the most daring and ferocious of mankind ; in the Latin 
language particularly, every harsh term has been made 
to apply to them : Nulla Getis toto gens est trucilentior 
orbe, says Ovid, Hume speaks thus of their principles 
of belief, with respect to the soul's immortality : — " The 
Getes, commonly called immortal, from their steady 
belief of the soul's immortality, were genuine Theists 
and Unitarians. They affirmed Zamolxis, their deity, 
to be the only true God, and asserted the worship of all 
other nations to be addressed to mere fictions and chi- 
meras : but were their religious principles any more 
refined on account of these magnificent pretensions?" 
— T. 

10 Zamolxis.] — Larcher, in conformity to Wesseling, 
prefers the reading of Zalmoxis. — In the Thracian 
tongue, Zalmos means the skin of a bear ; and Porphyry, 
in the life of Pythagoras, observes, that the name of 
Zalmoxis was given him, because as soon as he was 
born he was covered with the skin of that animal. 



216 



HERODOTUS. 



assure them, that neither himself, his guests, 
nor any of their descendants, should ever die, 
but should be removed to a place where they 
were to remain in the perpetual enjoyment of 
every blessing. After saying this, and con- 
ducting himself accordingly, he constructed a 
subterranean edifice : when it was completed, 
he withdrew himself from the sight of his 
countrymen, and resided for three years be- 
neath the earth. — During this period, the 
Thracians regretted his loss, and lamented him 
as dead. In the fourth year he again appear- 
ed amongst them, and by this artifice, gave the 
appearance of probability to what he had before 
asserted. 

XC VI. To this story of the subterraneous 
apartment, I do not give much credit, though 
I pretend not to dispute it ; I am, however, 
very certain that Zamolxis must have lived 
many years before Pythagoras -. whether, there- 
fore, he was a man, or the deity of the Getae, 
enough has been said concerning him. These 
Getas, using the ceremonies I have described, 
after submitting themselves to the Persians 
under Darius, followed his army. 

XCVTI. Darius, when he arrived at the 
Ister, passed the river with his army ; he tbsn 
commanded the Ionians to break down the 
bridge, and to follow him with all the men of 
their fleet. When they were about to comply 
with his orders, Coes, son of Erxander, and 
leader of the Mitylenians, after requesting per- 
mission of the king to deliver his sentiments, 
addressed him as follows : 

*« As you are going, Sir, to attack a country, 
which, if report may be believed, is without 
cities and entirely uncultivated, suffer the 
bridge to continue as it is, under the care of 
those who constructed it : — By means of this, 
our return will be secured, whether we find 
the Scythians, and succeed against them ac- 
cording to our wishes, or whether they elude 
our endeavours to discover them. I am not at 
all apprehensive that the Scythians will over- 
come us ; but I think that if we do not meet 
them, we shall suffer from our ignorance of 
the country. It may be said, perhaps, that I 
speak from selfish considerations, and that I 
am desirous of being left behind ; but my real 
motive is a regard for your interest, whom at 
all events I am determined to follow." 

With this counsel Darius was greatly de- 
lighted, and thus replied : — " My Lesbian 
friend, when I shall return safe and fortunate 
from this expedition, I beg that I may see you, 



and I will not fail amply to reward you, for 
your excellent advice." 

XCVIII. After this speech, the king took 
a cord, upon which he tied sixty knots, 1 then 
sending for the Ionian chiefs, he thus addressed 
them : — 

" Men of Ionia, I have thought proper to 
change my original determination concerning 
this bridge ; do you take this cord, and observe 
what I require ; from the time of my depart- 
ure against Scythia, do not fail every day to 
untie one of these knots. If they shall be all 
loosened before you see me again, you are at 
liberty to return to your country ; but in the 
meantime it is my desire that you preserve 
and defend this bridge, by which means you 
will effectually oblige me." As soon as 
Darius had spoken, he proceeded on his march. 



1 Sixty knots.]— Larcher observes that this mode of 
notation proves extreme stupidity on the part of the 
Persians. It is certain, that the science of arithmetic 
was first brought to perfection in Greece, but when or 
where it was first introduced is entirely uncertain; I 
should be inclined to imagine, that some knowledge of 
numbers would be found in regions the most barbarous, 
and amongst human beings the most ignorant, had I not 
now before me an account of some American nations, 
who have no term in their language to express a greater 
number than three, and even this they call by the un- 
couth and tedious name of patarrarorincoursac. In the 
Odyssey, when it is said that Proteus will count his herd 
of sea-calves, the expression used is, vifMrao-irercti, he 
will reckon them by fives, which has been remarked, as 
being probably a relic of a mode of counting practised 
in some remote age, when five was the greatest numeral. 
To count the fingers of one hand, was the first arithme- 
tical effort : to carry on the account through the other 
hand, was a refinement, and required attention and re- 
collection. 

M. Goguet thinks, that in all numerical calculations 
pebbles were first used : 4^<p'£ai, to calculate, comes from 
"prKfos, a little stone, and the word calculation from 
calculi, pebbles. This is probably true; but between 
counting by the five fingers and standing in need of 
pebbles to continue a calculation, there must have been 
many intervening steps of improvement. A more com- 
plicated mode of counting by the fingers, was also used 
by the ancients, in which they reckoned as far as 100 on 
the left hand, by different postures of the fingers ; the 
next hundred was counted on the right hand, and so on, 
according to some authors, as far as 9000. In allusion to 
this, Juvenal says of Nestor, 



-Atque : 



; jam dcxtra computat annos. 

Sat. x. 249. 



and an old lady is mentioned by Nicharchus, an Antho- 
logic poet, who made Nestor seem young, having re- 
turned to the left hand again : 
. v xW *■*'? 

Antholog. 1. ii. 
This, however, must be an extravagant hyperbole, as it 
would make her above 9000 years old, or there is some 
eiTor in the modern accounts.— There is a tract of Bede*a 



MELPOMENE. 



217 



XCIX. That part of Thrace 8 which 
stretches to the sea, has Scythia immediately 
contiguous to it ; where Thrace ends, Scythia 
begins, through which the Ister passes, com- 
mencing at the south-east, and emptying itself 
into the Euxine. It shall be my business to 
describe that part of Scythia which is continued 
from the mouth of the Ister to the sea-coast. 
Ancient Scythia extends from the Ister, west- 
ward, as far as the city Carcinitis. The 
mountainous country above this place, in the 
same direction, as far as what is called the 
Trachean Chersonese, is possessed by the peo- 
ple of Taurus ; this place is situated near the 
sea to the east. Scythia, like Attica, is in two 
parts bounded by the sea, westward and to the 
east. The people of Taurus are circumstanced 
with respect to Scythia, as any other nation 
would be with respect to Attica, who, instead 
of Athenians, should inhabit the Sunian pro- 
montory, stretching from the district of the 
Thonicus, as far as Anaphlystus. Such, com- 
paring small things with great, is the district of 
Tauris : but as there may be some who have 
not visited these parts of Attica, I shall en- 
deavour to explain myself more intelligibly. 
Suppose, that beginning at the port of Brun- 
dusium, 3 another nation, and not the Iapyges, 4 



on this subject which I have not seen ; it is often cited. 
Macrobius and Pliny tell us, that the statues of Janus 
were so formed, as to mark the number of days in the 
year by the position of his fingers, in Numa's time 355, 
after Caesar's correction 365. — Saturn, i. 9. and Nat. Hist. 
xxxiv. 7. — T. 

2 That part of Thrace.~\— This chapter will, doubtless, 
appeal' perplexed on a first and casual view, but whoever 
will be at the trouble to examine M. D'Anville's excel- 
lent maps, illustrative of ancient geography, will in a mo- 
ment find every difficulty respecting the situation of the 
places here described effectually removed. — T. 

3 Brundusium.] — This place, which is now called 
Brindisi, was very memorable in the annals of ancient 
Rome: here Augustus first took the name of Caesar, 
here the poet Pacuvius was born, and here Virgil died : 
—It belongs to the king of Naples , and it is the opin- 
ion of modern travellers, that the kingdom of Naples 
possesses no plaoe so advantageously situated for trade. 
—T. 

4 Iapyges.]— The region of Iapygia has been at differ- 
ent times called Messapia, Calabria, and Salentum ; it is 
now called Terra d'Otranto : it derived its name of 
Iapyges from the wind called Iapyx : 

Sed vides quanto Irepidet tumult u 
Promts Orion. Ego quid sit ater 
Adriee novi sinus, et quid albus 
Peccet Iapyx. 

Where I suppose the Albus, contrasted to Ater, means 
that this wind surprised the unwary mariner, during a 
very severe sky. 

Others are of opinion, that the Iapyges wore so named 
from Iapyx, the son of Daedalus ; and that the wind was 



should occupy that country, as far as Taren- 
tum, separating it from the rest of the conti- 
nent : I mention these two, but there are many 
other places similarly situated, to which Tauris 
might be compared. 

C. The country above Tauris, as well as 
that towards the sea to the east, 5 is inhabited 
by Scythians, who possess also the lands which 
lie to to the west of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, 
and the Palus Maeotis, as far as the Tanais, 
which empties itself into this lake ; so that as 
you advance from the Ister inland, Scythia is 
terminated first by the Agathyrsi, then by the 
Neuri, thirdly by the Androphagi, and, last of 
all, by the Melanchlaeni. 

CI. Scythia thus appears to be of a quadran- 
gular form, having two of its sides terminated 
by the sea, to which its other two towards the 
land are perfectly equal : from the Ister to the 
Borysthenes is a ten days' journey, which is also 
the distance from the Borysthenes to the Palus 
Maeotis. Ascending from the sea inland, as 
far as the country of the Melanchlaeni, beyond 
Scythia, is a journey of twenty days : according 
to my computation, a day's journey is equal to 
two hundred stadia : 6 thus the extent of Scythia, 



named Iapyx, from blowing in the direction of that ex- 
tremity of Italy ; which is indeed more comformable to 
the analogy of the Latin names for several other winds. 
5 To the east.] — This description of Scythia is attended 
with great difficulties ; it is not, in the first place, easy 
to seize the true meaning of Herodotus ; in the second, 
I cannot believe that the description here given accords 
correctly with the true position of the places. I am, 
nevertheless, astonished that it should be generally faith- 
ful, when it is considered how scanty the knowledge of 
this country was : the historian must have laboured with 
remarkable diligence to have told us what he has. By 
the phrase of " the sea to the east," Ballanger under- 
stands the Palus Maeotis ; but I am convinced that when 
he describes the sea which is to the south, and to the 
west, he means only to speak of different points of the 
Euxine. — Larcher. 

6 Two hundred stadia.] — Authors do not agree with 
each other, nor indeed with themselves, about the length 
of the day's journey ; Herodotus here gives two hundred 
stadia to a day's journey ; but in the fifth book he gives 
no more than one hundred and fifty. 

Strabo and Pliny make the length of the Arabian Gulf 
a thousand stadia, which the first of these authors says 
will take up a voyage of three or four days : what Livy 
calls a day's journey, Polybius describes as two hundred 
stadia The Roman lawyers assigned to each day twenty 
miles, that is to say, one hundred and sixty stadia. — See 
Casaubon on Strabo, page 61 of the Amsterdam edition, 
page 23 of that of Paris. 

The evangelist Luke tells us, that Joseph and Mary 
went a day's journey before they sought the child Jcsns ; 
now Maundrel, page 64, informs us, that according to 
tradition this happened at Beer, which was no more than 
ten miles from Jerusalem ; according therefore to this 
estimation, a day's journey was no more than eighty 
2E 



218 



HERODOTUS. 



along its sides, is four thousand stadia ; and 
through the midst of it inland, is four thousand 
more. 

CII. The- Scythians, conferring with one 
another, conceived that of themselves they were 
unable to repel the forces of Darius ; they there- 
fore made application to their neighbours. The 
princes also to whom they applied, held a con- 
sultation concerning the powerful army of the 
invader ; at this meeting were assembled the 
princes of the Agathyrsi, Tauri, Neuri, Andro- 
phagi, Melanchlseni, Geloni, Budini, and Sau- 
romatae. 

CHI. Of these nations, the Tauri are dis- 
tinguished by these peculiar customs: 1 All 
strangers shipwrecked on their coasts, and 
particularly every Greek who falls into their 
hands, they sacrifice to a virgin, in the follow- 
ing manner : after the ceremonies of prayer, 
they strike the victim on the head with a club. 
Some affirm, that, having fixed the head upon 
a cross, they precipitate the body from the rock, 
on the craggy part of which the temple stands : 



stadia. When we recollect that the day has different 
acceptations, and has been divided into the natural day, 
the artificial day, the civil day, the astronomical day, &c. 
we shall the less wonder at any apparent want of exact- 
ness in the computations of space passed over in a por- 
tion of time by no means determinate.— T. 

1 Peculiar customs.]— ■These customs, as far as they 
relate to the religious ceremonies described in the sub- 
sequent paragraphs of this chapter, must have been ren- 
dered by the Iphigenia of Euripides, and other writers, 
too familiar to require any minute discussion. The story 
of Iphigenia also, in all its particulars, with the singular 
resemblance which it bears to the account of the daughter 
of Jephtha in the sacred Scriptures, must be equally well 
known. — T. 

It has been a matter of much and serious dispute among 
the learned whether Jephtha actually sacrificed Ids 
daughter. I, for my own part, scruple not to profess 
my decided opinion that he did not, but that he conse- 
crated her, for the remainder of her life, to some religious 
employment in the temple. 

If he had actually sacrificed her, he would have acted 
in positive disobedience to the Mosaic law, by which 
human victims were unequivocally forbidden. In confir- 
mation also of his own parental feeling of tenderness and 
affection, he might have quoted the example of Abraham, 
of whom an easy commutation was in a similar case ac- 
cepted Dr Jortin thinks it even "strange that any 
commentators shoidd have imagined that she was sacri. 
Heed."— Tracts, vol. i. p. 380. 

The reader will remember the beautiful episode of 
Idomeneus, king of Crete, in the Telemachus of Fenelon, 
where a like preposterous vow is described to have 
been literally performed. 

See also the description of the sacrifice of Polyxena, in 
Ovid, which is thus beautifudy alluded to in Virgil : 
O felix una ante alias Priameia virgo, 
Hostilem aJ tumulum Trojae sub mcenibus altis 
Jussa moii. /Fm. iii. 321. 



others again, allowing that the head is thus ex. 
posed, deny that the body is so treated, but say 
that it is buried. The sacred personage to 
whom this sacrifice is offered, the Taurians 
themselves assert to be Iphigenia, the daughter 
of Agamemnon. The manner in which they 
treat their captives is this : — Every man cuts 
off the head of his prisoner, and carries it to his 
house ; this he fixes on a stake, which is placed 
generally at the top of the chimney ; thus situat- 
ed, they affect .to consider it as the protector of 
their families : their whole subsistence is pro- 
cured by acts of plunder and hostility. 

CIV. The Agathyrsi 2 are a people of very 
effeminate manners, but abounding in gold : they 
have their women in common, so that, being 
all connected by the ties of consanguinity, they 
know nothing of envy or of hatred : in other 
respects they resemble the Thracians. 

CV. The Neuri observe the Scythian cus- 
toms. In the age preceding this invasion of 
Darius, they were compelled to change their 
habitations, from the multitude of serpents 3 
which infested them : besides what their own 
soil produced, these came in far greater num- 
bers from the deserts above them ; till they 
were at length compelled to take refuge with 
the Budini : these people have the character of 
being magicians. It is asserted by the Scythi- 
ans, as well as by those Greeks who dwell in 
Scythia, that once in every year they are all of 
them changed into wolves ; 4 and that after re- 
maining so for the space of a few days, they 
resume their former shape ; but this I do not 
believe, although they swear that it is true. 

CVI. The Androphagi are perhaps, of all 



2 Agathyrsi. 2— The country inhabited by this people 
is now called Vologhda, in Muscovy: the Agathyrsi 
were by Juvenal called cruel j 

Sauromataeque truces aut immanes Agathyrsi. 
Virgil calls them the painted Agathyrsi : 

Cretesque Dryopesque fremunt pictique Agathyrsi. 
They are said to have received the name of Agathyrsi 
from Agathyrsus, a son of Hercules. — T. 

3 Multitude of Serpents.'}— These serpents were no 
other than the Dibii, who fed their cattle on the 
high grounds, and securing themselves in the fastnesses, 
and secret retirements of the mountains, made incursions 
on the Neuri, and interrupted their settlements. Sec 
Hesiod, Ai/Scsv otpiv x^ng. 

4 Into wolves.]— Pomponius Mela mentions the same 
fact, as I have observed in page 194. It has been sup- 
posed by some, that this idea might arise from the cir- 
cumstance of these people clothing themselves in the 
skins of wolves during the colder months of winter ; but 
this is rejected by Larcher, without giving any better 
hypothesis to solve the fable. — T. 



MELPOMEN E. 



219 



mankind, the rudest : they have no forms of 
law or justice, their employment is feeding of 
rattle ; and though their dress is Scythian, they 
have a dialect appropriate to themselves. 

CVII. The Melancblami 5 have all black 
garments ; from whence they derive their name : 
these are the only people known to feed on hu- 
man flesh ; 6 their manners are those of Scythia. 

CVIII. The Budini 7 are a great and nu- 
merous people; their bodies are painted of a 
blue and red colour ; they have in their coun- 
try a town called Gelonus, built entirely of 
wood. Its walls are of a surprising height : 
they are on each side three hundred stadia in 
length; the houses and the temples are all of 
wood. They have temples built in the Gre- 
cian manner to Grecian deities, with the statues, 
altars, and shrines of wood. Every three years 8 
they have a festival in honour of Bacchus. The 
Geloni are of Grecian origin ; but being ex- 
pelled from the commercial towns, they esta- 
blished themselves amongst the Budini. Their 
language is a mixture of Greek and Scythian. 

CIX. The Budini are distinguished equally 
in their language and manner of life from the 
Geloni : they are the original natives of the 
country, feeders of cattle, and the only people 
of the country who eat vermin. The Geloni, 9 
on the contrary, pay attention to agriculture, 
live on corn, cultivate gardens, and resemble 
the Budini neither in appearance nor com- 
plexion. The Greeks, however, are apt, though 
erroneously, to confound them both under the 
name of the Geloni. Their country is covered 
with trees of every species ; where these are the 
thickest, there is a large and spacious lake with 

5 Melanchlceni.] — 

Melanchloenis atra vestis : et ex ea nomen — 

Pomp. Mela. 

6 Human flesh.] — M. Larcher very naturally thinks 
this a passage transposed from the preceding- chapter, as 
indeed the word Androphagi literally means eaters of 
human flesh. 

7 Budini.] — The district possessed by this people is now 
called Podolia : Pliny supposes them to have been so 
called from using waggons drawn by oxen. — T. 

8 Every three years.]— This feast, celebrated in honour 
of Bacchus, was named the Trieterica, to which there 
are frequent allusions in the ancient authors. — See 
Statius : 

Xon hoec Trieterica vobis 

Nox pntrio de more Trait. 

From which we may presume that this was kept up 
throughout the night. 

9 Geloni.]— These people are called Picti by Virgil : 

Fictosque Gelonos. — Georg. ii. 115. 

And by Lucan fortes : 

Blassagetes quo t'ugit equo fortesquc Gelonos — L. iii. 283. 



a marsh surrounded with reeds. In this lake 
are found otters, beavers, and other wild animals, 
who have square snouts : of these, the skins are 
used to border the garment ; 10 and their testi- 
cles are esteemed useful in hysterical diseases. 
CX. Of the Sauromatae" we have this ac- 
count. In a contest which the Greeks had 
with the Amazons, whom the Scythians call 
Oiorpata, ,a or, as it may be interpreted, men- 
slayers (for Oeor signifies a man, and pata to 
kill) they obtained a victory over them at 
Thermodon. On their return, as many Ama- 
zons 13 as they were able to take captive, they 



10 Border tJie garment.] — It is perhaps not unworthy 
remark, that throughout the sacred Scriptures we find 
no mention made of furs ; and this is the more remark- 
able, as in Syria and Egypt, according to the accounts 
of modern travellers, garments lined and bordered with 
costly furs are the dresses of honour and of ceremony. 
Purple and fine linen are what we often read of in Scrip- 
ture ; but never of fur. — T. 

11 Sauromatce.] — Tliis people were also called Sarma- 
tse or Sarmatians. 1$ may perhaps tend to excite some 
novel and interesting ideas in the mind of the English 
reader, when he is informed, that amongst a people rude 
and uncivilized as these Sarmatians are here described, 
the tender and effeminate Ovid was compelled to consume 
a long and melancholy exile. It was on the banks of the 
Danube that he wrote those nine books of epistles, which 
are certainly not the least valuable of his works. The 
following lines are eminently harmonious and pathetic : 

At puto cum requies medicinaque publica curae 

Somnus adest, solitis nox venit orba malis, 
Somnia me terrent veros imitantia casus, 

Et vigilant sensus in mea damna mei : 
Aut ego Sarmaticas videor vitare sagiltas, 

Aut dare captivas ad fera vincla manus: 
AM ubi decipior melioris imagine somni, 

Aspicio patriae tecta relicta mese, 
Et modo vobiscum quos sum veneratus amici, 

Et modo cum cara conjuge multa loquor.— T. 

Herodotus relates the origin of this people in this and 
the subsequent chapters. The account of Diodorus Si- 
culus differs materially : the Scythians, says this author, 
having subdued part of Asia, drove several colonies out 
of the country, and amongst them one of the Medcs ; 
this, advancing towards the Tanais, formed the nation of 
the Sauromatae. — Larcher. 

12 Oiorpata.]— This etymology is founded upon a no- 
tion that the Amazons were a community of women who 
killed every man with whom they had any commerce, 
and yet subsisted as a people for ages. This title was 
given them from their worship ; for Oiorpata, or as some 
manuscripts have it, Aorpata, is the same as Patah-Or, 
the priest of Orus, or, in a more lax sense, the votaries 
of that god. They were A^zoztovoi, for they sacrificed 
all strangers whom fortune brought upon their coast : 
so that the whole Euxine sea, upon which they lived j 
was rendered infamous from their cruelty.— Bryant 

13 A?nazons.] — The more striking peculiarities relating 
to this fancied community of women, are doujbtless fa- 
miliar to the most common reader. The subject, con- 
sidered in a scientific point of view, is admirably discuss 
ed by Bryant. His chapter on the Amazons is too long 
to transcribe, and it would be injurieufi to mutilate it. 
" Among barbarous nations," says Mr Gibbon, "women 



220 



HERODOTUS. 



distributed in three vessels : these, when 
they were out at sea, rose against their con- 
querors, and put them all to death. But as 
they were totally ignorant of navigation, and 
knew nothing at all of the management either 
of helms, sails, or oars, they were obliged to 
resign themselves to the wind and the tide, 
which carried them to Cremnes, near the Palus 
Maeotis, a place inhabited by the free Scythians. 
The Amazons here disembarked, and advanced 
towards the part which was inhabited, and 
meeting with a stud of horses in their route, 
they immediately seized them, and mounted on 
these, proceeded to plunder the Scythians. 

CXI. The Scythians were unable to explain 
what had happened, being neither acquainted 
with the language, the dress, nor the country of 
the invaders. Under the impression that they 
were a body of men nearly of the same age, 
they offered them battle. The result was, that 
having taken some as prisoners, they at last 
discovered them to be women. After a con- 
sultation amongst themselves, they determined 
not to put any of them to death, but to select a 
detachment of their youngest men, equal in 
number, as they might conjecture, to the Ama- 
zons. They were directed to encamp opposite 
to them, and by their adversaries' motions to 
regulate their own • if they were attacked, they 
were to retreat without making resistance ; 
when the pursuit should be discontinued, they 
were to return, and again encamp as near the 
Amazons as possible. The Scythians took 
these measures, with the view of having chil- 
dren* by these invaders. 

CXII. The young men did as they were 
ordered. The Amazons, seeing that no injury 
was offered them, desisted from hostilities. 
The two camps imperceptibly approached each 
other. The young Scythians, as well as the 
Amazons, had nothing but their arms and their 
horses ; and both obtained their subsistence 
from the chace. 

CXIII. It was the custom of the Amazons, 
about noon, to retire from the rest, either alone 
or two in company, to ease nature. The Scy- 
thians discovered this, and did likewise. One 
of the young men met with an Amazon, who 
had wandered alone from the rest, and who, in- 
stead of rejecting his caresses, suffered him to 
enjoy her person. They were not able to con- 
verse with each other, but she intimated by 



have often combated by the side of their husbands : but 
it is almost impossible that a society of Amazons should 
ever have existed in the old or new world."— T. 



signs, that if on the following day he would 
come to the same place, and bring with him a 
companion, she would bring another female to 
meet him. The young man returned, and told 
what had happened: he was punctual to his 
engagement, and the next day went with a 
friend to the place, where he found the two 
Amazons waiting to receive them. 

CXIV. This adventure was communicated 
to the Scythians, who soon conciliated the rest 
of the women. The two camps were presently 
united, and each considered as his wife her to 
whom he had first attached himself. As they 
were not able to learn the dialect of the Ama- 
zons, they taught them theirs j which having 
accomplished, the husbands thus addressed their 
wives : — " We have relations and property, let 
us therefore change this mode of life ; let us 
go hence, and communicate with the rest of 
our countrymen, where you and you only shall 
be our wives." To this the Amazons thus 
replied : " We cannot associate with your fe- 
males, whose manners are so different from 
our own ; we are expert in the use of the 
javelin and the bow, and accustomed to ride on 
horseback, but we are ignorant of all feminine 
employments . your women are very differently 
accomplished : instructed in female arts, they 
pass their time in their waggons, 1 and despise 
the chace, with all similar exercises : we can- 
not therefore live with them. If you really 
desire to retain us as your wives, and to behave 
yourselves honestly towards us, return to your 
parents, dispose of your property, and after- 
wards come back to us, and we will live together, 
at a distance from your other connections." 

CXV. The young men approved of their 
advice ; they accordingly took their share of 
the property which belonged to them, and re- 
turned to the Amazons, by whom they were 
thus addressed. " Our residence here occasions 
us much terror and uneasiness : we have not 
only deprived you of your parents, but have 
greatly wasted your country. As you think us 
worthy of being your wives, let us leave this 
place, and dwell beyond the Tanais." 

CXVI. With this also the young Scythians 
complied, and having passed the Tanais, they 
marched forwards a three days' journey towards 
the east, and three more from the Palus Maeo 



1 In their waggons.] — These waggons served them 
instead of houses. Every one knows that in Greece the 
women went out but seldom ; but I much fear that He- 
rodotus attributes to the Scythian women the manners 
of those of Greece.— Larcher. 



MELPOMENE. 



221 



(is towards the north. Here they fixed them- 
selves, and now remain. The women of the 
Sauromatae still retain their former habits of 
life ; they pursue the chace on horseback, some- 
times with and sometimes without their hus- 
bands, and, dressed in the habits of the men, 
frequently engage in battle. 

CXVII. The Sauromatae use the Scythian 
language, but their dialect has always been im- 
pure, because the Amazons themselves had 
learned it but imperfectly. With respect to 
their institutions concerning marriage, no vir- 
gin is permitted to marry till she first have 
killed an enemy. 2 It sometimes therefore 
happens that many women die single at an 
advanced age, having never been able to fulfil 
the conditions required. 

CXVIIL To these nations, which I have 
described, assembled in council, ' the Scythian 
ambassadors were admitted; — they informed 
the princes, that the Persian, having reduced 
under his authority all the nations of the ad- 
joining continent, had thrown a bridge over the 
neck of the Bosphorus, in order to pass into 
theirs ; that he had already subdued Thrace, 
and constructed a bridge over the Ister, am- 
bitiously hoping to reduce them also. " Will 
it be just," they continued, " for you to remain 
inactive spectators of our ruin ? Rather, having 
the same sentiments, let us advance together 
against this invader : unless you do this, we 
shall be reduced to the last extremities, and be 
compelled either to forsake our country, or to 
submit to the terms he may impose. If you 
withhold your assistance, what may we not 
dread ? Neither will you have reason to expect 
a different or a better fate : for are not you the 
object of the Persian's ambition as well as our- 
selves ? or do you suppose that, having van- 
quished us, he 'will leave you unmolested? 
That we reason justly, you have sufficient evi- 
dence before you. If his hostilities were di- 
rected only against us, with the view of re- 
venging upon us the former servile condition 
of his nation, he would immediately have 
marched into our country, without at all injur- 
ing or molesting others ; he would have shown 

2 Killed an enemy. ~\ — The account which Hippocrates 
gives is somewhat different : the women of the Sauromatae 
mount on horseback, draw the bow, lance the javelin 
from on horseback, and go to war as long as they remain 
unmarried: they are not suffered to marry till they have 
killed three enemies ; nor do they cohabit with their hus- 
bands till they have performed the ceremonies which 
their laws require. Their married women do not go on 
horseback, unless indeed it should be necessary to make 
a national expedition. 



by his conduct, that his indignation was directed 
against the Scythians only. On the contrary, 
as soon as ever he set foot upon our continent, 
he reduced all the nations which he met, and 
has subdued the Thracians, and our neighbours 
the Getae." 

CXIX. When the Scythians had thus de- 
livered their sentiments, the princes of the 
nations who were assembled, deliberated among 
themselves, but great difference of opinion pre- 
vailed ; the sovereigns of the Geloni, Budini, 
and Sauromatae were unanimous in their in- 
clination to assist the Scythians ; but those of 
the Agathyrsi, Neuri, Androphagi, Melan- 
chlaeni, and Tauri, made this answer to the 
ambassadors : " If you had not been the first 
aggressors in this dispute, having first of all 
commenced hostilities against Persia, your de- 
sire of assistance would have appeared to us 
reasonable ; we should have listened to you 
with attention, and yielded the aid which you 
require : but without any interference on our 
part, you first made incursions into their ter- 
ritories, and as long as fortune favoured you, 
ruled over Persia. The same fortune now 
seems propitious to them, and they only retali- 
ate your own conduct upon you. We did not 
before offer any injury to this people, neither 
without provocation shall we do so now : but 
if he attack our country, and commence hos- 
tilities against us, he will find that we shall 
not patiently endure the insult. Until he shall 
do this we shall remain neutral. We cannot 
believe that the Persians intend any injury to 
us, but to those alone who first offended them." 

CXX. When the Scythians heard this, and 
found that they had no assistance to expect, 
they determined to avoid all open and decisive 
encounters : with this view they divided them- 
selves into two bodies, and retiring gradually 
before the enemy, they filled up the wells and 
fountains which lay in their way, and destroyed 
the produce of their fields. The Sauromatae 
were directed to advance to the district under 
the authority of Scopasis, with orders, upon 
the advance of the Persians, to retreat towards 
the Maeotis, by the river Tanais. If the Per- 
sians retreated, they were to harass and pursue 
them. This was the disposition of one part 
of their power. The two other divisions 
of their country, the greater one under Inda- 
thyrsus, and the third under Taxacis, were to 
join themselves to the Geloni and Budini, and 
advancing a day's march before the Persians, 
were gradually to retreat, and in other respects 



222 



HERODOTUS. 



perform what had been previously determined 
in council. They were particularly enjoined to 
allure the enemy to pass the dominions of those 
nations who had withheld their assistance, in 
order that their indignation might be provoked ; 
that as they were unwilling to unite in any hos- 
tilities before, they should now be compelled to 
take arms in their own defence. They were 
finally to retire into their own country, and to 
attack the enemy, if it could be done with any 
prospect of success. 1 

CXXI. The Scythians, having determined 
upon these measures, advanced silently before 
the forces of Darius, sending forwards as scouts 
a select detachment of their cavalry : they also 
despatched before them the carriages in which 
their wives and children usually live, together 
with their cattle, reserving only such a number 
as was necessary to their subsistence, giving di- 
rections that their route should be regularly to- 
wards the north. 

CXXII. These carriages accordingly ad- 
vanced as they were directed; the Scythian 
scouts, finding that the Persians had proceeded 
a three days' journey from the Ister, encamped 
at the distance of one day's march from their 
army, and destroyed all the produce of thelands. 
The Persians, as soorT as they came in sight of 
the Scythian cavalry, commenced the pursuit ; 
whilst the Scythians regularly retired before 
them. Directing their attention to one part of 
the enemy in particular, the Persians continued 
to advance eastward towards the Tanais. The 
Scythians having crossed this river, the Persians 
did the same, till passing over the country of 
the Sauromatae, they came to that of the Budini. 

CXXIII. As long as the Persians remained 
in Scythia and Sarmatia, they had little power 
of doing injury, the country around them was 
so vast and extensive ; but as soon as they came 
amongst the Budini, they discovered a town 
built entirely of wood, which the inhabitants 
had totally stripped and deserted ; to this they 
set fire. This done, they continued their pur- 
suit through the country of the Budini, till they 
came to a dreary solitude. This is beyond the 
Budini, and of the extent of a seven days' jour- 
ney, without a single inhabitant. Farther on 



1 Prospect of success.] — The very judicious plan of 
operation here portrayed, seems rather to belong to a 
civilized nation, acquainted with all the subterfuges of 
the most improved military discipline, than to a people so 
rude and barbarous as the Scythians are elsewhere repre- 
sented. The conduct of the Roman Fabius, who, to use 
the words of Ennius, cunctando restituit rem, was not 
very unlike this. — T. 



are the Thyssagetas, 2 from whose country four 
great rivers, after watering the intermediate 
plains, empty themselves into the Palus 
Meeotis. The names of these rivers are the 
Lycus, the Oarus, the Tanais, and the Syrgis. 

CXXIV. As soon as Darius arrived at the 
above solitude, he halted, and encamped his 
army upon the banks of the Oarus : he then 
constructed eight large forts, at the distance ot 
sixty stadia from each other, the ruins of which 
have been visible to my time. Whilst he was 
thus employed, that detachment of the enemy 
which he had pursued, making a circuit by the 
higher parts of the country, returned into 
Scythia. When these had disappeared, and 
were no more to be discovered, Darius left his 
forts in an unfinished state, and directed his 
march westward, thinking that the Scythians 
whom he had pursued were the whole of the 
nation, and had fled towards the west : accel- 
erating therefore his march, he arrived in 
Scythia, and met with two detachments of 
Scythians ; these also he pursued, who took 
care to keep from him at a distance of one day's 
march. 

CXXV. Darius continued his pursuit, and 
the Scythians, as had been previously concerted, 
led him into the country of those who had re- 
fused to accede to their alliance, and first of all 
into that of the Melanchlseni. When the lands 
of this people had been effectually harassed by 
the Scythians, as well as the Persians, the lat- 
ter were again led by the former into the district 
of the Androphagi. Having in like manner 
distressed these, the Persians were allured on 
to the Neuri : the Neuri being also alarmed 
and harassed, the attempt was made to carry 
the Persians amongst the Agathyrsi. This 
people however had observed that before their 
own country had suffered any injury from the 
invaders, the Scythians had taken care to dis- 
tress the lands of their neighbours ; they accord- 
ingly despatched to them a messenger, forbid- 
ding their nearer approach, and threatening that 
any attempt to advance should meet with their 
hostile resistance : with this determination, the 
Agathyrsi appeared in arms upon their borders. 
But the Melanchlseni, the Androphagi, and the 
Neuri, although they had suffered equally from 



2 Thyssageta>.~\— This people are indifferently named 
the Thyssagetae, the Thyrsagetse, and the Tyrregeta; ; 
mention is made of them by Strabo, Pliny, and Valerius 
Flaccus. — This latter author says, 

Non ego sanguineus gestantem tympana bellis 
Thjrsagetem, cinctumque vagis post terga silebo 
Pellibus. T. 



MELPOMENE. 



223 



the Persians and the Scythians, neither made 
any exertions, nor remembered what they bad 
before menaced, but fled in alarm to the deserts 
of the north. The Scythians, turning aside 
from the Agathyrsi, who had refused to assist 
them, retreated from the country of the Neuri, 
towards Scythia, whither they were pursued by 
the Persians. 

CXXVI. As they continued to persevere 
in the same conduct, Darius was induced to send 
a messenger to Indathyrsus the Scythian prince. 
" Most wretched man," said the ambassador, 
" why do you thus continue to fly, having the 
choice of one of these alternatives— If you think 
yourself able to contend with me, stop and let 
us engage; if you feel a conscious inferiority, 
bring to me, as to your superior, earth and water." 
— Let us come to a conference." 

CXXVII. The Scythian monarch made 
this reply : " It is not my disposition, O Per- 
sian, to fly from any man through fear ; neither 
do I now fly from you. My present conduct 
differs not at all from that which I pursue in a 
state of peace. Why I do not contend with 
you in the open field, I will explain : we have 
no inhabited towns nor cultivated lands of which 
we can fear your invasion or your plunder, and 
have therefore no occasion to engage with you 
precipitately : but we have the sepulchres of 
our fathers, these you may discover ; and if you 
endeavour to injure them, you shall soon know 
how far we are able or willing to resist you ; 



3 Earth and water.] — Amongst the ancient nations of 
the west, to show that they confessed themselves over- 
come, or that they surrendered at discretion, they gathered 
some grass, and presented it to the conqueror. By this 
action they resigned all the claims they possessed to their 
country. In the time of Pliny, the Germans still observed 
this custom. Summum apud antiquos signum Victoria} 
erat herbam porrigere victos, hoc est terra et altrice ipsa 
humo et humatione etiam cederej quern morem etiam 
nunc durare apud Germanos scio. — Festus and Servius, 
upon verse 128, book viii. of the iEneid of Virgil, — 

Et vitta comptos voluit praetendere ramos, — 
affirm, that herbam do, is the same thing as victum me 
fateor, et cedo victoriam. The same ceremony was ob- 
served, or something like it, when a country, a fief, or a 
portion of land, was given or sold to any one. — See Du 
Cange, Glossary, at the word Investitura. In the east, 
and in other countries, it was by the giving of earth and 
water, that a prince was put in possession of a country ; 
and the investiture was made him in this manner. By 
this they acknowledged him their master without con- 
trol, for earth and water involve every thing — Aristotle 
says, that to give earth and water, is to renounce one's 
liberty. — Lurcher. 

Amongst the Romans, when an offender was sent into 
banishment, he was emphatically interdicted the use of 
fire and n ater ; which was supposed to imply the absence 
of every aid and comfort. — T. 



till then we will not meet you in battle. Re- 
member farther, that I acknowledge no master 
or superior, but Jupiter, who was my ances- 
tor, and Histia the Scythian queen. Instead 
of the presents which you require of earth 
and water, I will send you such as you better 
deserve ; and in return for your calling yourself 
my master, I only bid you weep." — Such was 
the answer of the Scythian, 4 which the ambas- 
dor related to Darius. 

CXXVIII. The very idea of servitude ex- 
asperated the Scythian princes ; they accordingly 
despatched that part of their army which was 
under Scopasis, together with the Sauromatae, 
to solicit a conference with the Ionians who 
guarded the bridge over the Ister; those who 
remained did not think it necessary any more 
to lead the Persians about, but regularly endea- 
voured to surprise them when at their meals ; 
they watched, therefore, their proper opportuni- 
ties, and executed their purpose. The Scythian 
horse never failed of driving back the cavalry 
of the Persians, but these last, in falling back 
upon their infantry, were always secured and 
supported. The Scythians, notwithstanding 
their advantage over the Persian horse, always 
retreated from the foot; they frequently, how- 
ever, attacked them under cover of the night. 

CXXIX. In these attacks of the Scythians 
upon the camp of Darius, the Persians had one 
advantage, which I shall explain — it arose from 
the braying of the asses, and appearance of the 
mules : I have before observed, that neither of 
these animals are produced in Scythia, 5 on 
account of the extreme cold. The braying, 
therefore, of the asses greatly distressed the 
Scythian horses, which as often as they attacked 
the Persians, pricked up their ears and ran 
back, equally disturbed by a noise which they 
bad never heard, and figures they had never seen : 
this was of some importance in the progress of 
hostilities. 

4 Answer of the Scythian.] — To bid a person weep, was 
a kind of proverbial form of wishing him ill ; thus Horace, 

Demetri, teque Tigelli 

Discipularum inter jubeo plorare cathedras. 
Afterwards, the answer of the Scythians became a pro- 
verb to express the same wish ; as was also the bidding 
a person eat onions. — See Diog. Laert. in the Life of Bias, 
and Erasmus in Scythariun oratio, and cepas edere. — T. 

5 Are produced iti Scythia.] — The Scythians neverthe- 
less, if Clemens Alexandrinus maybe believed, sacrificed 
asses ; but it is not improbable that he confounded this 
people with the Hyperboreans, as he adduces in proof of 
his assertion a verse from Callimachus, which obviously 
refers to this latter people. We are also informed by 
Pindar, that the Hyperboreans sacrificed hecatombs of 
asses to Apollo. — Lurcher. 



224 



HERODOTUS. 



CXXX. The Scythians, discovering that 
the Persians were in extreme perplexity, hoped 
that by detaining them longer in their country, 
they should finally reduce them to the utmost 
distress : with this view, they occasionally left 
exposed some of their cattle with their shepherds, 
and artfully retired ; of these, with much exul- 
tation, the Persians took possession. 

CXXXI. This was again and again repeat- 
ed ; Darius nevertheless became gradually in 
want of almost every necessary : the Scythian 
princes, knowing this, sent to him a messenger, 
with a bird, a mouse, a frog, and five arrows, 1 
as a present. The Persians inquired of the 
bearer, what these might mean ; but the man 
declared, that his orders were only to deliver 
them and return ; he advised them, however, 
to exert their sagacity, and interpret the mys- 
tery. 

C X X X 1 1. The Persian s accordingly held a 
consultation on the subject. Darius was of 
opinion, that the Scythians intended by this to 
express submission to him, and give him the 
earth and the water which he required. The 



: 1 A bird, a mouse, a frog, and five arrows.] — This na- 
turally brings to the mind of an Englishman a somewhat 
similar present, intended to irritate and provoke, best 
recorded and expressed by onr immortal Shakspeare. — 
See his Life of Henry the Fifth :— 

French Ambassador. Thus then, in few. 

Your highness lately sending into France, 
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right 
Of your great predecessor Edward the Third ; 
In answer of which claim, the prince our master 
Says, that you favour too much of your youth, 
And bids you be advised — There's nought in France 
That can be with a nimble galliard won, 
You cannot revel into dukedoms there; 
He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit, 
This tun of treasure, and in lieu of this 
Desires you, let the dukedoms that you claim 
Hear no more of you — Thus the Dauphin speaks. 

K. Henry. What treasure, unele ? 

Eaet. Tennis-balls, my liege. 

K. Henry. We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us : 
His present and your pains we thank you for. 
When we have matched our rackets to these balls, 
We will in France, by God's grace, play a set 
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard. 
Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler, 
That all the courts of France will be disturb'd 
With chaces. 

It may not be improper to remark,that of this enigmatical 
way of speaking and acting, the ancients appear to have 
been remarkably fond. In the Pythagorean school, the 
precept to abstain from beans, xvctftuv a.ntxi(r8a.i, involved 
the command of refraining from unlawful love ; and in 
an epigram imputed to Virgil, the letter Y intimated a 
systematic attachment to virtue j this may be found in 
Lactantius, book vi. c. iii. The act of Tarquin, in strik- 
ing off the heads from the tallest poppies in his garden, 
is sufficiently notorious ; and the fables of JEsop, and of 
Phaedrus may serve to prove that this partiality to alle- 
gory was not more universal than it was founded in a 
delicate and just conception of things.— T. 



mouse, as he explained it, was produced in the 
earth, and lived on the same food as man ; 
the frog was a native of the water ; the bird 
bore great resemblance to a horse ; 8 and in giv- 
ing the arrows they intimated the surrender of 
their power : this was the interpretation of 
Darius. Gobryas, however, one of the seven 
who had dethroned the magus, thus interpreted 
the presents : " Men of Persia, unless like 
birds ye shall mount into the air, like mice 
take refuge in the earth, or like frogs leap into 
the marshes, these arrows shall prevent the 
possibility of your return to the place from 
whence you came." This explanation was 
generally accepted. 

CXXXIII. That detachment of the Scy- 
thians who had before been intrusted with the 
defence of the Palus Maeotis, but who were 
afterwards sent to the Ionians at the Ister, 
no sooner arrived at the bridge, than they thus 
spake : " Men of Ionia, if you will but hearken 
to our words, we come to bring you liberty : 
we have been told, that Darius commanded you 
to guard this bridge for sixty days only ; if in 
that time he should not appear, you were per- 
mitted to return home. Do this, and you will 
neither disobey him nor offend us : stay, there- 
fore, till the time which he has appointed, and 
then depart." With this injunction the Ionians 
promising to comply, the Scythians instantly 
retired. 

CXXXI V. The rest of the Scythians, 
having sent the present to Darius which we 
have described, opposed themselves to him, 
both horse and foot, in order of battle. Whilst 
they were in this situation, a hare was seen in 
the space betwixt the two armies ; the Scythians 
immediately pursued it with loud cries. Da- 
rius, inquiring the cause of the tumult which 
he heard, was informed that the enemy were 
pursuing a hare ; upon this, turning to some of 
his confidential attendants, " These men," he 
exclaimed, " do indeed seem greatly to despise 
us ; and Gobryas has properly interpreted the 
Scythian presents : I am now of the same opin- 
ion myself, and it becomes us to exert all our 
sagacity to effect a safe return to the place from 
whence we came." "Indeed, Sir," answered Go- 
bryas, " I had before heard of the poverty of this 
people, I have now clearly seen it, and can 



2 To a horse.] — It is by no means easy to find out any 
resemblance which a bird bears to a horse, except, as 
Larcher observes, in swiftness, which is, however, very 
far-fetched.— T. 



MELPOMENE. 



225 



perceive that they hold us in extreme contempt. 
I would therefore advise, that as soon as the 
night sets in, we light our fires as usual j 3 and, 
farther to delude the enemy, let us tie all the 
asses together, and leave behind us the more 
infirm of our forces ; this done, let us retire, 
before the Scythians shall advance towards the 
Ister, and break down the bridge, or before the 
Ionians shall come to any resolution which may 
cause our ruin." 

CXXXV. Darius having acceded to this 
opinion of Gobryas, as soon as the evening 
approached, the more infirm of the troops, and 
those whose loss was deemed of little import- 
ance, were left behind ; all the asses also were 
secured together : the motive for this was, the 
expectation that the presence of those who 
remained would cause the asses to bray as 
usual. The sick and infirm were deserted, 
under the pretence, that whilst the king was 
marching with his best troops to engage the 
Scythians, they were to defend the camp. 
After circulating this report, the fires were 
lighted, and Darius with the greatest expedi- 
tion directed his march towards the Ister : the 
asses, missing the usual multitude, made so 
much the greater noise, by hearing which the 
Scythians were induced to believe that the 
Persians still continued in their camp. 

CXXXVI. When morning appeared, they 
who were left, perceiving themselves deserted 
by Darius, made signals to the Scythians, 
and explained their situation ; upon which in- 
telligence, the two divisions of the Scythians, 
forming a junction with the Sauromatae, the 
Budini, and Geloni, advanced towards the 
Ister, in pursuit of the Persians ; but as the 
Persian army consisted principally of foot, who 
were ignorant of the country, through which 
there were no regular paths ; and as the Scy- 
thians were chiefly horse, and perfectly ac- 
quainted with the ways, they mutually missed 
each other, and the Scythians arrived at the 
bridge much sooner than the Persians. Here, 
finding that the Persians were not yet come, 
they thus addressed the Ionians, who were on 
board their vessels : — " Ionians, the number of 

3 Fires as usual."] — This incident is related, with very 
little valuation, in the Stratagemata of Polyaenus, a book 
which I may venture to recommend to all young- stu- 
dents in Greek, from its entertaining matter, as well as 
from the easy elegance and purity of its style ; indeed I 
cannot help expressing my surprise, that it should not 
yet have found its way into our public schools : it might, 
I think, be read with much advantage as preparatory to 
Xenophon. — T. 



days is now past, and you do wrong in remain- 
ing here ; if motives of fear have hitherto detain- 
ed you, you may now break down the bridge, and 
having recovered your liberties, be thankful to 
the gods and to us : we will take care that he 
who was formerly your master, shall never again 
make war upon any one." 

CXXXVII. The Ionians being met in 
council upon this subject, Miltiades, the Athe- 
nian leader, and prince of the Chersonese, 4 on 
the Hellespont, was of opinion that the advice 
of the Scythians should be taken, and Ionia 
be thus relieved from servitude. Histiaeus, 
the Milesian, thought differently ; he repre- 
sented, that through Darius each of them now 
enjoyed the sovereignty of their several cities ; 
that if the power of Darius was once taken 
away, neither he himself should continue su- 
preme at Miletus, nor would any of them be 
able to retain their superiority I for it was evi- 
dent that all their fellow citizens would prefer 
a popular government to that of a tyrant. This 
argument appeared so forcible, that all they 
who had before assented to Miltiades, instantly 
adopted it. 

C XX XVIII. They who acceded to this 
opinion were also in great estimation with the 
king. Of the princes of the Hellespont, there 
were Daphnis of Abydos, Hippoclus of Lamp- 
sacus, 5 Herophantus of Parium, 6 Metrodorus 



4 Prince of the Chersonese.] — All these petty princes 
had imposed chains upon their country, and were only 
supported in their usurpations by the Persians, whose 
interest it was to prefer a despotic government to a de- 
mocracy; this last would have been much less obsequi- 
ous, and less prompt to obey their pleasure. — Lareher. 

5 Lampsacus.] — Lampsacus was first Called Pityusa, 
on the Asiatic shore, nearly opposite to Gallipoli ; this 
place was given to Themistocles, to furnish him with 
wine. Several great men amongst the ancients were 
natives of Lampsacus, and Epicurus lived here for some 
time. sPococke. 

From this place Priapus, who was here worshipped, 
took one of his names : 

Et te ruricola Lampsace tula dec— Ovid. 

and from hence Lampsacius was made to signify wanton ; 
see Martial, book ii. ep. 17. — 

Nam mea Lampsacio Iascivit pagina versu— T. 

6 Parium.]— Parium was built by the Milesians, Ery- 
threans, and the people of the isle of Paros ; it flourished 
much under the kings of Pergamus, of the race of At- 
talus, on account of the services this city did to that 
house. — Pococke. 

It has been disputed whether Archilochos, the cele- 
brated writer of iambics, was a native of this place, or 
of the island of Paros. Horace says, 

l'arios ego primus iambos 
Osteruli Latio, numeros animosquc sccutus 
Archiloc'.ii. 

2 F 



226 



HERODOTUS. 



the Proconnesian, 1 Aristagoras of Cyzicum, 
and Ariston the Byzantian.' Amongst the 
Ionian leaders were Stratias of Chios, iEacides 
of Samos, Laodamas the Phocean, and His- 
tiseus the Milesian, whose opinion prevailed in 
the assembly, in opposition to that of Miltia- 
des : the only iEolian of consequence who was 
present on this occasion, was Aristagoras of 
Cyme. 

C XXXIX. These leaders, acceding to the 
opinion of Histiseus, thought it would be ad- 
visable to break down that part of the bridge 
which was towards Scythia, to the extent of 
a bow-shot. This, although it was of no real 
importance, would prevent the Scythians from 
passing the Ister on the bridge, and might in- 
duce them to believe that no inclination was 
wanting on the part of the Ionian s, to comply 
with their wishes : accordingly, in the name of 
the rest, Histiasus thus addressed them : " Men 
of Scythia, we consider your advice as of con- 
sequence to our interest, and we take in good 
part your urging it upon us. You have shown 
us the path which we ought to pursue, and we 
are readily disposed to follow it; we shall 
break down the bridge as you recommend, and 
in all things shall discover the most earnest zeal 
to secure our liberties : in the meantime, whilst 
we shall be thus employed, it becomes you to 
go in pursuit of the enemy, and having found 
them, revenge yourselves and us." 

CXL. The Scythians, placing an entire 
confidence in the promises of the Ionians, re- 
turned to the pursuit of the Persians ; they 
did not, however, find them, for in that parti- 
cular district they themselves had destroyed all 
the fodder for the horses, and corrupted all the 
springs ; they might otherwise easily have found 
the Persians; and thus it happened, that the 

lMetrodorus the Proconnesian.'} — This personage must 
not be confounded with the celebrated philosopher of 
Chios, who asserted the eternity of the world. The 
ancients make mention of the old and new Proconnesus ; 
the new Proconnesus is now called Marmora, the old is 
the island of Alonia 

2 Ariston the By <zantian.~\— This is well known to be 
the modern Constantinople, and has been too often and 
too correctly described to require any thing from my pen. 
Its situation was perhaps never better expressed, than 
in these two lines from Ovid : 

Quaque tenent ponti Byzantia littora fauces 
Hie locus est gemini janua vasta maris. 

This city was originally founded by Byzas, a reputed 
son of Neptune, 656 years before Christ. Perhaps the 
most minute and satisfactory account of every thing re- 
lating to Byzantium, may be found in Mr Gibbon's his- 
tory.— T. 



measure which at first promised them success 
became ultimately injurious. They directed 
their march to those parts of Scythia where 
they were secure of water and provisions for 
their horses, thinking themselves certain of 
here meeting with the enemy ; but the Persian 
prince, following the track he had before pur- 
sued, found, though with the greatest difficulty, 
the place he aimed at : arriving at the bridge by 
night, and finding it broken down, he was ex- 
ceedingly disheartened, and conceived himself 
abandoned by the Ionians. 

CXL I. There was in the army of Darius an 
Egyptian, very remarkable for the loudness of 
his voice •. 3 this man Darius ordered to advance 
to the banks of the Ister, and to pronounce 
with all his strength the name of " Histiaeus 
the Milesian :" Histiseus immediately heard 
him, and approaching with all the fleet, enabled 
the Persians to repass, by again forming a 
bridge. 

CXL 1 1. By these means the Persians es- 
caped, whilst the Scythians were a second time 
engaged in a long and fruitless pursuit. From 
this period the Scythians considered the Ionians 
as the basest and most contemptible of man- 
kind, speaking of them as men attached to 
servitude, and incapable of freedom ; and always 
using towards them the most reproachful 
terms. 

CXL III. Darius proceeding through Thrace, 
arrived at Sestos of the Chersonese, from 
whence he passed over into Asia: he left, 
however, some troops in Europe, under the 

3 Loudness of his voice."] — By the use here made of 
this Egyptian, and the particular mention of Stentor in 
the Iliad, it may be presumed that it was a customary 
tiling for one or more such personages to be present on 
every military expedition. At the present day, perhaps 
we may feel ourselves inclined to dispute the utility, or 
ridicule the appearance of such a character ; but before 
the invention of artillery, and when the firm but silent 
discipline of the ancients, and of the Greeks in particular, 
is considered, such men might occasionally exert their 
talents with no despicable effect. 

Heaven's empress mingles with the mortal crowd, 
And shouts in Stentor's sounding voice aloud ; 
Stentor the strong, endued with brazen lungs, 
Whose throat surpass'd the force of fifty tongues. 

The shouting of Achilles from the Grecian battlements, 
is represented to have had the power of impressing ter 
ror on the hearts of the boldest warriors, and of suspend- 
ing a tumultuous and hard fought battle 

Forth march'd the chief, and distant from the crowd 
High on the rampart raised his voice aloud ; 
With her own shout Minerva swells the sound ; 
Troy starts astonUh'd, and the shores rebound ; 
So high his brazen voice the hero rear'd, 
Hosts drop their arms, and tremble as they heard. 



MELPOMENE. 



227 



command of Megabyzus, 4 a Persian, of whom 
it is reported, that one day in conversation the 
king spoke in terms of the highest honour. — 
He was about to eat some pomegranates, and 
having opened one, he was asked by his brother 
Artabanus, what thing there was which he 
would desire to possess in as great a quantity 
as there were seeds in the pomegranate ? 5 " I 
would rather," he replied, " have so many Me- 
gabyzi, than see Greece under my power." 
This compliment he paid him publicly, and at 
this time he left him at the head of eighty 
thousand men. 

CXLIV. This same person also, for a say- 
ing which I shall relate, left behind him in the 
Hellespont a name never to be forgotten. Be- 
ing at Byzantium, he learned upon inquiry that 
the Chalcedonians 6 had built their city seven- 
teen years before the Byzantians had founded 
theirs : he observed, that the Chalcedonians 
must then have been blind, — or otherwise, hav- 
ing the choice of a situation in all respects 
better, they would never have preferred one so 
very inferior. Megabyzus being thus left with 
the command of the Hellespont, reduced all 
those who were in opposition to the Medes. 7 

CXLV. About the same time another great 
expedition was set on foot in Libya, the occa- 
sion of which I shall relate : it will be first ne- 
cessary to premise this : — The posterity of the 
Argonauts 8 having been expelled from Lemnos, 
by the Pelasgians, who had carried off from 
Brauron, some Athenian women, sailed to La- 
cedaemon ; they disembarked at Taygetus, 9 

4 Megabyzus.] — The text reads Megabazus, Herodo- 
tus elsewhere says Megabyzus, which is supported by 
the manuscripts. — T. 

5 Seeds in ffie pomegranate.]— Plutarch relates this in- 
cident in his apothegms of kings and illustrious generals, 
but applies it to Zopyrus, who by mangling his nose, 
and cutting off his ears, made himself master of Babylon. 
— T. 

Tfie Chalcedonians.] — The promontory on which the 
ancient Chalcedon stood, is a very fine situation, being a 
gentle rising ground from the sea, with which it is al- 
most bounded on three sides ; further on the east side of 
it, is a small river which falls into the little bay to the 
south, that seems to have been their port ; so that Chal- 
cedon would be esteemed a most delightful situation, if 
Constantinople was not so near it, which is indeed more 
advantageously situated. — Pococke. 

7 The Medes.]— Herodotus, and the greater part of 
the ancient writers, almost always comprehend the 
Persians under the name of Medes. Claudian says, 

Remige Mcdo 
Sollicitatus Athos. — Larchcr. 

8 Posterity of the Argonauts.] — An account of this 
incident, with many variations and additions, is to be 
found in Plutarch's Treatise on the Virtues of Women. 

9 Taygetus.] — This was a very celebrated mountain of 



where they made a great fire. The Lacedee- 
monians perceiving this, sent to inquire of them 
who and whence they were ; they returned for 
answer that they were Minyae, descendants of 
those heroes who, passing the ocean in the 
Argo, settled in Lemnos, and there begot them. 
— When the Lacedaemonians heard this account 
of their descent, they sent a second messenger, 
inquiring what was the meaning of the fire 
they had made, and what their intentions by 
coming among them. Their reply was to this 
effect, that being expelled by the Pelasgians, 
they had returned, as was reasonable, to the 
country of their ancestors, and were desirous to 
fix their residence with them, as partakers of 
their lands and honours. The Lacedaemonians 
expressed themselves willing to receive them 
upon their own terms ; and they were induced 
to this as well from other considerations, as 
because the Tyndaridae'°had sailed in the Argo; 
they accordingly admitted the Minyae among 
them, assigned them lands, and distributed 
them among their tribes. The Minyae in re- 
turn parted with the women whom they had 
brought from Lemnos, and connected them- 
selves in marriage with others. 

CXLVI. In a very short time these Minyae 
became distinguished for their intemperance, 
making themselves not only dangerous from 
their ambition, but odious by their vices. The 
Lacedaemonians conceived their enormities 
worthy of death, and accordingly cast them in- 
to prison : it is to be remarked, that this peo- 
ple always inflict capital punishments by night, 
never by day. When things were in this situ- 
ation, the wives of the prisoners, who were 
natives of the country, and the daughters of 
the principal citizens, solicited permission tc 
visit their husbands in confinement ; as no 
stratagem was suspected, this was granted. 
The wives of the Minyae" accordingly entered 



antiquity ; it was sacred to Bacchus, for here, according 
to Virgil, the Spartan virgins acted the Bacchanal in his 
honour : — 

Virginibus Bacchata Lacoenis 
Taygeta. 

Its dogs are also mentioned by Virgil,— Taygetique ca- 
nes; though perhaps this may poetically be used for 
Spartan dogs. — T. 

10 Tyndaridce.] — Castor and Pollux, so called from 
Tyndarus, the husband of their mother Leda. — T. 

1 1 The wives of the Minyce.] — This story is related at 
some length by Valerius Maximus, book iv. chap. (5, in 
which he treats of conjugal affection. The same author 
tells us of Hipsicratea, the beloved wife of Mithridates, 
who to gratify her husband, assumed and constantly wore 
the habit of a man.— T. 



228 



HERODOTUS. 



the prison, and exchanged dresses with their 
husbands : by this artifice they effected their 
escape, and again took refuge on Taygetus. 

C XL VII. It was about this time that 
Theras, 1 the son of Autesion, was sent from 
Lacedaemon to establish a colony : Autesion 
was the son of Tisamenus, grandson of Ther- 
sander, great-grandson of Polynices. This 
Theras was of the Cadmean family, uncle of 
Eurysthenes and Procles, the sons of Aristo- 
demus : during the minority of his nephews 
the regency of Sparta was confided to him. 
When his sister's sons grew up, and he was ob- 
liged to resign his power, he was little inclined 
to acknowledge superiority where he had been 
accustomed to exercise it ; he therefore refused 
to remain in Sparta, but determined to join his 
relations. In the island now called Thera, but 
formerly Callista, the posterity of Membliares, 
son of Poeciles s the Phenician, resided j to this 
place Cadmus, son of Agenor, was driven, 
when in search of Europa ; and either from 
partiality to the country, or from prejudice of 
one kind or other, be left there, among other 
Phenicians, Membliares a his relation. These 
men inhabited the island of Callista eight years 
before Theras arrived from Lacedsemon. 

CXLVIII. To this people Theras came, 
with a select number from the different Spartan 
tribes : he had no hostile views, but a sincere wish 
to dwell with them on terms of amity. The 
Minyse having escaped from prison, and taken 
refuge on mount Taygetus, the Lacedaemonians 
were still determined to put them to death; 
Theras, however, interceded in their behalf, 
and engaged to prevail on them to quit their si- 
tuation. His proposal was accepted, and accord- 



1 Theras.]— This personage was the sixth descendant 
from GEdipus, and the tenth from Cadmus.— See Calli- 
machus, Hymn to Apollo, v. 6. 

2 Pceciles.2 — M. Larcher makes no scruple of trans- 
lating this Procles ; and in a very elaborate note at- 
tempts to establish Ms opinion, that this must be an abbre- 
viation for Patrocles ; but as, by the confession of this in- 
genious and learned Frenchman, the authorities of Hero- 
dotus, Pausanias, Apollodorus, and Porphyry, are against 
the reading, even of Procles for Poeciles, it has too much 
the appearance of sacrificing plain sense and probability at 
the shrines of prejudice and system, for me to adopt it 
without any thing like conviction. — T. 

3 Membliares.]— Pausanias differs from Herodotus in 
his account of the descent of Membliares ; he represents 
him as a man of very mean origin : to mark these little 
deviations, may not perhaps be of consequence to the gen- 
erality of English readers, but none surely will be dis- 
pleased at being informed, where, if they think proper, 
they may compare what different authors have said upon 
the same 6ubjcct. — T. 



ingly with three vessels of thirty oars, he sailed 
to join the descendants of Membliares, taking 
with him only a small number of the Minyse. 
The far greater part of them had made an at- 
tack upon the Paroreatse, and the Caucons, and 
expelled them from their country ; dividing 
themselves afterwards into six bodies, they built 
the same number of towns, namely, Lepreus, 
Magistus, Thrixas, Pyrgus, Epius, and Nudi- 
us : of these, the greater part have in my time 
been destroyed by the Eleans. — The island be- 
fore mentioned is called Theras, from the name 
of its founder. 

CXLIX. The son of Theras refusing to 
sail with him, his father left him, as he himself 
observed, a sheep amongst wolves ; from which 
saying the young man got the name of Oioly- 
cus, which he ever afterwards retained. Oiolycus 
had a son named iEgeus, who gave his name to 
the iEgidae, a considerable Spartan tribe, who, 
finding themselves in danger of leaving no pos- 
terity behind them, built, by the direction of 
the oracle, a shrine to the Furies 4 of Laius and 

4 The Furies.— With a view to the information and 
amusement of the English reader, I subjoin a few par- 
ticulars concerning the furies. 

They were three in number, the daughters of Night and 
Acheron: some have added a fourth ; their names, 
Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megsera ; their residence in the 
infernal regions ; their office to torment the wicked. 

They were worshipped at Athens, and first of all by 
Orestes, when acquitted by the Areopagites of matricide. 
JEschylus was the first person who represented them as 
having snakes instead of hair. Their name in heaven 
was Dirae, from the Greek word £uvai, transposing? for 
v : on earth they were called Furiae and Eumenides ; 
their name in the regions below was Stygiae Canes. The 
ancient authors, both Greek and Latin, abound with 
passages descriptive of their attributes and influence : the 
following animated apostrophe to them is from iEschy- 
lus.— Mr Potter's version : 

See this grissly troop, 
Sleep has oppress'd them, and their baffled rage 
Shall fail.— Grim -visaged hags, grown old 
In loathed virginity : nor god nor man 
Approach'd their bed, nor savage of the wilds ; 
For they were born for mischiefs, and their haunts 
In dreary darkness, 'midst the yawning gulfs 
Of Tartarus beneath, by men abhorr'd, 
And by the Olympian gods. 
After giving the above quotation from JEschylus, it 
may not be unnecessary to add, that the three whom I 
have specified by name, were only the three principal, or 
supreme of many furies. Here the furies of Laius and 
CEdipus are mentioned, because particular furies were, 
as it seems, supposed ready to avenge the murder of 
every individual; 

Thee may th' Erinnys of thy-sons destroy. 

Eurip. Medea. Potter, 152.". 

Or the manes themselves became furies for that purpose : 
Their shades shall pour their vengeance on thy head. 

lb. 1503. 
Orestes in his madness calls Electra one of liis furies ; 
that is, one of those which attended to torment liim : 



MELPOMEN E. 



229 



(Edipus ; this succeeded to their wish. A cir- 
cumstance similar to this happened afterwards 
in the island of Thera, to the descendants of 
this tribe. 

CL. Thus far the accounts of the Lacedae- 
monians and Thereans agree ; what follows, is 
related on the authority of the latter only : — 
Grinus, son of iEsanias, and descended from 
the above Theras, was prince of the island ; he 
went to Delphi, carrying with him a hecatomb 
for sacrifice, and accompanied, amongst others 
of his citizens, by Battus, the son of Polym- 
nestus, of the family of Euthymus a Minyan ; 
Grinus, consulting the oracle about something 
of a different nature, was commanded by the 
Pythian to build a city in Libya. " I," replied 
the prince, "am too old and too infirm for such 
an undertaking ; suffer it to devolve on some 
of these younger persons who accompany me ;" 
at the same time he pointed to Battus. On 
their return they paid no regard to the in- 
junction of the oracle, being both ignorant of 
the situation of Libya, and not caring to, send 
from them a colony on so precarious an adven- 
ture, 

CLI. For seven years after the above event, 
it never rained in Thera ; in consequence of 
which every tree in the place perished, except 
one. The inhabitants consulted the oracle, 
when the sending a colony to Libya was again 
recommended by the Pythian : as therefore no 
alternative remained, they sent some emissaries 
into Crete, to inquire whether any of the natives 
or strangers residing amongst them had ever 
visited Libya. The persons employed on this 
occasion, after going over the whole island, came 
at length to the city Itanus, 5 where they became 
acquainted with a certain dyer of purple, whose 
name was Corobius ; this man informed them, 
that he was once driven by contrary winds into 
Libya, and had landed there, on the island of 
Platea ; they therefore bargained with him for 
a certain sum, to accompany them to Thera. 
Very few were induced to leave Thera upon 
this business ; they who did go were conducted 
by Corobius, who was left upon the island he 



Off, let me go: I know thee who thou art, 
One of my furies, and thou grapplest with me, 

To whirl me into Tartarus A vaunt! 

Orestes, 270. 

It stands at present in the version the furies; which is 
wrong. 

r> Ilanus.] — Some of the dictionaries Inform us, that 
this place is now called Paleo-Castro ; but Savary, in his 
Letters oil Greece, remarks, that the modern Greeks 
give this name to all ancient places.— T, 



had described, with provisions for some months; 
the rest of the party made their way back by sea 
as expeditiously as possible, to acquaint the 
Thereans with the event, 

CLII. By their omitting to return at the 
time appointed, Corobius was reduced to the 
greatest distress ; it happened, however, that a 
Samian vessel, whose commander's name was 
Cokeus, was, in its course towards Egypt, driven 
upon the island of Platea; these Samians, 
hearing the story of Corobius, left him provi- 
sions for a twelvemonth. On leaving this 
island, with a wish to go to Egypt, the winds 
compelled them to take their course westward, 
and continuing without intermission, carried 
them beyond the Columns of Hercules, till, as 
it should seem by somewhat more than hu- 
man interposition, they arrived at Tartessus. 6 
As this was a port then but little known, their 
voyage ultimately proved very advantageous ; so 
that, excepting Sostrates, with whom there can 
be no competition, no Greeks were ever before 
so fortunate in any commercial undertaking. 
With six talents, which was a tenth part of 
what they gained, the Samians made a brazen 
vase, in the shape of an Argolic goblet, round 
the brim of which the heads of griffins 7 were 
regularly disposed : this was deposited in the 
temple of Juno, where it is supported by three 
colossal figures, seven cubits high, resting on 
their knees. This was the first occasion of the 
particular intimacy, which afterwards subsisted 
between the Samians and the people of Cyrene 
and Thera. 

CLIII. The Thereans, having left Coro- 
bius behind, returned, and informed their coun- 
trymen that they had made a settlement in an 
island belonging to Libya : they, in consequence, 
determined that from each of their seven cities 
a select number should be sent, and that if these 
happened to be brothers, it should be deter- 
mined by lot who should go ; and that finally, 



6 Tartessus.] — This place is called by Ptolemy, Cartela, 
and is seen in D'Anville's maps under that name, at the 
entrance of the Mediterranean : mention is made in Ovid 
of Tartessia litora — T. 

1 Griffins.] — In a former note upon this word I ne- 
glected to inform the reader, that in Sir Thomas Brown's 
Vulgar Errors there is a chapter 1 upon the subject of 
griffins, very curious and entertaining, p. 1 12. This au- 
thor satisfactorily explains the Greek word T^u-^, or 
Gryps, to mean no more than a particular kind of eagle 
or vulture : being compounded of a lion and an eagle, it 
is a happy emblem of valour and magnanimity, and there- 
fore applicable to princes, generals, ccc. ; and from this 
it is borne in the coat of arms of many noble families in 
Europe.— T. 



230 



HERODOTUS. 



Battus should be their prince and leader : they 
sent accordingly to Platea two ships of fifty 
oars. 

CLIV. With this account, as given by the 
Thereans, the Cyreneans agree, except in what 
relates to Battus ; here they differ exceedingly, 
and tell, in contradiction, the following history: 
— There is a town in Crete, named Oaxus, 
where Etearchus was once king ; having lost 
his wife, by whom he had a daughter, called 
Phronima, he married a second time : no sooner 
did his last wife take possession of his house, 
than she proved herself to Phronima a real step- 
mother. Not content with injuring her by 
every species of cruelty and ill-treatment, she 
at length upbraided her with being unchaste, 
and persuaded her husband to believe so. 
Deluded by the artifice of his wife, he perpe- 
trated the following act of barbarity against his 
daughter : there was at Oaxus a merchant of 
Thera, whose name was Themison ; of him, 
after showing him the usual rites of hospitality, 
he exacted an oath that he would comply with 
whatever he should require ; having done this, 
he delivered him his daughter, ordering him to 
throw her into the sea. Themison reflected 
with unfeigned sorrow on the artifice which had 
been practised upon him, and the obligation 
imposed ; he determined, however, what to do : 
he took the damsel, and having sailed to some 
distance from land, to fulfil his oath, secured a 
rope about her, and plunged her into the sea ; 
but he immediately took her out again, and car- 
ried her to Thera. 

CL V. Here Polymnestus, a Thereanof some 
importance, took Phronima to be his concubine, 
and after a certain time had by her a son, remark- 
able for his shrill and stammering voice : his 
name, as the Thereans and Cyreneans assert, 
was Battus, 1 but I think it was something else. 
He was not, I think, called Battus till after his 
arriyal in Libya ; he was then so named, either 
on account of the answer of the oracle, or from 
the subsequent dignity which he attained. 
Battus, in the Libyan tongue, signifies a prince ; 
and I should think that the Pythian, foreseeing 

1 Battus.] — Battus, according to Hesychius, also signi- 
fies, in the Libyan tongue, a king : from this person, and 
Ms defect of pronunciation, comes, according to Suidas, 
the word B«tt«£/&/v, to stammer. There was also an 
ancient foolish poet of this name, from whom, according 
to the same authority, BacrToXoyix, signified an unmeaning 
redundance of expression. Neither must the Battus here 
mentioned be confounded with the Battus whom Mercury 
turned into a direction- post, and whose story is so well 
told by Ovid— T. 



he was to reign in Libya, distinguished him by 
this African title. As soon as he grew up he 
went to Delphi, to consult the oracle concerning 
the imperfection of his voice : the answer he 
received was this : 

Hence, Battus ! of your voice inquire no more ; 
But found a city on the Libyan shore. 

This is the same as if she had said in Greek, 
" Inquire no more, O king, concerning your 
voice." To this Battus replied, " O king, I 
came to you on account of my infirmity of 
tongue ; you in return, impose upon me an under- 
taking which is impossible : for how can I, who 
have neither forces nor money, establish a colony 
in Libya?" He could not, however, obtain 
any other answer, which, when he found to be 
the case, he returned to Thera. 

CLVI. Not long afterwards, he, with the 
rest of the Thereans, were visited by many and 
great calamities ; and not knowing to what cause 
they should impute them, they sent to Delphi, 
to consult the oracle on the subject. The 
Pythian informed them, that if they would col- 
onize Cyrene in Libya, under the conduct of 
Battus, things would certainly go better with 
them : they accordingly despatched Battus to 
accomplish this, with two fifty-oared vessels. 
These men acting from compulsion, set sail 
for Libya, but soon returned to Thera ; but the 
Thereans forcibly preventing their landing, 
ordered them to return from whence they came. 
Thus circumstanced, they again set sail, and 
founded a city in an island contiguous to Libya, 
called, as we have before remarked, Platea ; 2 this 
city is said to be equal in size to that in which 
the Cyreneans now reside. 

CLVII. They continued in this place for 
the space of two years, but finding their ill for- 
tune still pursue them, they again sailed to 
Delphi to inquire of the oracle, leaving only 
one of their party behind them : when they 
desired to know why, having established them- 
selves in Libya, they had experienced no favour- 
able reverse of fortune, the Pythian made them 
this answer : — 

Know'st thou then Libya better than the god, 
Whose fertile shores thy feet have never trod ? 



2 Platea.] — This name is written also Plataea : Stepha- 
nus Byzantinus has it both in that form, and also Platea 
or Plateia. Pliny speaks of three Plateas and a Plate 
off the coast of Troas ; but they must have been very 
inconsiderable spots, and have not been mentioned by any 
other author. The best editions of Herodotus read Platea 
here ; but I suspect Plateia to be right, for Scylax has it 
so as well as Stephanus. — The place of the celebrated 
battle in Boeotia was Platseae 



MELPOMENE. 



231 



He who has well explored them thus replies ; 
I can but wonder at a man so wise ! 

On hearing this, Battus, and they who were 
with him, again returned ; for the deity still 
persevered in requiring them to form a settle- 
ment in Libya, where they had not yet been : 
touching, therefore, at Platea, they took on 
board him whom they had left, and established 
their colony in Libya itself. The place they 
selected was Aziris, immediately opposite to 
where they had before resided; two sides of 
which were inclosed by a beautiful range of hills, 
and a third agreeably watered by a river. 

CLVIII. At this place they continued six 
years ; when at the desire of the Libyans, who 
promised to conduct them to a better situation, 
they removed. The Libyans accordingly became 
their guides, and had so concerted the matter, 
as to take care that the Greeks should pass 
through the most beautiful part of their country 
by night : the direction they took was westward, 
the name of the country they were not permitted 
to see was Irasa. s — They came at length to what 
js called the fountain of Apollo: 4 — " Men of 
Greece," said the Libyans, " the heavens are 
here opened to you, and here it will be proper 
for you to reside." 

CLIX. During the life of Battus, who 
reigned forty years, and under Arcesilaus his 
son, who reigned sixteen, the Cyreneans re- 
mained in this colony without any alteration 
with respect to their numbers : but under their 
third prince, who was also called Battus, and 
who was surnamed the Happy, the Pythian, by 
her declarations, excited a general propensity in 
the Greeks to migrate to Libya, and join them- 
selves to the Cyreneans. The Cyreneans, indeed, 
had invited them to a share of their possessions, 
but the oracle had also thus expressed itself : 

Who seeks not Libya till the lands are shared, 

Let him for sad repentance be prepared. 
The Greeks, therefore, in great numbers, set- 
tled themselves at Cyrene. The neighbouring 
Libyans with their king Adicran, seeing them- 

3 Irasa.]— The reader is referred to the following note 
of Jortin on this place : 

Milton writes it Irassa: 

As when earth's son, Antaeus (to compare 
Small things with greatest) in Irassa strove 
With Jove's Alcides. 
Pindar mentions this place, Pith. ix. but he writes it 
with a double s. In Herodotus, Irasa is the name of a 
place ; in Pindar, and his scholiast, the name of a town. 

4 Fountain of Apollo.] — The name of this fountain waa 
Cyre, from which the town of Cyrene had afterwards its 
name. Herodotus calls it, in the subsequent paragraph, 
Thestis ; but there were probably many fountains in this 
place. — Larcher. 



selves injuriously deprived of a considerable 
part of their lands, and exposed to much insult- 
ing treatment, made a tender of themselves and 
their country to A pries, sovereign of Egypt: 
this prince assembled a numerous army of 
Egyptians, and sent them to attack Cyrene. 
The Cyreneans drew themselves up at Irasa, 
near the fountain Thestis, and in a fixed battle 
routed the Egyptians, who, till now, from their 
ignorance, had despised the Grecian power. 
The battle was so decisive, that very few of the 
Egyptians returned to their country ; they were 
on this account so exasperated against Apries, 
that they revolted from his authority. 

CLX. Arcesilaus, the son of this Battus, 
succeeded to the throne ; he was at first engag- 
ed in some contest with his brothers, but they 
removed themselves from him to another part 
of Libya, where, after some deliberation, they 
founded a city. They called it Barce, which 
name it still retains. Whilst they were employed 
upon this business, they endeavoured to excite 
the Libyans against the Cyreneans. Arcesilaus 
without hesitation commenced hostilities both 
against those who had revolted from him, 
and against the Africans who had received 
them; intimidated by which, these latter fled 
to their countrymen, who were situated more 
to the east. Arcesilaus persevered in pursuing 
them till he arrived at Leucon, and here the 
Libyans discovered an inclination to try the 
event of a battle. They accordingly engaged, 
and the Cyreneans were so effectually routed, 
that seven thousand of their men in arms fell in 
the field. Arcesilaus, after this calamity, fell 
sick, and was strangled by his brother Aliar- 
chusj whilst in the act of taking some medicine. 
The wife of Arcesilaus, whose name was 
Eryxo, 5 revenged by some stratagem on his 
murderer, the death of her husband. 

CLXI. Arcesilaus was succeeded in his 
authority by his son Battus, a boy who was 
lame, and had otherwise an infirmity in his feet. 
The Cyreneans, afflicted by their recent cala- 
mities, sent to Delphi, desiring to know what 
system of life would most effectually secure 
their tranquillity. The Pythian in reply, re- 
commended them to procure from Mantinea? 

5 Eryxo.'] — The story is related at coneiderable length 
by Plutarch, in his treatise on the Virtues of Women. 
Instead of Aliarchus, he reads Learchus ; the woman he 
calls Eryxene ; and the murderer he supposes to have 
been not the brother, but the friend of Arcesilaus.— T. 

6 Mantinea.]— This place became celebrated by the 
death of Epaminondas, the great Theban general, who 
was here slain. — T. 



V6V 



HERODOTUS. 



in Arcadia, some one to compute their distur- 
bances. Accordingly, at the request of the 
Cyreneans, the Mantineans sent them Demon- 
ax, a man who enjoyed the universal esteem of 
his countrymen. Arriving at Cyrene, his first 
care was to make himself acquainted with their 
affairs ; he then divided the people into three 
distinct tribes : the first comprehended the 
Thereans and their neighbours ; the second 
the Peloponnesians and Cretans ; the third all 
the inhabitants of the islands. He assigned a 
certain portion of land, with some distinct pri- 
vileges, to Battus ; but all the other advantages 
which the kings had before arrogated to them- 
selves, he gave to the power of the people. 

CLXII. Things remained in this situation 
during the life of Battus : but in the time of 
his son, an ambitious struggle for power was 
the occasion of great disturbances. Arcesilaus, 
son of the lame Battus, by Pheretime, refused 
to submit to the regulations of Demonax the 
Mantinean, and demanded to be restored to 
the dignity of his ancestors. A great tumult 
was excited, but the consequence was, that 
Arcesilaus was compelled to take refuge at 
Samos, whilst his mother Pheretime fled to 
Salamis in Cyprus. Euelthon had at this time 
the government of Salamis : the same person 
who dedicated at Delphi a most beautiful cen- 
ser, now deposited in the Corinthian treasury. 
To him Pheretime made application, entreating 
him to lead an army against Cyrene, for the 
purpose of restoring her and her son. He made 
her many presents, but refused to assist her 
with an army. Pheretime accepted his liber- 
ality with thanks, but endeavoured to convince 
him that his assisting her with forces would be 
much more honourable. Upon her persevering 
in this request, after every present she received, 
Euelthon was at length induced to send her a 
gold spindle, and a distaff with wool ; observing, 
that for a woman this was a more suitable pre- 
sent than an army. 

CLXIII. In the meantime Arcesilaus was 
indefatigable at Samos ; by promising a division 
of lands he assembled a numerous army : he 
then sailed to Delphi, to make inquiry concern- 
ing the event of his return. The Pythian 
made him this answer : " To four Batti, 1 and 

1 To foitr Batti, .] — According to the scholiast on Pin- 
dar, the Battiades reigned at Cyrene for the space of two 
hundred years. Battus, son of the last of these, endea- 
voured to assume the government, but the Cyreneans 
drove him from their country, and he retired to the Hes- 
perides, where he finished his days. — Larcher. 



to as many of the name of Arcesilaus, Apollo 
has granted the dominion of Cyrene. Beyona 
these eight generations the deity forbids even 
the attempt to reign : to you it is recommended 
to return, and live tranquilly at home. If you 
happen to find a furnace filled with earthen 
vessels, do not suffer them to be baked, but 
throw them into the air : if you set fire to the 
furnace, beware of entering a place surrounded 
by water. If you disregard this injunction, 
you will perish yourself, as will also a very 
beautiful bull." 

CLXIV. The Pythian made this reply to 
Arcesilaus: he, however, returned to Cyrene 
with the forces he had raised at Samos ; and 
having recovered his authority, thought no more 
of the oracle. He proceeded to institute a 
persecution against those who, taking up arms 
against him, had compelled him to fly. Some 
of these sought and found a refuge in exile, 
others were taken into custody and sent to 
Cyprus, to undergo the punishment of death. 
These the Cnidians delivered, for they touched 
at their island in their passage, and they were 
afterwards transported to Thera : a number of 
them fled to a large tower, the property of an 
individual named Aglomachus, but Arcesilaus 
destroyed them, tower and all, by fire. No 
sooner had he perpetrated this deed than he 
remembered the declaration of the oracle, which 
forbade him to set fire to a furnace filled with 
earthen vessels : fearing therefore to suffer for 
what he had done, he retired from Cyrene, 
which place he considered as surrounded by 
water. He had married a relation, the daugh- 
ter of Alazir, king of Barce, to him therefore 
he went : but upon his appearing in public, the 
Barceans, in conjunction with some Cyrenean 
fugitives, put him to death, together with 
Alazir his father-in-law. Such was the fate 
of Arcesilaus, he having, designedly or from 
accident, violated the injunctions of the oracle. 

CLXV. Whilst the son was thus hastening 
his destiny at Barce, Pheretime, 8 his mother, 
enjoyed at Cyrene the supreme authority : and 
amongst other regal acts presided in the senate. 
But as soon] as she received intelligence of 
the death of Arcesilaus, she sought refuge in 
Egypt. Her son had some claims upon the 
liberality of Cambyses, son of Cyrus ; he had 
delivered Cyrene into his power, and paid him 
tribute. On her arrival in Egypt, she present- 



2 Pheretime.]— See this story well related in the Stra- 
tagemata of Polyaenus, book viii. c. 47 



MELPOMEN E. 



233 



ed herself before Aryandes in the character of 
a suppliant, and besought him to revenge her 
cause, pretending that her son had lost his life, 
merely on account of his attachment to the 
Medes. 

CLXVI. This Aryandes had been appoint- 
ed prefect of Egypt by Cambyses ; but after- 
wards, presuming to rival Darius, he was by 
him put to death. He had heard, and indeed 
he had seen, that Darius was desirous to leave 
some monument of himself, which should ex- 
ceed all the efforts of his predecessors. He 
thought proper to attempt somewhat similar, 
but it cost him his life. — Darius had issued a 
coin 8 of the very purest gold : the praefect of 
Egypt issued one of the purest silver, and. 
called it an Aryandic. It may still be seen, 
and is much admired for its purity. Darius 
hearing of this, condemned him to death, pre- 
tending that he rebelled against him. 

CLXVIL At this time Aryandes, taking 
compassion on Pheretime, delivered to her 
command all the land and sea forces of Egypt. 
To Amasis, a Maraphian, he intrusted the 
conduct of the army; and Badre, a Pasar- 
gadian 4 by birth, had the direction of the fleet. 

3 Darius had issued a coin.']—" About the same time 
seem to have been coined these famous pieces of gold 
called Danes, which by reason of their fineness were for 
several ages preferred before all, other coin throughout 
the east ; for we are told that the author of this coin 
was not Darius Hystaspes, as some have imagined, but 
a more ancient Darius. But there is no ancienter Darius 
mentioned to have reigned in the east, excepting only 
this Darius whom the Scripture calls Darius the Me- 
dian ; and therefore it is most likely he was the au- 
thor of this coin, and that during the two years that he 
reigned at Babylon, while Cyrus was absent on his 
Syrian, Egyptian, and other expeditions, he caused it to 
be made there out of the vast quantity of gold winch 
had been brought thither into the treasury ; from hence 
it became dispersed all over the east, and also into Greece, 
where it was of great reputation ; according to Dr 
Bernard, it weighed two grains more than one of our 
guineas, but the fineness added much more to its value ; 
for it was in a manner all of pure gold, having none, 
or at least very little alloy in it ; and therefore may be 
well reckoned, as the proportion of gold and silver now 
stands with us, to be worth twenty-five shillings of our 
money. In those parts of the Scripture which were 
written after the Babylonish captivity, these pieces are 
mentioned by the name of Adarkonim; and in the 
Talmudists, by the name of Darkoneth, both from the 
Greek Aaguzoi, Darics. And it is to be observed, that 
all those pieces of gold which were afterwards coined of 
the same weight and value by the succeeding kings, not 
only of the Persian but also of the Macedonian race, 
were all called Darics, from the Darius who was the 
first author of them. And there were either wholeDarics 
or half-Dalies, as with us there are guineas and half- 
guineas." — Prideaux. 

4 Pasargadian.]— There was a city in Persia called 



Before however they proceeded on any expe- 
dition, a herald was despatched to Barce, de- 
manding the name of the person who had as- 
sassinated Arcesilaus. The Barceans replied, 
that they were equally concerned, for he had 
repeatedly injured them all. Having received 
this answer, Aryandes permitted his forces to 
proceed with Pheretime. 

CLXVIII. This was the pretence with 
Aryandes for commencing hostilities ; but I 
am rather inclined to think that he had the 
subjection of the Libyans in view. The na- 
tions of Libya are many and various ; few of 
them had ever submitted to Darius, and most 
of them held him in contempt. Beginning 
from Egypt, the Libyans are to be enumerated 
in the order following. — The first are the 
Adyrmachidae, 5 whose manners are in every 
respect Egyptian ; their dress Libyan. On 
each leg their wives wear a ring of brass. 
They suffer their -hair to grow ; if they catch 
any fleas upon their bodies, they first bite and 
then throw them away. They are the only 
people of Libya who do this. It is also pe- 
culiar to them to present their daughters to the 
king just before their marriage, 6 who may en- 



Pasargada, which doubtless gave its name to the nation 
of Pasargades. This place is now, in the Arabian tongue, 
called Databegend. 

5 Adyrmachidce.] — It is well known that in the age 
which followed, the Greeks drove these Adyrmachidae 
into the higher parts of Libya, and took possession of 
the sea-coast. When, therefore, Ptolemy describes the 
Adyrmachidae as inhabiting the interior parts of Libya, 
there is no contradiction betwixt his account and that of 
Herodotus. The manners of this people are thus de- 
scribed by Herodotus, and they are thus mentioned by 
Silius Italicus : — 

Verisicolor contra retra et falcatus ab arte 
Ensis Adyrmachidse ac loevo tegmtna crure ; 
Sed mensis asper populus, victuque maligno 
Nam calida tristes epulae torrentur arena. — 

L. iii. 278. 

They are again mentioned by the same author, book ix. 

223, 22 k 

ferro vivere loetum 

Vulgus Adyrmachidae. 

6 Before their marriage.] — A play of Beaumont and 
Fletcher is founded upon the idea of this obscene and 
unnatural custom. The following note is by Mr Theo- 
bald upon the " Custom of the Country." Beaumont 
and Fletcher, 1778. 

The custom on which a main part of the plot of this 
comedy is built, prevailed at one time, as Bayle tells us, 
in Italy, till it was put down by a prudent and truly 
pious cardinal. It is likewise generally imagined to have 
obtained in Scotland for a long time ; and the received 
opinion hath hitherto been, that Eugenius, the third 
king of Scotland, who began his reign A. D. 535, ordained 
that the lord or master should have the first night's 
lodging with every woman married to his tenant or 
bondsman. This obscene ordinance is supposed to have 
2 G 



234 



HERODOTUS. 



joy the persons of such as are agreeable to him 
The Adyrmachidse occupy the country be- 
tween Egypt and the Port of Pleunos. 

CLXIX. Next to these are the Giligamma?, 
who dwell towards the west as far as the island 
of Aphrodisias. In the midst of this region is 
the island of Platea, which the Cyreneans colo- 
nized. The harbour of Menelaus and Aziris,' 
possessed also by the Cyreneans, is upon the 
continent. Silphium 2 begins where these ter- 
minate, and is continued from Platea to the 
mouth of the Syrtes. 3 The manners of these 

been abrogated by Malcolm the third, who began his 
reign A. D. 1061, about' fiye years before the Norman 
Conquest, having lasted in force somewhat above five 
hundred years.— See Blount, in his Law Dictionary, un- 
der the word Mercheta. Another commentator remarks, 
that Sir David Dalrymple denies the existence of this 
custom in Scotland. — Judge Blackstone is of opinion that 
this custom never prevailed in England, but that it cer- 
tainly did in Scotland. 

1 Aziris.] — See the hymn of Callimachus to Apollo, 
verse 89. where this place is written A^X;?. 

Herodotus in this place speaks of two islands, in- 
habited by the Giligammas, Platea, and Aphrodisias ; it 
is not certain whether the first of these is what Ptolemy 
called iEdonis : the second was afterwards named Lsea, 
and was, according to Scylax, a good harbour for ships. 

The country of the Giligammse produced a species of 
the silphium, called by the Latins laserpiticum, from 
which a medical drug was extracted ; see Pliny, Nat. 
Hist. ix. 3. " In the country of the Cyrene (where the 
best silphium grew) none of late years has been found, 
the farmers turning their cattle into the places where it 
grew : one stem only has been found in my time, this 
was sent as a present to Nero." 

2 Silphium.] — Either M. Larcher or myself must be 
grossly mistaken in the interpretation of this passage. 
" The plant silphium," says Ms version, " begins in this 
place to be found, and is continued," &c. This in my 
opinion neither agrees with the context, nor is in itself 
at all probable. In various authors, mention is made of 
the Silphii, and reference is made by them to this par- 
ticular passage of Herodotus. — T. 

3 Syrtes.] — The Great Syrtes must be here meant, 
which is in the neighbourhood of Barce, and nearer 
Egypt than the Small Syrtes. — Larcher. 

There were the Greater and the Lesser Syrtes, and both 
deemed very formidable to navigators. Their nature 
has never been better described than in the following 
fines from Lucan, which I give the reader in Rowe's 
version. 

When nature's hand the first formation tried, 

When seas from lands she did at first divide, 

The Syrts not quite of sea nor land bereft, ' 

A mingled mass uncertain still she left ; 

For nor the land with sea is quite o'erspread, 

Nor sink the waters deep their oozy bed, 

Nor earth defends its shore, nor lifts aloft its head ; 

The scite with neither, and with each complies, 

Doubtful and inaccessible it lies ; 

Or 'tis a sea with shallows bank'd around, 

Or 'tis a broken land with waters drown'd : 

Here shores advanced o'er Neptune's rule we find, 

And there an inland ocean lags behind ; 

Thus nature's purpose, by herself destroyed, 

is useless to herself, and unemployed, 

And part of her creation still is void. 



people nearly resemble those of their neigh- 
bours. 

CLXX. From the west and immediately 
next to the Giligammse, are the Asbystse. They 
are above Cyrene, but have no communication 
with the sea-coasts, which are occupied by the 
Cyreneans : They are beyond all the Libyans re- 
markable for their use of chariots drawn by four 
horses, and in most respects they imitate the 
manners of the Cyreneans. 

CLXXI. On the western borders of this 
people, dwell the Auschisae ; their district com- 
mences above Barce, and is continued to the 
sea, near the Euesperides. 4 The Cabales, 5 an 
inconsiderable nation, inhabit towards the cen- 
tre of the Auschisae, and extend themselves to 
the sea-coast near Tauchira, 6 a town belonging 
to Barce. 7 The Cabales have the same customs 
as the people beyond Cyrene. 

CLXXII. The powerful nation of the 



Perhaps, when first the world and time began, 
Her swelling tides and plenteous waters ran ; 
But long confining on the burning zone, 
The sinking seas have felt the neighbouring sun : 
Still by degrees we see how they decay, 
And scarce resist the thirsty god of day. 
Perhaps, in distant ages 'twill be found, 
When future suns have run the burning round. 
These Syrts shall all be dry and solid ground : 
Small are the depths their scanty waves retain, 
And earth grows daily on the yielding main, 

4 Euesperides]— This city was afterwards named Ber- 
enice ; of this appellation some vestiges now remain, for 
the place is called Bernic, Berbic, and by some Beric. 

The fertility of the contiguous country gave rise to the 
Grecian fable of the gardens of the Hesperides. 

5 Cabales.]— This word is sometimes written Bacales ; 
and Wesseling hesitates what reading to prefer. 

What Herodotus says of the Nasamones, c. 173, is 
confirmed by Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. c. 2 ; Silius Italicus, i. 
40S; Lucan, ix. 439, &c. 

Concerning their manner of plighting troth, c. 172, 
Shaw tells us, that the drinking out of each other's hands 
is the only ceremony which the Algerines at this time 
use in marriage. 

The story which Herodotus relates of the Psylli, 173. 
is told also by Aulus Gellius, Noct. Att. 16.— 11. It 
seems more probable that they were destroyed by the 
Nasamones.— See Puny, Nat. Hist. viii. 1.— See also 
Hardouin ad Plin. and Larcher, vii. 312. 

6 Tauchira.]— Called by Strabo, Ptolemy, and Pliny, 
Teuchira; afterwards it was known by the name of 
Arsinoe, and lastly by Antony it was named Cleopatris, 
in honour of Cleopatra :. in modern times it has been 
called Teukera (d'Anville) ; Trochare (de la Croix) ; 
Trochara (Hardouin) ; Tochara (Simlenus) ; Trochata 
(Dapper). 

7 Barce.]— Many of the ancients believed that this 
place was anciently called Ptolemais, as Strabo, Pliny, 
Servius, and others. 

Of Cyrene, about which Strabo speaks less fabulously 
than Herodotus, but few traces now remain ; they are 
differently mentioned under the names of Keroan, Curin, 
and Guirina. 



MELPOMENE. 



235 



Nasamones border on the Auschisae towards 
the west. This people during the summer sea- 
son leave their cattle on the sea-coast, and go 
up the country to a place called Augila to gather 
dates. Upon this spot the palms are equally 
numerous, large, and fruitful : they also hunt 
for locusts, 8 which having dried in the sun, they 
reduce to a powder, and eat mixed with milk. 
Each person is allowed to have several wives, 
with whom they cohabit in the manner of the 
Massagetae, first fixing a staff in the earth be- 
fore their tent. When the Nasamones marry, 
the bride on the first night permits every one of 
the guests to enjoy her person, each of whom 
makes her a present brought with him for the 
purpose. Their mode of divination and of tak- 
ing an oath is this : they place their hands on 
the tombs 9 of those who have been most emi- 
nent for their integrity and virtue, and swear 
by their names. When they exercise divina- 
tion, they approach the monuments of their 
ancestors, and there, having said their prayers, 
compose themselves to sleep. They regulate 
their subsequent conduct by such visions 10 as 
they may then have. When they pledge their 

8 Locusts.] — The circumstance of locusts being dried 
and kept for provision, I have before mentioned : the 
following apposite passage having since occurred to me 
from Niebuhr, I think proper to insert it. 

On vendit dans tous les marches des sauterelles a vil 
prix : car elles etoient si prodigieusement repandues dans 
la plaine pres de Jerim, qu'on pouvoitles prendres a 
pleines main9. Nous viines un paysan qui en avoit rerapli 
un sac, et qui alloit les secher pour sa provision d'hy ver. 

9 On the tombs.] — The following singular remarkfrom 
Niebuhr seems particularly applicable in this place. 

Un marchand de la Mecque me fit sur ses saints une 
reflection, qui me surprit dans la bouche d'un Mahome- 
tan. " H faut toujours a la populace," me dit-il, " un 
objet visible qu'elle puisse honorer et craindre. C'est 
ainsi qu'a la Mecque tous les sermens se sont au nom de 
Mahomet, au lieu qu'on devroit s'adresser a Dieu. A 
Molcha je ne me fierois pas a un homrae qui affirmeroit 
une chose en prenant Dieu a temoin ; mais je pourrois 
compter plutot sur la foi de celui qui jureroit par le nom 
de Schaedeli, dont la mosquee et le tombeau sont sous 
ses yeux." 

10 By such visions, #c.] — See Virgil, iEn. vii. 8G : 

Hue dona sacerdos 
Cum tulit, et cscsarum ovium sub nocte silenti 
Pellibus incubuit stratis, somnosque petivit, 
IMulta modis simulacra videt volitantia mills, 
Et varias audit voces, fruiturque deorum 
Colloquio, atque imis Acheronta affatur A vernis. 
The priest on skins of offering's takes his ease, 
And nightly visions in his slumber sees; 
A swarm of thin aerial shapes appears, 
And fluttering round his temples, deafs his ears, 
These he consults, the future fates to know,'' 
From powers above, and from the fiends below. 
See also Spenser, book, v. canto 7 stanza 8, where Bri- 
tomartis is represented as sleeping in the temple of Isis, 
and has visions of what should befall her. See Jortin on 
Spenser. 



word, they drink alternately from each other's 
hands. !| If no liquid is near, they take some 
dust from the ground, and lick it with their 
tongue. 

CLXXIII. Next to the Nasamones are the 
Psylli, 12 who formerly perished by the following 
accident : A south wind had dried up all their 
reservoirs, and -the whole country, as far as the 
Syrtes, was destitute of water. They resolved 
accordingly, after a public consultation, to make 
a hostile expedition against this south wind, 
the consequence was (I only relate what the 
Africans inform me) that on their arrival in 
the deserts, the south wind overwhelmed them 
beneath the sands. The Psylli being thus 



11 Each other's hands.]— .The ancient ceremony of the 
Nasamones to drink from each other's hands, in pledging 
their faith, is at the present period the only ceremony 
observed in the marriages of the Algerines. — Shaw. 

The English phrase of, I'll pledge you, first, as it is 
said, took rise from the death of young king Edward the 
Martyr, who, by the contrivance of Elfrida, his step-mo- 
ther, was treacherously stabbed in the back, whilst he 
was drinking. 

Anciently, in this country, the person who was going 
to drink, asked any one of the company who sate next 
him, whether he would pledge him, on which he answer- 
ing that he would, held up his knife or sword to guard 
Mm whilst he drank, 

12 The Psylli.]— A measure like this would have been 
preposterous in the extreme. Herodotus therefore does 
not credit it : "I only relate," says he, " what the 
Africans inform me," which are the terms always used 
by our historian whenhe communicates any dubious mat- 
ter. It seems very probable, that the Nasamones des- 
troyed*the Psylli to possess their country, and that they 
circulated this fable amongst their neighbours.— See 
Pliny book vii. chapter 2<— Lurcher. 

Herodotus makes no mention of the quality wliich 
these people possessed, and wliich in subsequent times 
rendered them so celebrated, that of managing serpents 
with such wonderful dexterity.— See Lucan, book ix. 
Rowe's version, line 1523. 

Of all who scorching Afric's sun endure, 
None like the swarthy Psyllians are secure, 
Skill'd in the lore of powerful herbs and charms, 
Them, nor the serpent's tooth nor poison harms ; 
Nor do they thus in arts alone excel, 
But nature too their blood has temper'd well. 
And taught with vital force the venom to repel. 
With healing gifts and privileges graced, 
Well in the land of serpents were they placed : 
Truce with the dreadful tyrant, Death, they have, 
And border safely on his realm, the grave. 

See also Savary, vol. i. p. 63. 

" You are acquainted with the Psylli, those celebrated 
serpent-eaters of antiquity, who sported with the bite of 
vipers, and the credulity of the people. Many of them 
inhabited Cyrene, a city west of Alexandria, and for- 
merly dependent on Egypt. You know the pitiful van- 
ity of Octavius, who wished the captive Cleopatra should 
grace his triumphal car; and, chagrined to see that proud 
woman escape by death, commanded one of the Fsj Hi to 
suck the wound the aspic had made. Fruitless wore his 
efforts; the poison had perverted the whole mass of 
blood, nor could the art of the Psylli restore her to life." 



236 



HERODOTUS. 



destroyed, the Nasamones took possession of 
their lands. 

CLXXIV. Beyond these southward, in a 
country infested by savage beasts, dwell the 
Garamantes,' who avoid every kind of com- 
munication with men, are ignorant of the use 
of all military weapons, and totally unable to 
defend themselves. 

CLXXV. These people live beyond the 
Nasamones j but towards the sea- coast west- 
ward are the Macae. 8 It is the custom of this 
people to leave a tuft of hair in the centre of 
the head, carefully shaving the rest. When 
they make war, their only coverings are the 
skins, of ostriches. The river Cinyps rises 
amongst these in a hill, said to be sacred to the 
Graces, whence it continues its course to the 
sea. This hill of the Graces is well covered 
with trees: whereas the rest of Africa, as I 
have before observed, is very barren of wood. 
The distance from this hill to the sea is two 
hundred stadia. 

CLXX VI. The Gindanes 3 are next to the 
Macae. Of the wives of this people it is said 
that they wear round their ancles as many ban- 
dages as they have known men. The more of 
these each possesses, the more she is esteemed, 
as having been beloved by the greater number 
of the other sex. 

CL XXVII. The neck of land which 
stretches from the country of the Gindanes 
towards the sea, is possessed by the Lotopha- 
gi, 4 who live entirely upon the fruit of the 
lotos. The lotos is of the size of the mastick, 
and sweet like the date ; and the Lotophagi 
make of it a kind of wine. 

1 Garamantes.] — Mentioned by Mela, book viii. and 
by him called Gamphasantes. 

These people are said to have been so named from 
Garamas, a son of Apollo. — See Virgil, vi. 794. 
Supra Garamantas et Indos 
m Proferet imperium— T. 

2 Macce.] — These people are thus mentioned by Silius 
Italicus : 

Turn primum castris Phoenicum tendere ritu 
Clnyphiis didioere Macae, squallentia barb* 
Ora -virisj humerosque tegunt velamina capri — T. 
Amongst these people was the fountain of Ciayps, 

called by Strabo and Ptolemy Kiwipos, by Pliny Cinyps; 

its modern name, according to d'AnviUe, is Wadi. 

Quaham. 

3 Gindanes."] — This people, according to Stephanus, 
lived on the lotus, as well as the Lotophagi. 

4 Lotophagi.] — Whether from the same lotus the Lo- 
tophagi obtained both meat and wine, is laboriously dis- 
puted by Vossius ad Scyll. 114. and Stapel. ad Theo- 
phrast, 1. iv. c. 4. p. 327. A delineation of the lotus may 
be seen in Shaw and De la Croix : it is what the Arabs 
of the present day call seedra, and is plentiful in Bar- 
bary, and the deserts of Barbary. 



CLXXVIII. Towards the sea, the Ma- 
chyles, 5 border on the Lotophagi. They also 
.feed on the lotos, though not so entirely as 
their neighbours. They extend as far as a 
great stream called the Triton, which enters 
into an extensive lake named Tritonis, in 
which is the island of Fhla. An oracidar de- 
claration, they say, had foretold that some La- 
cedaemonians should settle themselves here. 

CLXXIX. The particulars are these: 
when Jason had constructed the Argo at the 
foot of Mount Pelion, he carried on board a 
hecatomb for sacrifice, with a brazen tripod : he 
sailed round the Peloponnese, with the inten- 
tion to visit Delphi. As he approached Malea, 
a north wind drove him to the African coast ; G 
and before he could discover land, he got 
amongst the shallows of the lake Tritonis : not 
being able to extricate himself from this situa • 
tion, a Triton 7 is said to have appeared to him, 
and to have promised him a secure and easy 
passage, provided he would give him the tripod. 
To this Jason assented, and the Triton having 
fulfilled his engagement, he placed the tripod 
in his temple, from whence he communicated 
to Jason and his companions what was after- 
wards to happen. Amongst other things, he 
said, that whenever a descendant of these Ar- 

5 Machyles.]— There was a people of this name also 
in Scythia; the name, however, is written different 
ways. — See Wesseling ad Herod. 178. 

The river Triton is the same with that now called 
Gabs.— See Shaw. 

Stephanus Byzantinus confounds the Phla of Herodo- 
tus with the island of Phila, which was in Ethiopia, not 
far from Egypt.— See also Shaw on tlus island, 129, 4to. 
edition. 

6 To the African coast] — " Some references to the 
Argonautic expedition," says Mr Bryant, " are inter- 
spersed in most of the writings of the ancients, but there 
is scarce a circumstance concerning it in which they 
are agreed. In respect to the first setting out of the 
Argo, most make it pass northward to Lemnos and the 
Hellespont ; but Herodotus says that Jason first sailed 
towards Delphi, and was carried to the Syrtic sea of 
Libya, and then pursued Ms voyage to the Euxine. 
Neither can the era of the expedition be settled without 
running into many difficulties." — See the Analysis, vol. 
ii. 491. 

7 A Triton.]— From various passages in the works of 
Lucian, Pliny, and other authors of equal authority, it 
should seem that the ancients had a firm belief of the ex- 
istence of Tritons, Nereids, &c. The god Triton was a 
distinct personage, and reputed to be the son of Neptune 
and the nymph Salacia j he was probably considered as 
supreme of the Tritons, and seems always to have been 
employed by Neptune for the purpose of calming the 
ocean. 

Mulcet aquas rector Pelagi, supraque profunduni 
Esxtantem atque humeros innato murice tectum 
Ceeruleum Tritona vocat, cunctaeque sonaci 
Inspirare jubet fluctusque et flumina signo 
Jam revocare dato, Scc.—Me(amorj>h. i._334— r. 



MELPOMENE. 



237 



gonauts should take away this tripod, there 
would be infallibly a hundred Grecian cities 
near the lake of Tritonis. 7 The Africans hear- 
ing this prediction, are said to have concealed 
the tripod. 

CLXXX. Next to the Machlyes live the 
Ausenses. The above two nations inhabit the 
opposite sides of lake Tritonis. The Machlyes 
suffer their hair to grow behind the head, the 
Ausenses before. They have an annual festival 
in honour of Minerva, in which the young 
women, dividing themselves into two separate 
bands, engage each other with stones and clubs. 
These rites, they say, were instituted by their 
forefathers, in veneration of her whom we call 
Minerva ; and if any one die in consequence of 
wounds received in this contest, they say that 
she was no virgin. Before the conclusion of 
the fight, they observe this custom : she who by 
common consent fought the best, has a Corin- 
thian helmet placed upon her head, is clothed 
in Grecian armour, and carried in a chariot round 
the lake. How the virgins were decorated in 
this solemnity, before they had any knowledge 
of the Greeks, I am not able to say ; probably 
they might use Egyptian arms. We may ven- 
ture to affirm, that the Greeks borrowed from 
Egypt the shield and the helmet. It is pretend- 
ed that Minerva was the daughter of Neptune, 
and the divinity of the lake Tritonis ; and that 
from some trifling disagreement with her father, 
she put herself under the protection of Jupiter, 
who afterwards adopted her as his daughter. 
The connection of this people with their women 
is promiscuous, not confining themselves to one, 
but living with the sex in brutal licentiousness. 
Every three months 8 the men hold a public 
assembly, before which, each woman who has 
had a strong healthy boy, produces him, and the 

7 Lake Tritonis.']— From this lake, as we are told in 
some very beautiful lines of Lucan, Minerva took her 
name of Tritonia.— See book ix. 589; Rowe's version : 

And reach in safety the Ttitonian lake. 

These waters to the tuneful god are dear, 

Whose vocal shell the sea-green Nereids hear. 

These Pallas loves, so tells reporting fame; 

Here first from heaven to earth ihe goddess came, 

Here her first footsteps on the brink she staid, 

Here, in the watery glass, her form survey'd, 

And call'd herself, from hence, the chaste Tritonian maid. 

8 Every three mo?iths.] — This preposterous custom 
brings to mind one described by Lobo, in his Voyage 
to Abyssinia, practised by a people whom he calls 
the Galles, a wandering nation of Africans. If engaged 
in any warlike expedition, they take their wives with 
them, but put to death all the children who may 
happen to be born during the excursion. If they settle 
quietly at home, they bring up their children with proper 
care.— T. 



man whom he most resembles is considered as 
his father. 

CLXXXI. The Africans who inhabit the 
sea-coast are termed Nomades. The more in- 
land parts of Africa, beyond these, abound with 
wild beasts j remoter still, is one vast sandy 
desert, from the Egyptian Thebes to the Col- 
umns of Hercules. 8 Penetrating this desert to the 
space of a ten days' journey, vast pillars of salt 
are discovered, from the summits of which, flows 
a stream of water equally cool and sweet. This 
district is possessed by the last of those who 
inhabit the deserts beyond the centre and ruder 
part of Africa. The Ammonians, 10 who pos- 
sess the temple of the Theban Jupiter, are the 
people nearest from this place to Thebes, from 
which they are distant a ten days' journey. 
There is an image of Jupiter at Thebes, as I 
have before remarked, with the head of a goat. 
— The Ammonians have also a fountain of 
water, which at the dawn of morning is warm, 
as the day advances it chills, and at noon be- 
comes excessively cold. When it is at the cold- 
est point, they use it to water their gardens : 
as the day declines, its coldness diminishes ; at 
sunset, it is again warm, and its warmth gradually 
increases till midnight, when it is absolutely in 
a boiling state. After this period, as the mor- 
ning advances, it grows again progressively colder. 
This is called the fountain of the sun." 



9 Columns of Hercules.] — In a former note upon the 
columns of Hercules I omitted to mention that more 
anciently, according to JElian, these were called the co- 
lumns of Briareus. This is also mentioned by Aristotle. 
But when Hercules had, by the destruction of various 
monsters, rendered essential service to mankind, they 
were out of honour to his memory, named the columns 
of Hercules.— T. 

10 Ammonians.] — Bochart derives the name of Ammon- 
ians from Cham, the son of Noah, whowaslongrevereu- 
ced in the more barren parts of Africa, under the title of 
Ham or Hammon, one of the names of Jupiter. 

That the name of Ammon was very well known in 
Arabia, and throughout Africa, we may learn from the 
river Ammon, the Ammonian promontory, the Ammon- 
ians, the city of Ammon, &c. See Strabo, Pliny, Ptol- 
emy, &c. 

Some remains of the temple of Jupiter Ammon are still 
to be seen, if the travellers to Mecca may be'believed ; the 
place is called Hesach-bir (or mole lapidmn.) 

In the same chapter Herodotus mentions a *> xgwq 
H&iou, the temple of the sun, concerning which see Dio- 
dorus, xvii. 528. — See also Arrian, 1. iii. c. 4. — Curtius,!. 
iv. c. 7.— Mela, 1. i. c. 8. 

11 Fountain of the Sun.] — Diodorus Siculus describe! 
this fountain nearly in the same terms with Herodotus. 
It Is thus described by Silius Italicus. 

Stat fano vicina, novum et memorabile, lynipha 
Quae nascente die, qua: deficiente lepescil 
Quaeque riget medium cum sol accendit Olyitipum 
Atque eadem rursus nocturnis ferret to umbris. 



233 



HERODOTUS 



CLXXXIl. Passing onward beyond the 
Ammonians, into the desert for ten days more, 
another hill of salt ' occurs ; it resembles that 
which is found amongst the Ammonians, and has 
a spring of water ; the place is inhabited, and 
called Augila, 2 and here the Nasamones come 
to gather their dates. 

CLXXXIII. At another ten days' distance 
from the Augilae, there is another hill of salt 
with water, as well as a great number of palms, 
which like those before described, are exceed- 
ingly productive ; this place is inhabited by the 
numerous nation of the Garamantes ; they 
cover the beds of salt with earth, and then 
plant it. From them to the Lotophagi is a 
very short distance ; but from these latter it is 
a journey of thirty days to that nation among 
whom is a species of oxen, which walk back- 
wards whilst they are feeding : 3 their horns 4 



Herodotus does not tell us that the Ammonians venerated 
this fountain ; but as they called it the fountain of the 
Sun, it is probable that they did. In remoter times, men 
almost universally worshipped streams and fountains, if 
distinguished by any peculiar properties : all fountains 
were originally dedicated to the sun, as to the first prin- 
ciple of motion. — T. 

1 Hill of salt] — I find the following description of the 
plain of salt, in Abyssinia, in Lobo's Voyage : " These 
plains are surrounded with high mountains, continually 
covered with thick clouds, which the sun draws from the 
lakes that are here, from which the water runs down 
into the plain, and is there congealed into salt. Nothing 
can be more curious, than to see the channels and aque- 
ducts that nature has formed in this hard rock, so exact, 
and of such admirable contrivance, that they seem to be 
the work of men. To this place caravans of Abyssinia 
are continually resorting, to carry salt into all parts of 
the empire, which they set a great value upon, and 
which in their country is of the same use as money." 

2 Augilce.]— Herodotus says that this country abound- 
ed in dates ; and the Africans of the present day go 
there to gather them. — See Marmot, vol. iii. p. 53. 

Concerning the situation of the Augilae, see Pliny, lib. 
v. c. 4, and Dapper, p. 323. 

Amongst all the countries of Libya, mentioned by the 
ancient Greek writers, Augila is the only one which to 
this day retains its primitive name without the smallest 
variation. 

3 Of the cattle, which whilst they grazed walked 
backwards, Mela speaks, lib. i. c. 8. —Pliny, Nat: Hist. 1. 
viii. c. 45. — Aristotle, History of Animals, lib. vii. c. 21. 
— See also Vossius ad Melse, loc. p. 41. 

4 Their horns.] — In the British Museum is a pair of 
horns six feet six inches and alialf long,'it weighs twenty- 
one pounds, and the hollow will contain fiverquarts ; Lobo 
mentions some in Abyssinia which would hold ten; 
Dallon saw some in India ten feet long : they are some- 
times wrinkled, but often smooth. — Pennant. 

Pliny, book xi. chap. 38, has a long dissertation upon 
the horns of different animals ; he tells us that the cattle 
of the Troglodyte, hereafter mentioned, had their horns 
curved in so particular a manner, that when they fed 
they were obliged to turn their necks on one side.— T. 



are so formed that they cannot do otherwise, 
they are before so long, and curved in such a 
manner, that if they did not recede as they fed, 
they would stick in the ground ; in other re- 
spects they do not differ from other animals of 
the same genus, unless we except the thickness 
of their skins. These Garamantes, sitting in 
carriages drawn by four horses, give chase to 
the Ethiopian Troglodytae, 5 who, of all the 
people in the world of whom we have ever 
heard, are far the swiftest of foot : their food 
is lizards, serpents, and other reptiles ; their 
language bears no resemblance to that of any 
other nation, for it is like the screaming of bats. 
CL XXXIV. From the Garamantes, it is 
another ten days' journey to the Atlantes, where 
also is a hill of salt with water. Of all man- 
kind of whom we have any knowledge, the 
Atlantes 6 alone have no distinction of names ; 
the body of the people are termed Atlantes, 
but their individuals have no appropriate appel- 
lation ; when the sun is at the highest they 
heap upon it reproaches and execrations, because 
their country and themselves are parched by its 
rays. At the same distance onward, of a ten 
days' march, another hill of salt occurs, with 
water and inhabitants : near this hill stands 
mount Atlas, which at every approach is uni- 
formly round and steep ; it is so lofty that, on 
account of the clouds which in summer as well 

5 Troglodytes.] — These people have their names from 
Tguy'k'/i, a cave, and dvou, to enter ; Pliny says they were 
swifter than horses ; and Mela relates the circumstance 
of their feeding upon reptiles. I cannot omit here 
noticing a strange mistake of Pliny, who, speaking of 
these people, says, " Syrbotas vocari gentem earn Noma- 
dum Ethiopum secundum flumen Astapum ad septentri- 
onem vergentem," as if ad septentrionem vergentem 
could possibly be applicable to any situation in Ethiopia. 
I may very properly add in this place, that one of the 
most entertaining and ingenious fictions that was ever 
invented, is the account given by Montesquieu in his 
Persian Letters of the Troglodytes. — T. 

6 Atlantes.] — Concerning the reading of this word, 
learned men have been exceedingly divided ; Valknaer, 
and from him also M. Larcher is of opinion that mention 
is here made of two distinct nations, the Atarantes and 
the Atlantes ; but all the peculiarities enumerated in this 
chapter are by Pliny, Mela, and Solinus, ascribed to the 
single people of the Atlantes. There were two moun- 
tains, named Atlas Major and Atlas Minor, but these 
were not at a sufficient distance from each other to solve 
the difficulty.— T. 

Some manuscripts read Atlantes, but this cannot be 
genuine reading, which is also the opinion of Salmasius, 
Valknaer Wesseling, and Larcher. — See Vossius ad 
Melae, locum laudatum, p. 41. 

The Atlantei, mentioned by Dioclorus, 1. iii. 187, if 
ever they existed, must be distinct from the Atlantes of 
Herodotus. Of mount Atlas, and its extreme height, 
Homer speaks, Odyss. i. 52, 1. 



M E L P O M E N E. 



239 



as winter envelop it, its summit can never 
be discerned ; it is called by the inhabitants a 
pillar of heaven. From this mountain the 
people take their name of Atlantes : it is said 
of them, that they never feed on any thing 
which has life, and that they know not what it 
is to dream. 

CLXXXV. I am able to call by name 
all the different nations as far as the Atlantes, 
beyond these I have no knowledge. There is, 
however, from hence, an habitable country, as 
far as the columns of Hercules, and even beyond 
it. At the regular interval of ten days' journey, 
there is a bed of salt, and inhabitants whose 
houses are formed from masses of salt. 7 In 
this part of Libya it never rains, for if it did, 
these structures of salt could not be durable ; 
they have here two sorts of salt, white and 
purple. 8 Beyond this sandy desert, south- 
ward, to the interior parts of Libya, there is a 
vast and horrid space without water, wood, or 
beasts, and totally destitute of moisture. 

CLXXXVI. Thus from Egypt, as far as 
lake Tritonis, the Libyans lead a pastoral life, 
living on flesh and milk, but like the Egypti- 
ans, will neither eat bull's flesh nor breed 
swine. The women of Cyrene also esteem it 
impious to touch a heifer, on account of the 
Egyptian Isis, in whose honour they solemnly 
observe both fast-days and festivals. The 
women of Barce abstain not only from the 
flesh of heifers, but of swine. 

CLXXXVII. The Libyans, to the west 
of lake Tritonis, are not shepherds, they are 
distinguished by different manners, neither do 
they observe the same ceremonies with respect 
to their children. The greater number of these 
Libyan shepherds follow the custom lam about 
to describe, though I will not say it is the case 
indiscriminately with them all : — As soon as 

7 Masses of salt.]— Gerrha, a town on the Persian 
Gulf, inhabited by the exiled Chaldeans, was built of 
gait ; the salt of the mountain Had-deffa near lake 
Marks, in Africa, is hard and solid as a stime.—Larcher. 

8 Salt, white and purple.]— Had-deffa is a mountain 
entirely of salt, situate at the eastern extremity of lake 
Marks, or lake Tritonis of the ancients ; this salt is en- 
tirely different from salts in general, being- hard and solid 
as a stone, and of a red or violet colour : the salt which 
the dew dissolves from the mountain changes its colour, 
and becomes white as snow ; it loses also the bitterness 
which is the property of rock salt— See Shaw's Travels. 

One of the most curious phenomena in the circle of 
natural history, is the celebrated salt-mine of Wielitska 
in Poland, so well described by Coxe : the salt dug from 
this mine is called green salt, " I know not," says Mr 
Coxe "for what reason, for its colour is an iron-grey." 
—See Travels into Poland. 



their children arrive at the age of four years, 
they burn the veins either of the top of the 
skull or of the temples, with uncleansed wool : 
they are of opinion, that by this process all 
watery humours are prevented ;° to this they 
impute the excellent health which they enjoy. 
It must be acknowledged, whatever may be the 
cause, that the Libyans are more exempt from 
disease than any other men — If the operation 
throws the children into convulsions, they have 
a remedy at hand ; they sprinkle them with 
goat's urine, 10 and they recover. — I relate what 
the Libyans themselves affirm. 

CLXXXVIII. As to their mode of sacri- 
fice, having cut the ear of the victim which 
they intend as an offering for their first fruits, 
they throw it over the top of their dwelling, 
and afterwards break its neck : the only deities 
to whom they sacrifice, are the sun and moon, 
who are adored by all the Libyans ; they 
who live near lake Tritonis venerate Triton, 
Neptune, and Minerva, but particularly the 
last. 

CLXXXIX. From these Libyans the 
Greeks borrowed the vest, and the aegis, with 
which they decorate the shrine of Minerva ; 
the vests, however, of the Libyan Minervas, 
are made of skin, and the fringe hanging from 
the aegis is not composed of serpents, but of 
leather ; in every other respect the dress is the 
same : it appears by the very name, that the 
robe of the statues of Minerva was borrowed 
from Libya. The women 1 ' of this country wear 
below their garments goat- skins, without the 
hair, fringed, and stained of a red colour ; from 
which part of dress the word aegis ,a of the 



9 Watery humours are prevented.'] — According to 
Hippocrates, the Scythians apply fire to their shoulders, 
arms, and stomachs, on account of the humid and relax- 
ed state of their bodies ; this operation dries up the ex- 
cess of moisture about the joints, and renders them more 
free and active. Wesseling remarks from Scaliger, that 
this custom still prevails amongst the Ethiopian Chris- 
tians, Mahometans, and Heathens. — Larcher. 

10 Goat's urine.] — I have heard of cow's urine being 
applied as a specific in some dangerous obstructions ; and 
I find in Lobo's Voyage to Abyssinia an account of 
goat's urine being recommended in an astlunatic com- 
plaint; their blood was formerly esteemed of benefit in 
pleurisies, but this idea is now exploded. 

11 The women.] — Apollonius Rhodius, who was an 
exact observer of manners, thus describes the three 
Libyan heroines who appeared to Jason. — Sec Fawke's 
version : 

Attend, my friends :— Three virgin forms, who claim 
From heaven their race, to soothe my sorrows came ; 
Their shoulders round were shaggy goat-skins oa*t, 
Which low descending girt their slender waist. 

12 JEgis.]— From «'| cuyot, a goat, the Greeks made 



240 



HERODOTUS. 



Greeks is unquestionably derived. I am also 
inclined to believe, that the loud cries * which 
are uttered in the temples of that goddess have 
the same origin : the Libyan women do this 
very much, but not disagreeably. From Libya 
also the Greeks borrowed the custom of har- 
nessing four horses to a carriage. 

CXC. These Libyan Nomades observe the 
same ceremonies with the Greeks in the inter- 
ment of the dead ; we must except the Nasa- 
mones, who bury their deceased in a sitting 
attitude, and are particularly careful, as any one 
approaches his end, to prevent his expiring in a 
reclined posture. Their dwellings are easily 
moveable, and are formed of the asphodel 
shrub, secured with rushes. Such are the man- 
ners of these people. 

CXCI. The Ausenses, on the western 
part of the river Triton, border on those Liby- 
ans who cultivate the earth and have houses, 
they are called Maxyes ; these people suffer 
their hair to grow on the right side of the head, 
but not on the left ; they stain their bodies with 
vermillion, and pretend to be descended from 
the Trojans. This region, and indeed all the 
more western parts of Libya, is much more 
woody, and more infested with wild beasts, 
than where the Libyan Nomades reside ; for 
the abode of these latter advancing eastward, 
is low and sandy. From hence westward, 
where those inhabit who till the ground, it is 
mountainous, full of wood, and abounding with 
wild beasts ; here are found serpents of an enor- 
mous size, lions, elephants, bears, 2 asps, and asses 
with horns. Here are also the Cynocephali, as 



octyis aiyido?, which signifies both the skin of a goat, and 
the segis of Minerva. 

1 Loud cries.] — See Iliad vi. 370 : Pope's version. 

Soon as to Ilion's topmost tower they come, 
And awful reach the high Palladian dome, 
Antenor's consort, fair Theano, waits 
As Pallas' priestess, and unbars the gates ; 
With hands uplifted, and imploring eyes, 
They fill the dome with supplicating cries. 

In imitation of which, M. Larcher remarks, Virgil uses 
the expression of summoque ulularunt vertice nympha?. 

2 Bears.] — Pliny pretends that Africa does not produce 
bears, although he gives us the annals of Rome, testify- 
ing that in the consulship of M. Piso, and M. Messala, 
Domitius iEnobarbus gave during his sedileship public 
games, in which were an hundred Numidian bears. 

Lipsius affirms, that the beasts produced in the games 
of iEnobarbus, were lions, which is the animal also meant 
by the Lybistis ursa of Virgil : " The first time," says 
he, " that the Romans saw lions, they did not call them 
lions, but bears." Virgil mentions lions by its appro- 
priate name in a hundred places ; Shaw also enumerates 
bears amongst the animals which he met with in Africa 
— Larcher. 



well as the Acephali, H who, if the Libyans may 
be credited, have their eyes in their breasts ; they 
have, moreover, men and women who are wild and 
savage ; and many ferocious animals whose ex- 
istence cannot be disputed. 4 



3 Cynocephali as well as the Acephali.]— Herodotus 
mentions a nation of this name in Libya, and speaks of 
them as a race of men with the heads of dogs. Hard by, 
in the neighbourhood of this people, he places the Ace- 
phali, men with no heads at all ; to whom, out of hu- 
manity, and to obviate some very natural distresses, he 
gives eyes in the breast ; but he seems to have forgot 
mouth and ears, and makes no mention of a nose. Both 
these and the Cynocephali were denominated from their 
places of residence, and from their worship'; the one 
from Cahen-Caph-El, the other from Ac-Caph-El, each 
of which appellations is of the same import, " the right 
noble or sacred rock of the sun."— Bryant. 

See also the speech of Othello in Shakespeare : 

Wherein of antres vast and deserts wild, 

Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven, 

It was my hint to speak, such was my process ; . 

And of the cannibals that each other eat, 

The Anthropophagi : and men whose heads 

Did grow beneath their shoulders. T. 

The Cynocephali, whom the Africans considered as men 
with the heads of dogs, were a species of baboons, remark- 
able for their boldness and ferocity. As to the Acephali, 
St Augustin assures us, that he had seen them himself 
of both sexes. That holy father would have done well to 
have considered, that in pretending to be eye-witness of 
such a fable he threw a stain on the veracity of his other 
works. If there really be a nation in Africa which appear 
to be without a head, I can give no better account of the 
phenomenon, than by copying the ingenious author of 
Philosophic Researches concerning the Americans. 

" There is," says he, "in Canibar, a race of savages 
who have hardly any neck, and whose shoulders reach up 
to the ears. This monstrous appearance is artificial, and 
to give it to their children, they put enormous weights 
upon their heads, so as to make the vertebrae of the neck 
enter (if we may so say) the channel bone (clavicule). 
These barbarians, from a distance, seem to have their 
mouth in the breast, and might well enough, in ignorant 
or enthusiastic travellers, serve to revive the fable of the 
Acephali, or men without heads." — The above note is 
from Larcher; who also adds the following remark upon 
the preceding note, which I have given from Mr Bryant. 

Mr Bryant, imagining that these people called them- 
selves Acephali, decomposes the word, which is purely 
Greek, and makes it come from the Egyptian Ac-Caph- 
El, which he interprets " The sacred rock of the sun." 
The same author, with as much reason, pretends that 
Cynocephali comes from Cahen-Caph-El, to which he 
assigns a similar interpretation ; here, to me at least, 
there seems a vast deal of erudition entirely thrown 
away. 

In the fifth century, the name of Acephali was given 
to a considerable faction of the Monophysites, or Euty- 
chians, who by the submission of Mongus were deprived 
of their leader.-- T. 

Apollonius Rhodius calls these people y^ixvns, or half 
dogs ; and it is not improbable but that the circumstance 
of their living entirely by the produce of the chase, 
might give rise to the fable of their having the heads of 
dogs.— T. 

4 Cannot be disjmted.] — We may, I think, fairly infer 



MELPOMENE. 



241 



CXCII. Of the animals above mentioned, 
none are found amongst the Libyan Nomades ; 
they have however pygargi, 5 goats, buffaloes, 
and asses, not of that species which have horns, 
but a particular kind which never drink. 
They have also oryxes 6 of the size of an ox, 
whose horns are used by the Phenicians to 
make the sides of their citharse. In this region 
likewise there are bassaria, 7 hyenas, porcu- 
pines, wild boars, dictyes, 8 thoes, a panthers, 

from this expression, that Herodotus gave no credit to 
the stories of the Cynocephali and Acephali. 

5 Pygargi.] — Aristotle classes the pygargus amongst 
the birds of prey ; but as Herodotus in this place speaks 
only of quadrupeds, it is probable that this was also one. 
Hardouin makes it a species of goat. — Thus far Larcher. 
iElian also ranks it amongst the quadrupeds, and speaks 
of its being a very timid animal. — See also Juvenal, Sat. 
xi 138. 

Sumine cum magno, lepus atque aper, et pygargus. 

See also Deuteronomy, chap. xiv. verse 5. " The hart 
and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, 
and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois." 

It is without doubt the white antelope, which is very 
common at the Cape. 

6 Oryxes.] — Pliny describes this animal as having but 
one horn ; Oppian, who had seen it, says the contrary. 
Aristotle classes it with the animals having but one horn. 
Bochart thinks it was the aram, a species of gazelle ; but 
Oppian describes the oryx as a very fierce animal. — The 
above is from Larcher. 

The oryx is mentioned by Juvenal, Sat. xi. 140. 
Et Gaetulus oryx : 
And upon which line the Scholiast has this remark : 

Oryx animal minus quam bubalus quern Mauri uncem 
vocant, cujus pellis ad citoras proficit scuta Maurorum 
minora. — From the line of Juvenal above mentioned, it 
appears that they were eaten at Rome, but they were 
also introduced as a ferocious animal in the amphitheatre. 
See Martial, xiii. 95. 

Matutinarum non ultima praeda ferarum 
Sffivus oryx, constat quot mini mute canum. 

That it was an animal well known and very common in 
Africa, is most certain ; but, unless it be what Pennant 
describes under the name of the leucoryx, or white ante- 
lope, I confess I know not what name to give it.— T. 

7 Bassaria.] — JElian makes no mention of this animal, 
at least under this name. Larcher interprets it foxes, and 
refers the reader to the article /3«<r<r«^> in Hesychius, 
which we learn was the name which the people of Cyrene 
gave to the fox. — T. 

8 Dictyes.] — 1 confess myself totally unable to find out 
what animal is here meant. 

9 Thoes.] — Larcher is of opinion that this is the beast 
which we call a jackall, which he thinks is derived from 
the Arabian word chatall. He believes that the idea of 
the jackall 's being the lion's provider is universally credit- 
ed in this country : but this is not true. The science of 
natural history is too well and too successfully cultivated 
amongst tis to admit of such an error, except with the 
most ignorant. I subjoin what Shaw says upon this 
subject. 

The black cat (scyah ghush) and the jackall, are genc- 
erally supposed to find out provisions or prey for the lion, 
and arc therefore called the lion's provider ; yet it may 



boryes, 10 land crocodiles 11 three cubits long, re- 
sembling lizards, ostriches, and small serpents, 
having each a single horn. Besides these animals, 
they have such as are elsewhere found, except the 
stag and the boar, 12 which are never seenin Africa. 
They have also three distinct species of mice, 
someof which arecalleddipodes, 13 others are call- 
ed zegeries, which in the African tongue has the 
same meaning with the Greek word for hills. 
The other species is called the echines. There 
is moreover to be seen a kind of weasel in Sil- 
phium, very much like that of Tartessus. 
The above are all the animals amongst the 
Libyan Nomades, which my most diligent re- 
searches have enabled me to discover. 

CXCIII. Next to the Maxyes are the 
Zaueces, whose women guide the chariots of 
war. 

CXCIV. The people next in order are the 
Zygantes, amongst whom a great abundance of 
honey is found, the produce of their bees : but 



very much be doubted, whether there is any such friend- 
ly intercourse between them. In the night, indeed, 
when all the beasts of the forest do move, these, as well 
as others, are prowling after sustenance ; and when the 
sun ariseth, and the lion getteth himself away to his den, 
both the black cat and the jackall have been often found 
gnawing such carcases as the lion is supposed to have 
fed upon the night before. This, and the promiscuous 
noise which I have heard the jackall particularly make 
with the lion, are the only circumstances I am acquaint- 
ed with in favour of this opinion. — T. 

10 Boryes.] — Of this animal I can find no account in 
any writer, ancient or modern. 

11 Land crocodiles,] — or K^oxo^uXot x^o-ciio;, so called 
in contradistinction from the river crocodile, which by 
way of eminence was called K^oxcluko? only. — T. 

12 Boar.] — This animal must have been carried to 
Africa since the time of Herodotus, for it is now found 
there : according to Shaw, it is the chief food and prey 
of the lion, against which it has sometimes been known 
to defend itself with so much' bravery, that the victory 
has declined to neither side, the carcasses of them both 
having been found lying the one by the other, torn and 
mangled to pieces. — Shaw. 

13 Dipodes.]— Shaw is of opinion that this is the jerboa 
of Barbary. " That remarkable disproportion," observes 
this writer, "betwixt the fore and hinder legs of the 
jerboa, or Sixovs, though I never saw them run, but only 
stand or rest themselves upon the latter, may induce us 
to take it for one of the %ixo$i;, or two-footed rats, 
which Herodotus and other writers describe as the in- 
habitants of these countries, particularly (tcu 1t\<pn>v) 
of the province of Silphium." Accordingly Mr Pennant 
has set down the (ms hixovs of Theophrastus and iElian 
among the synonyma of the jerboa. History of An. p. 
427. No. 291. 

The disproportion betwixt the hind and fore legs i3 
to be observed in various animals. The jerboa, the 
kangaroo of Port Jackson, the cameleopard, though in- 
deed the contrary way, the hyena, and the hare, are 
remarkable instances of it. 

2H 



242 



HERODOTUS. 



of this they say a great deal more is made by 
the natives. 1 They all stain their bodies with 
vermilion, and feed upon monkies, with which 
animal their mountains abound. 

CXCV. According to the Carthaginians, 
we next meet with an island called Cyranis, a 
two hundred stadia in length. It is of a trifling 
breadth, but the communication with the con- 
tinent is easy, and it abounds with olives and 
vines. Here is a lake, from which the young 
women of the island draw up gold dust 3 with 
bunches of feathers besmeared with pitch. For 
the truth of this I will not answer, relating 
merely what I have been told. To me it seems 
the more probable, after having seen at Zacyn- 
thus 4 pitch drawn from the bottom of the 
water. At this place are a number of lakes, 



1 Made by the natives.'] — " I do not see," says Reiske 
on this passage, " how men can possibly make honey. 
They may collect, clarify, and prepare it by various pro- 
cesses for use, but the bees must first have made it." 

1 confess I see no such great difficulty in the above. 
There were various kinds of honey, honey of bees, 
honey of the palm, and honey of sugar, not to mention 
honey of grapes ; all the last of which might be made 
by the industry of man. — See Lucan : 

Quique bibunt tenera dulces ab aruudine sucoos. — T. 

See Shaw's Travels, p. 33a 

2 Cyranis.] — The same with the Cercinna of Strabo, 
now called Cjuerqueni, or Chercheni; concerning this 
island consult Diodorus, 1. v. 2'94; but Diodorus, we 
should remark, confounded Cercinna with Cerne, an 
island of the Atlantic. 

3 Gold dust.]— See a minute account of this in Achilles 
Tathis.— T. 

4 Zacynthus.] — The modern name of this place is 
Zante. Its tar-springs, to use the words of Chandler, 
are still a natural curiosity deservhig notice. 

The tar is produced in a small valley about two hours' 
walk from the town, by the sea, and encompassed with 
mountains, except toward the bay, in which are a couple 
of rocky islets. The spring which is most distinct and 
apt for inspection, rises on the farther side near the foot 
of the hill. The well is circular, and four or five feet in 
diameter. A shining film, like oil mixed with scum, 
swims on the top : you remove this with a bough, and 
see the tar at the bottom, three or four feet beneath the 
surface, working up, it is said, o\it of a fissure in the 
rock ; the bubbles swelling gradually to the size of a 
large cannon-ball, when they burst, and the sides 
leisurely sinking, new ones succeed, increase, and .in 
turn subside. The water is limpid, and runs off with a 
smart current: the ground near is quaggy, and will 
shake beneath the feet, but is cultivated. We filled 
some vessels with tar, by letting it trickle into them 
from the boughs which we immersed, and this is the 
method used to gather \t from time to time into pits, 
where it is hardened by the sun, to be barrelled when 
the quantity is sufficient. The odour reaches a con- 
siderable way.— See Chandler's Travels. 

Some account of these tar-springs is also to be found 
in Antigonus Carystius, p. 169, and Vitruvius, 1. viii. 
c. 3 



the largest of which is seventy feet in circum- 
ference, and of the depth of two orgyiae. Into 
this water they let down a pole, at the end of 
which is a bunch of myrtle ; the pitch attaches 
itself to the myrtle and is thus procured. It 
has a bituminous smell, but is in other respects 
preferable to that of Pieria. 5 The pitch is 
then thrown into a trench dug for the purpose 
by the side of the lake : and when a sufficient 
quantity has been obtained, they put it up, in 
casks. Whatever falls into the lake passes 
under ground, and is again seen in the sea, at 
the distance of four stadia from the lake. Thus 
what is related of this island contiguous to 
Libya, seems both consistent and probable. 

CXCVI. We have the same authority of 
the Carthaginians to affirm, that beyond the 
Columns of Hercules 6 there is a country inhab- 
ited by a people with whom they have had 
commercial intercourse. 7 It is their custom, on 
arriving amongst them, to unload their vessels, 
and dispose their goods along the shore. This 
done, they again embark, and make a great 
smoke from on board. The natives, seeing 
this, come down immediately to the shore, and 
placing a quantity of gold by way of exchange 
for the merchandize, retire. The Carthaginians 
then land a second time, and if they think the 
gold equivalent, they take it and depart ; if not, 
they again go on board their vessels. The in- 
habitants return and add more gold, till the 



5 That of Pieria.] — This was highly esteemed. Didy- 
mus says that the ancients considered that as the test 
which came from Mount Ida ; and next to this the tar 
which came from Pieria. Pliny says the same. — Larcher. 

6 Columns of Hercules.] — The Libyian Column was by 
ancient writers called Abyla ; that on the Spanish side, 
Calpe.— See P. Mela. 1. ii. c. 6. 

7 Commercial intercourse.] — It must be mentioned to 
the honour of the western Moors, that they still continue 
to carry on a trade with some barbarous nations border- 
ing upon the river Niger, without seeing the persons 
they trade with, or without having once broke tlirough 
that original charter of commerce which from time im- 
memorial has been settled between them. The method 
is this : at a certain time of the year, in the winter, if I 
am not mistaken, they make this journey in a numerous 
caravan, carrying along with them coral and glass beads, 
bracelets of horn, knives, scissors, and such like trinkets. 
When they arrive at the place appointed, which is on 
such a day of the moon, they find in the evening several 
different heaps of gold-dust lying at a small distance from 
each other, against which the Moors place so many of 
their trinkets as they judge will be taken in exchange 
for them. If the Nigritians the next morning approve 
of the bargain, they take up the trinkets and leave the 
gold dust, or else make some deduction from the latter. 
In this manner they transact their exchange without see- 
ing one another, or without the least instance of dis- 
honesty or perfidiousness on either side.— Shaw. 



MELPOMENE. 



243 



crews are satisfied. The whole is conducted 
with the strictest integrity, for neither will the 
one touch the gold till they have left an ade- 
quate value in merchandise, nor will the other 
remove the goods till the Carthaginians have 
taken away the gold. 

CXCVII. Such are the people of Libya 
whose names I am able to ascertain ; of whom 
the greater part cared but little for the king of 
the Medes, neither do they now. Speaking 
with all the precision I am able, the country I 
have been describing is inhabited by four na- 
tions only : of these, two are natives and two 
strangers. The natives are the Libyans and 
Ethiopians ; one of whom possess the northern, 
the other the southern parts of Africa. The 
strangers are the Phenicians and the Greeks. 

CXCVIII. If we except the district of 
Cinyps, which bears the name of the river 
flowing through it, Libya in goodness of soil 
cannot, I think, be compared either to Asia or 
Europe. Cinyps is totally unlike the rest of 
Libya, but is equal to any counta*y in the world 
for its corn. It is of a black soil, abounding in 
springs, and never troubled with drought. It 
rains in this part of Libya, but the rains, though 
violent, are never injurious. The produce of 
corn is not exceeded by Babylon itself. The 
country also of the Euesperidse is remarkably 
fertile ; in one of its plentiful years it produces 
an hundred fold ; that of Cinyps three hundred 
fold. 

CXCIX. Of the part of Libya possessed 
by the Nomades, the district of Cyrene 8 is the 

8 Cyrene.'} — About the limits of this district the 
ancients were not at all agreed, they are no where de- 
fined by Herodotus : the province of Cyrene, formerly 
so populous, is the contrary now; the sea-coasts are 
ravaged by pirates, the inland parts by the Arabians j 
such inhabitants as there are, are rich by the sale of the 
Europeans, who fall into their hands, to the Ethiopians. — 
See La Croix, torn. ii. 252. 

Of the abundant fertility of Cyrene, Diodorus Siculus 
also speaks, p. 183. c. cxxviii. — Concerning the fountain 
of Cyre, one of the Fontes Cyrenaica?, see Callimachus' 
Ode to Apollo, 88 ; and Justin, lib. xiii. c. 7. 

Concerning the Asbystae, of whom Herodotus speaks, 
c. 170, 171, Salmasius has collected much, and Solinum, 
381 ; so also has Eustathius, adDionya. Perieg. 211. — See 
too Larcher, vol. ii. 43. , 

Of the people with whom the Carthaginians traded, 
beyond the columns of Hercules, without seeing them, I 
have spoken at length, and given from Shaw the passage 
introduced by Schlichthorst. The place, whose name is 
not mentioned by Herodotus, is doubtless, what we now 
call Senegambia. All the part of Libya described by 
Herodotus is now comprehended under the general name 
of Barbary, and contains the kingdoms of Morocco, Fez, 
Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli ; the maritime part of Libya, 
from Carthage westward, was unknown to Herodotus. 



most elevated. They have three seasons, which 
well deserve admiration : the harvest and the 
vintage first commence upon the sea-coast ; 
when these are finished, those immediately con- 
tiguous, advancing up the country, are ready ; 
this region they call Buni. When the requisite 
labour has been here finished, the corn and the 
vines in the more elevated parts are found to 
ripen in progression, and will then require to be 
cut. By the time therefore that the first pro- 
duce of the earth is consumed, the last will be 
ready. Thus for eight months in the year the 
Cyreneans are employed in reaping the produce 
of their lands. 

C C. The Persians who were sent by Ary- 
andes to avenge the cause of Pheretime, pro- 
ceeding from Egypt to Barce, laid siege to the 
place, having first required the persons of those 
who had been accessary to the death of Arce- 
silaus. To this the inhabitants, who had all 
been equally concerned in destroying him, paid 
no attention. The Persians, after continuing 
nine months before the place, carried their 
mines to the walls, and made a very vigorous 
attack. Their mines were discovered by a 
smith, by means of a brazen shield. He made 
a circuit of the town; where there were no 
miners beneath, the shield did not reverberate, 
which it did wherever they were at work. 
The Barceans therefore dug countermines, and 
slew the Persians so employed. Every attempt 
to storm the place was vigorously defeated by 
the besieged. 

CCI. After a long time had been thus con- 
sumed with considerable slaughter on both sides 
(as many being killed of the Persians as of 
their adversaries) Amasis, the leader of the in- 
fantry, employed the following stratagem : — 
Being convinced that the Barceans were not to 
be overcome by any open attacks, he sunk in 
the night a large and deep trench : the surface 
of this he covered with some slight pieces of 
wood, then placing earth over the whole, the 
ground had uniformly the same appearance. 
At the dawn of the morning he invited the 
Barceans to a conference; they willingly as- 
sented, being very desirous to come to terms. 
Accordingly they entered into a treaty, of which 
these were the conditions : it was to remain 
valid 9 as long as the earth upon which the 



9 It was to remain valid.] — Memini similem foederis 
formulam apud Polybium legere in fcedere Hannibalis 
cum Tarentinis, si bene memini. — Reiske. 
■ Reiske's recollection appears in this place to have de- 
ceived him. Tarentiun was betrayed to Hannibal by 



^™ 



244 



HERODOTUS. 



agreement was made should retain its present 
appearance. The Earceans were to pay the 
Persian monarch a certain reasonable tribute ; 
and the Persians engaged themselves to under- 
take nothing in future to the detriment of the 
Barceans. Relying upon these engagements, 
the Barceans, without hesitation, threw open 
the gates of their city, going out and in them- 
selves without fear of consequences, and per- 
mitting without restraint such of the enemy as 
pleased to come within their walls. The Per- 
sians withdrawing the artificial support of the 
earth, where they had sunk a trench, entered 
the city in crowds ; they imagined by this artifice 
that they had fulfilled all they had undertaken, 
and were brought back to the situation in which 
they were mutually before. For in reality, this 
support of the earth being taken away, the oath 
they had taken became void. 

C CII. The Persians seized and surrendered 
to the power of Pheretime such of the Barceans 
as had been instrumental in the death of her 
son. These she crucified on different parts of 
the walls ; she cut off also the breasts of their 
wives, and suspended them in a similar situa- 
tion. She permitted the Persians to plunder 
the rest of the Barceans, except the Battiadse, 
and those who were not concerned in the mur- 
der. These she suffered to retain their situa- 
tions and property. 

CCIII. The rest of the Barceans being 
reduced to servitude, the Persians returned 
home. Arriving at Cyrene, the inhabitants of 
that place granted them a free passage through 
their territories, from reverence to some oracle. 
Whilst they were on their passage, Bares, com- 
mander of the fleet, solicited them to plunder 
Cyrene ; which was opposed by Amasis, leader 
of the infantry, who urged that their orders 
were only against Barce. When, passing Cyre- 
ne, they had arrived at the hill of the Lycean 
Jupiter, 1 they expressed regret at not having 
plundered it. They accordingly returned, and 

the treachery of some of its citizens ; but in no manner 
resembling this here described by Herodotus. — T. 

1 I.ycean Jupiter.] — Lycaon erected a temple to Jupi- 
ter in Parrhasia, and instituted games in his honour, 
which the Lyceans called Avxkicc. No one was permit- 



endeavoured a second time to enter the place, 
but the Cyreneans would not suffer them. 
Although no one attempted to attack them, the 
Persians were seized with such a panic, that, 
returning in haste, they encamped at the dis- 
tance of about sixty stadia from the city. 
Whilst they remained here, a messenger came 
from Aryandes, ordering them to return. Upon 
this, the Persians made application to the 
Cyreneans for a supply of provisions ; which 
being granted, they returned to Egypt. In 
their march they were incessantly harassed by 
the Libyans for the sake of their clothes and 
utensils. In their progress to Egypt, whoever 
was surprised or left behind was instantly put to 
death. 

CCIV. The farthest progress of this Per- 
sian army was to the country of the Euesperidae. 
Their Barcean captives they carried with them 
from Egypt to king Darius, who assigned them 
for their residence a portion of land in the 
Bactrian district, to which they gave the name 
of Barce ; this has within my time contained a 
great number of inhabitants. 

C CV. The life, however, of Pheretime had 
by no means a fortunate termination. Having 
gratified her revenge upon the Barceans, she 
returned from Libya to Egypt, and there per- 
ished miserably. Whilst alive, her body was 
the victim of worms ; 8 thus it is that the gods 
punish those who have provoked their indigna- 
tion ; and such also was the vengeance which 
Pheretime, the wife of Battus, exercised upon 
the Barceans. 



ted to enter this temple ; he who did was stoned. — 
Larcher. 

2 Victim ofivorms.] — This passage, with the reasoning 
of Herodotus upon it, cannot fail to bring to the mind of 
the reader the miserable end of Herod, surnamed the 
Great. 

" And he went down to Csesarea, and there abode: and 
upon a set day Herod arrayed in royal apparel sat upon 
his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the 
people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and 
not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord 
smote him, because he gave not God the glory : and he 
was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost."— See 
Lardner's observations upon the above historical in- 
cident.— T. 



HERODOTUS. 



BOOK V. 



TERPSICHORE. 



I. The Persians who had been left in 
Europe by Darius, under the conduct of Mega- 
byzus, commenced their hostilities on the 
Hellespont with the conquest of the Perinthii, 1 
who had refused to acknowledge the authority 
of Darius, and had formerly been vanquished 
by the Paeonians. 2 This latter people, inhabit- 
ing the banks of the Strymon, had been in- 
duced by an oracle to make war on the Perin- 
thians : if the Perinthians on their meeting 
offered them battle, provoking them by name, 
they were to accept the challenge : if otherwise, 
they were to decline all contest. It happened 
accordingly, that the Perinthians marched into 
the country of the Paeonians, and encamping be- 
fore their town, sent them three specific chal- 
lenges, a man to encounter with a man, a 
horse with a horse, a dog with a dog. The 
Perinthians having the advantage in the two 
former contests, sung with exultation a song of 
triumph ; 3 this the Pseonians conceived to be 



1 Perinthii. ]— Perinthus was first called Mygdonia, 
afterwards Heraclea, and then Perinthus.— T. 

2 Pceonians.]— As the ancients materially differed in 
opinion concerning' the geographical situation of this 
people, it is not to be expected that I should speak de- 
cisively on the subject Herodotus here places them 
near the river Strymon ; Dio, near mount Rhodope ; 
and Ptolemy, where the river Haliacmon rises. Paeonia 
was one of the names of Minerva, given her from her 
supposed skill in the art of medicine. — T. 

3 Song of triumph.]— LzxcYiev renders this passage 
" Sung the paeon," and subjoins this note : " Of this 
song there were two kinds, one was chaunted before 
the battle, in honour of Mars ; the other after the vic- 
tory, in honour of Apollo ; this song commenced with 
the words " Io Paean." The allusion of the word Paeon 
to the name of the Pseonians, is obvious, to preserve 
which I have rendered it "sung the paeon."— The 
nsage and application of the word Paean, amongst the 
ancients, was various and equivocal : the composition of 
Pindar, in praise of all the gods, was called Paean ; and 
Paean was also one of the names of Apollo. To which 
it may be added, that Paean, being originally a hymn to 



the purport of the oracle : " Now," they ex- 
claimed, " the oracle will be fulfilled ; this is 
the time for us." They attacked, therefore, 
the Perinthians, whilst engaged in their imagi- 
nary triumph, and obtained so signal a victory 
that few of their adversaries escaped. 

II. Such was the overthrow which the Pe- 
rinthians received, in their conflict with the 
Pseonians : on the present occasion they fought 
valiantly in defence of their liberties, against 
Megabyzus, but were overpowered by the su- 
perior numbers of the Persians. After the 
capture of Perinthus, Megabyzus overran 
Thrace with his forces, and reduced all its cities 
and inhabitants under the power of the king : 
the conquest of Thrace had been particularly 
enjoined him by Darius. 

III. Next to India, Thrace is of all nations 
the most considerable ; 4 if the inhabitants 
were either under the government of an indi- 
vidual, or united amongst themselves, their 
strength would in my opinion render them in- 
vincible ; but this is a thing impossible, and 
they are of course but feeble. Each different 

! district has a different appellation ; but except 
the Getae, the Trausi, 5 and those beyond Cres- 
tona, they are marked by a general similitude 

! of manners. 

IV. Of the Getae, who pretend to be im- 
', mortal, I have before spoken. The Trausi 
1 have a general uniformity with the rest of the 

Thracians, except in what relates to the birth 
of their children, and the burial of their dead. 
On the birth of a child, he is placed in the 
midst of a circle of his relations, who lament 



Apollo, from his name Paean, became afterwards^ ex- 
tended in its use to such addresses to other gods." 

4 Most considerable.]— Thncydides ranks them after 
the Scythians, and Pausanias after the Cclt.v.— Lnrcher. 

I 5 Trausi.]— These were the people whom the Greeks 

| called Agathyrsi. 



246 



HERODOTUS. 



aloud the evils which, as a human being, he 
must necessarily undergo, all of which they 
particularly enumerate ; l but whenever any one 
dies, the body is committed to the ground with 
clamorous joy, for the deceased, they say, de- 
livered from his miseries, is then supremely 
happy. 

V. Those beyond the Crestonians have these 
observances : — Each person has several wives ; 
if the husband dies, a great contest commences 
amongst his wives, in which the friends of 
the deceased interest themselves exceedingly, 
to determine which of them had been most 
beloved. She to whom this honour is ascribed 
is gaudily decked out by her friends, and then 
sacrificed by her nearest relation on the tomb of 
her husband, 8 with whom she is afterwards 

1 Particularly enumerate.] — A similar sentiment is 
quoted by Larcher, from a fragment of Euripides, of 
which the following is the version of Cicero :— 

Nam nos decebat ccetum celebrantes domus 
Lugere, ubi esset aliquis in lucem editus 
Humanoe vitae varia reputantes mala. 
At qui labores morte finisset graves, 
Hunc omni amicos laude et laetitia exsequi. 

See also on this subject Gray's fine Ode on a distant 
Prospect of Eton College : — 

Alas ! regardless of their doom, 

The little victims play ; 

No sense have they of ills to come. 

Nor care beyond to-day ■ 

Yet see how all around 'em wait 

The ministers Of human fate, 

And black Misfortune's baleful train ! 

Ah ! show them where in ambush stand, 

To seize their prey, the murth'rous band ; 

Ah ! tell them they are men. — 

These shall the fury passions tear ? &c— T. 

2 Tomb of Tier husband.] — This custom was also ob- 
served by the Getae : at this day, in India, women burn 
themselves with the bodies of their husbands, which 
usage must have been continued there from remote anti- 
quity. Propertius mentions it : 

Et certamen habent leti qua viva sequatur 
Conjugium, pudor est nori licuisse mori; 

Ardent victrices et flammae pectora praebent, 
Imponuntque suis ora perusta viris. 

Cicero mentions also the same fact Larcher quotes the 
passage from the Tusculan Questions, of which the fol- 
lowing is a translation. 

" The women in India, when their husband dies, ea- 
gerly contend to have it determined which of them he 
loved best, for each man has several wives. She who 
conquers, deems herself happy, is accompanied by her 
friends to the funeral pile, where her body is burned 
with that of her husband ; they who are vanquished de- 
part in sorrow."— The civil code of the Indians, requir- 
ing this strange sacrifice, is to this effect : " It is proper 
for a woman, after her husband's death, to burn herself 
in the fire with his corpse, unless she be with child, or 
that her husband be absent, or that she cannot get his 
turban or his girdle, or unless she devote herself 
to chastity and celibacy: every woman who thus 
burns herself shall, according to the decrees of destiny, 
remain with her husband in paradise for ever."—" This 
practice," says Raynal, " so evidently contrary to rea. 



buried : his other wives esteem this an afflic- 
tion, and it is imputed to them as a great dis- 
grace. 

VI. The other Thracians have a custom of 
selling their children, to be carried out of their 
country. To their young women they pay no 
regard, suffering them to connect themselves 
indiscriminately with men; but they keep a 
strict guard over their wives, and purchase them 
of their parents at an immense price. To have 
punctures on their skin 3 is with them a mark of 
nobility, to be without these is a testimony of a 
mean descent : the most honourable life with 
them is a life of indolence ; the most contemp- 
tible that of a husbandman. Their supreme 
delight is in war and plunder. — Such are their 
more remarkable distinctions. 

VII. The gods whom they worship are Mars, 
Bacchus, 4 and Diana : besides these popular 
gods, and in preference to them, their princes 
worship Mercury. They swear by him alone, 
and call themselves his descendants. 

VIII. The funerals of their chief men are of 
this kind: for three days the deceased is publicly 
exposed; then having sacrificed animals of 

son, has been chiefly derived from the doctrine of the 
resurrection of the dead, and of a future life : the hope 
of being served in the other world by the same persons 
who obeyed us in this, has been the cause of the slave 
being sacrificed on the tomb of his master, and the wife 
on the corpse of her husband ; but that the Indians, who 
firmly believed in the transmigration of souls, should give 
way to this prejudice, is one of those numberless incon- 
sistencies which in all parts of the world degrade the 
human mind."— See Raynal, vol. i. 91. The remark, in 
the main, is just; but the author, I fear, meant to insin- 
uate that practices contrary to reason naturally proceed 
from the doctrines he mentions; a suggestion which, 
though very worthy of the class of writers to which he 
belongs, has not reason enough in it to deserve a serious 
reply.— T. 

3 Punctures on their skin.]— If Plutarch may be credit- 
ed, the Thracians in Ins time made these punctures on 
their wives, to revenge the death of Orpheus, whom 
they had murdered. Phanocles agrees with this opinion, 
in his poem upon Orpheus, of which a fragment has been 
preserved by Stobaeus. If this be the true reason, it is 
remarkable that what in its origin was a punishment, be- 
came afterwards an ornament, and a mark of nobility. — 
Larcher. 

Of such great antiquity does the custom of tattaowing 
appear to have been, with descriptions of which, the 
modern voyages to the South Sea abound.— T. 

4 Bacchus.]— That Bacchus was worshipped in Thrace, 
is attested by many authors, and particularly by Euripi- 
des : in the Rhesus, attributed to that poet, that prince, 
after being slain by Ulysses, was transported to the 
caverns of Thrace by the muse who bore him, and be- 
coming a divinity, he there declared the oracles of Bar. 
chus. In the Hecuba of the same author, Bacchus is 
called the deity of Thrace. Some placed the oracle of 
Bacchus near mount Pangsea, others near mount Hae- 
mus. — Larcher. 



TERPSICHORE. 



247 



every description, and uttered many and loud 
lamentations, they celebrate a feast, 5 and the 
body is finally either burned or buried. They 
afterwards raise a mound of earth 6 upon the 
spot, and celebrate games 7 of various kinds, in 
which each particular contest has a reward as- 
signed suitable to its nature. 

IX. With respect to the more northern parts 
of this region, and its inhabitants, nothing has 
yet been decisively ascertained. What lies be- 
yond the Ister, is a vast and almost endless 
space. The whole of this, as far as I am able 
to learn, is inhabited by the Sigynae, a people 
who in dress resemble the Medes ; their horses 
are low in stature, and of a feeble make, but 
their hair grows to the length of five digits : they 
are not able to carry a man, but, yoked to a 
carriage, are remarkable for their swiftness, for 
which reason carriages are here very common. 
The confines of this people extend almost to the 
Eneti 8 on the Adriatic. They call themselves 

5 Celebrate a feast.] — It appears from a passage in 
Jeremiah, that this mixture of mourning- and feasting at 
funerals was very common amongst the Jews : 

" Both the gTeat and the small shall die in this land ; 
they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for 
them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for 
them. 

"Neither shall men tear themselves for them in 
mourning, to comfort them for the dead ; neither shall 
men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their 
father or for their mother. 

" Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to 
sit with them to eat and to drink." — xvi. 6, 7, 8. 

The same custom is still observed in the countries of 
the east— T. 

6 Mound of earth.'] — Over the place of burial of illus- 
trious persons, they raised a kind of tumulus of earth. 
This is well expressed in the " ingens aggeritur tumulo 
tellus," of Virgil. — Larcher. 

The practice of raising barrows over the bodies of the 
deceased was almost universal in the earlier ages of the 
world. Homer mentions it as a common practice among 
the Greeks and Trojans. Virgil alludes to it as usual in 
the times treated of in the .3Eneid. Xenophon relates 
that it obtained among the Persians. The Roman histo- 
rians record that the same mode of interring took place 
among their countrymen ; and it appears to have pre- 
vailed no less among the ancient Germans, and many 
other uncivilized nations.— See Coxe's Travels through 
Poland, &c. 

7 Celebrate games.]— It is impossible to say when fun- 
eral games were first instituted. According to Pliny, 
they existed before the time of Theseus ; and many 
have supposed that the famous games of Greece were in 
their origin funeral games. The best description of these 
is to be found in Homer and in Virgil. In the former, 
those celebrated by Achilles in honour of Patroclus ; in 
the latter, those of JEneas in memory of his father. — T. 

8 Eneti,] — or rather Heneti, which aspirate, repre- 
sented by the iEolic digamma, forms the Latin name 
VenetL Their horses were anciently in great estimation. 
See the Hippolytus of Euripides, ver. 230. Homer 
speaks of their mules.— T. 



a colony of the Medes ; s how this could be, I 
am not able to determine, though in a long 
series of time it may not have been impossible. 
The Signae are called merchants 10 by the Ligu- 
rians, who live beyond Massilia : with the Cy- 
prians, Sigynae is the name for spears. 

X. The Thracians affirm that the places 
beyond the Ister are possessed wholly by bees, 
and that a passage beyond this is impracticable. 
To me this seems altogether impossible, for 
the bee is an insect known to be very impatient 
of cold ; n the extremity of which, as I should 
think, is what renders the parts to the north 
uninhabitable. The sea-coast of this region 
was reduced by Magabyzus under the power of 
Persia. 

XL Darius having crossed the Hellespont, 
went immediately to Sardis, where he neither 
forgot the service of Histiaeus, nor the advice 
of Coes of Mitylene. He accordingly sent 
for these two persons, and desired them to ask 
what they would. Histiaeus, who was tyrant of 
Miletus, wished for no accession of power ; 
he merely required the Edonian 18 Myrcinus, 

9 Colony of the Medes.] — Strabo says that this people 
observed in a great measure the customs of the Persians ; 
thus the people whom Herodotus calls Medes, might be 
considered as genuine Persians, according to his custom 
of confounding their names, if Diodorus Siculus had not 
decided the matter. 

10 Called merchants.]— -The whole of this sentence 
Larcher omits, giving as his opinion, that it was insert- 
ed by some scholiast in the margin, and had thence 
found its way into the text. For my part, I see no 
reason for this ; and I think the explication given by 
the Abbe"Bellanger, in his Essais de Critique sur les Tra- 
duct. d'Herodote, may fairly be accepted. " Herodotus 
means," says he, " to inform his reader, that Sigynae is 
not an unusual word ; the Ligarians use it for merchants, 
the Cyprians for spears." — But if this be true, the fol- 
lowing version by Littlebury must appear absurd enough : 
"The Ligurians," says he, " who inhabit beyond Mar- 
seilles, call the Sigynes brokers ; and the Cyprians give 
them the name of javelins." — T. 

11 Impatient of cold.]— This remark of Herodotus 
concerning bees, is in a great measure true, because all 
apiaries are found to succeed and thrive best, which are 
exposed to a degree of middle temperature : yet it would 
be difficult perhaps to ascertain the precise degree of 
cold in which bees would cease to live and multiply. 
Modern experiments have made it obviously appear, 
that in severe winters this insect has perished as fre- 
quently from famine as from cold. It is also well known 
that bees have lived in hollow trees in the colder parts of 
Russia.— T. 

12 Edonian-] — This district is by some writers placed 
in Thrace, by others in Macedonia. The o is used long 
by Virgil, and short by Lucan : 

Ac velut Edoni Borese cum spiritus alto. 

JEn. xii. yd. 
Nam qualis vertice Pindi 
Edonis O^Vfjio decurrit plena Lytco. 

Luc. 1. 6M — T. 
It is also used long in Horace- 



248 



HERODOTUS. 



with the view of building there a city ; Coes, 
on the contrary, who was a private individual, 
wished to be made prince of Mitylene. Hav- 
ing obtained what they severally desired they 
departed. 

XII. Darius, induced by a circumstance of 
which he was accidentally witness, required 
Megabyzus to transport the Paeonians from 
Europe to Asia. Pigres and Mantyes were 
natives of Paeonia, the government of which 
became the object of their ambition. With 
these views, when Darius had passed over into 
Asia, they betook themselves to Sardis, car- 
rying with them their sister, a person of great 
elegance and beauty. As Darius was sitting 
publicly in that division of the city appropriate 
to the Lydians, they took the opportunity of 
executing the following artifice : they decorated 
their sister in the best manner they were able, 
and sent her to draw water ; she had a vessel 
upon her head, 1 she led a horse by a bridle fas- 
tened round her arm, and she was moreover 
spinning some thread. Darius viewed her as 
she passed with attentive curiosity, observing 
that her employments were not those of a Per- 
sian, Lydian, nor indeed of any Asiatic female. 
He was prompted by what he had seen to send 
some of his attendants, who might observe 
what she did with the horse. They according- 
ly followed her : the woman, when she came to 
the river, gave her horse some water, and then 
filled her pitcher. Having done this, she re- 
turned by the way she came ; with the pitcher 
of water on her head, the horse fastened by a 
bridle to her arm, and as before employed in 
spinning. 

XII. Darius, equally surprised at what he 
heard from his servants and had seen himself, 
sent for the woman to his presence. On her 

1 Upon her head.] Nicolas Damascenus tells a simi- 
lar story of Alyattes king- of Sardis. This prince was 
one day sitting before the walls of the town, when he 
beheld a Thracian woman with an urn on her head, a 
distaff and spindle in her hand, and behind her a horse 
secured by a bridle. The king, astonished, asked her 
who and of what country she was ? She replied, she was 
of Mysia, a district of Thrace. In consequence of this 
adventure, the king- by his ambassadors desired Cotys 
prince of Thrace to send him a colony from that country, 
of men, women, and children — Larcher. 

The Mysia mentioned in the above account is called by 
some Greek writers Mysia in Europe, to distingiush it 
from the province of that name in Asia Minor, but Pliny 
and most of the Latin writers, distinguish it more effec- 
tually by writing it Mcesia ; in which form it will be 
found in the maps, extending along the southern side of 
the Danube, opposite to Dacia ; being the tract which 
forms the modern Servia and Bulgaria. 



appearance, the brothers, who had observed all 
from a convenient situation, came forwards, 
and declared that they were Paeonians, and the 
woman their sister. Upon this, Darius in- 
quired who the Paeonians were, where was 
their country, and what induced themselves to 
come to Sardis. The young men replied, 
" that as to themselves, their only motive was 
! a desire of entering into his service ; that Paeo- 
nia their country was situated on the banks of 
the river Strymon, at no great distance from the 
Hellespont." They added, " that the Paeo- 
nians were a Trojan colony." Darius then 
inquired if all the women of their country were 
thus accustomed to labour ; they replied with- 
out hesitation in the affirmative, for this was 
the point they had particularly in view. 

XIV. In consequence of the above, Darius 
sent letters to Megabyzus, whom he had left 
commander of his forces in Thrace, ordering 
him to remove all the Paeonians to Sardis, with 
their wives and families. The courier sent 
with this message instantly made his way to 
the Hellespont, which having passed, he pre- 
sented Megabyzus with the orders of his mas- 
ter. Megabyzus accordingly lost no time in 
executing them : but taking with him some 
Thracian guides, 2 led his army against Paeonia. 

XV. The Paeonians, being aware of the 
intentions of the Persians, collected their 
forces, and advanced towards the sea, imagining 
the enemy would there make their attack : thus 
they prepared themselves to resist the invasion 
of Megabyzus : but the Persian general, being 
informed that every approach from the sea was 
guarded by their forces, under the direction of 
his guides made a circuit by the higher parts 
of the country, and thus eluding the Paeonians, 
came unexpectedly upon their towns, of which, 
as they were generally deserted, he took pos- 
session without difficulty. The Paeonians, in- 
formed of this event, dispersed themselves, and 
returning to their families, submitted to the 
Persians. Thus, the Paeonians, the Syro- 
paeonians, the Paeoplae, and they who possess 
the country as far as the Prasian lake, were 
removed from their habitations, and transport- 
ed to Asia. 

XVI. The people in the vicinity of mount 
with the Doberae, the Agrianae, 



2 Thracian guides.]— The French translators of Hero- 
dotus who preceded Larcher, mistaking the Latin ver- 
sion, sumptis e Thracia ducibus, have rendered this pas- 
sage, " commanda aux capitaines de Thrace."— T. 

3 Pangceus.]— This place, as Herodotus informs us 



TERPSICHORE. 



249 



Odomanti, and those of the Prasian lake, 
Megabyzus was not able to subdue. They 
who lived upon the lake, in dwellings of the 
following construction, were the objects of his 
next attempt. In this lake strong piles 4 are 
driven into the ground, over which planks are 
thrown, connected by a narrow bridge with 
the shore. These erections were in former 
times made at public expense ; but a law after- 
wards passed, obliging a man for every wife whom 
he should many (and they allow a plurality) to 
drive three of these piles into the ground, taken 
from a mountain called Orbelus. Upon these 
planks each man has his hut, from every one of 
which a trap- door opens to the water. To 
prevent their infants from falling into the lake, 
they fasten a string to their legs. Their horses 
and cattle are fed principally upon fish, 5 of 
which there is such abundance, that if any one 
lets down a basket into the water, and steps 
aside, he may presently after draw it up full of 
fish. Of these they have two particular species, 
called pap races and tilones. 

XVII. Such of the Paeonians as were taken 
captive were removed into Asia. After the 
conquest of this people, Megabyzus sent into 
Macedonia seven Persians of his army, next in 
dignity and estimation to himself, requiring of 
Amyntas, in the name of Darius, earth and 
water. From the lake Prasis to Macedonia 
there is a very short passage ; for upon the 
very brink of the lake is found the mine which 
in after times produced to Alexander a talent 
every day. Next to this mine is the Dysian 
mount, which being passed, you enter Mace- 
donia. 

XVIII. The Persians on their arrival were 
admitted to an immediate audience of Amyntas, 
when they demanded of him, in the name of 
Darius, earth and water. This was not only 
granted, but Amyntas received the messengers 
hospitably into his family, gave them a splendid 
entertainment, and treated them with particular 
kindness. When after the entertainment they 
began to drink, one of the Persians thus ad- 
dressed Amyntas : " Prince of Macedonia, it 
is a custom with us Persians, whenever we 
have a public entertainment, to introduce our 
concubines and young wives. Since therefore 



4 Strong piles, fyc.~\ — Exemplum urbis in fluvio super 
tignis et tabulatis structae in America habet Teixeira.— 
Reiske. 

5 With fish.~\— Torflineus, in his History of Norway, 
informs us, that in the cold and maritime parts of Europe 
cattle arc fed with &s\\.— Wesseling. 



you have received us kindly, and with the rites 
of hospitality, and have also acknowledged the 
claims of Darius, in giving him earth and wa- 
ter, imitate the custom we have mentioned." 
" Persians," replied Amyntas, " our manners 
are very different, for our women are kept se- 
parate from the men. But since you are our 
masters, and require it, what you solicit shall 
be granted. Amyntas therefore sent for the 
women, who on their coming were seated op- 
posite to the Persians. The Persians, observ- 
ing them beautiful, told Amyntas that he was 
still defective : " For it were better," they ex- 
claimed, " that they had not come at all, than 
on their appearing, not to suffer them to sit 
near us, but to place them opposite, as a kind 
of torment to our eyes." 6 Amyntas, acting 
thus under compulsion, directed the women to 
sit with the Persians. The women obeyed, 
and the Persians, being warmed by their wine, 
began to put their hands to their bosoms, and 
to kiss them. 

XIX. Amyntas observed this indecency, 
and with great vexation, though his awe of the 
Persians induced him not to notice it. But 
his son Alexander, who was also present, and 



6 Torment to our eyes.] — This passage has been the 
occasion of much critical controversy. Longinus cen- 
sures it as frigid. Many learned men, in opposition to 
Longinus, have vindicated the expression. Pearce, in 
his Commentaries, is of opinion that those who in this 
instance have opposed themselves to Longinus, have not 
entered into the precise meaning of that critic. The 
historian, he observes, does not mean to say that the 
beautyof these females might not excite dolores oculorum, 
but they could not themselves properly be termed dolores 
oculorum. Pearce quotes a passage from JEschylus, where 
Helen is called ^aXS-assov o^jAettoiv j3i\os, the tender dart 
of the eyes. Alexander the Great called the Persian 
women (SoXtia,? opyMTm, the darts of the eyes. After 
all, to me at least, considering it was used by natives of 
Persia, and making allowance for the warm and figura- 
tive language of the east, the expression seems to re- 
quire neither comment nor vindication. In some classi- 
cal lines written by Cowley, called The Account, I find 
this strong expression : 

When all the stars are by thee told, 

The endless sums of heavenly gold ; 

Or when the hairs are reckon'd all, 

From sickly Autumn's head that fall; 

Or when the drops that make the sea. 

Whilst all her sands thy counters be. 

Thou then, and then alone, may'st prove 

Th' arithmetician of my love. 

An hundred loves at Athens score ; 

At Corinth write an hundred more ; 

Three hundred more at Rhodes and Crete, 

Three hundred 'tis I'm sure complete. 

For aims at Crete each face does bear. 

And every eye's an archer there, &c. 

When we consider that the Cretan archers were cele- 
brated beyond all others, this expression will not seem 
much less bold or figurative than that of Herodotus. 

2 I 



250 



HERODOTUS. 



witnessed their behaviour, being in the vigour 
of youth, and hitherto without the experience 
of calamity, was totally unable to bear it. " Sir," 
said he to Amyntas, being much incensed, 
" your age is a sufficient excuse for your retir- 
ing ; leave me to preside at the banquet, and to 
pay such attention to our guests as shall be 
proper and necessary." Amyntas could not but 
observe that the warmth of youth prompted his 
son to some act of boldness ; he accordingly 
made him this reply : " I can plainly see your 
motive for soliciting my absence ; you desire 
me to go, that you may perpetrate somewhat to 
which your spirit impels you ; but I must in- 
sist upon it, J that you do not occasion our ruin 
by molesting these men ; suffer their indignities 
patiently. — I shall however follow your ad- 
vice, and retire. " With these words Amyntas 
left them. 

XX. Upon this, Alexander thus addressed 
the Persians : " You are at liberty, Sirs, to 
repose yourselves with any or with all of these 
females ; I have only to require, that you will 
make your choice known to me. It is now 
almost time to retire, and I can perceive that 
our wine has had its effect upon you. You will 
please therefore to suffer these women to go 
and bathe themselves, and they shall afterwards 
return." The Persians approved of what he 
said, and the women retired to their proper 
apartments ; but, in their room, he dressed up 
an equal number of smooth-faced young men, 
and arming each with a dagger, he introduced 
them to the company. " Persians," said he, 
on their entering, " we have given you a mag- 
nificent entertainment, and supplied you with 
every thing in our power to procure. We have 
also, which with us weighs more than all the 
rest, presented you with our matrons and our 
sisters, that we might not appear to you in 
any respect insensible of your merits ; and that 
you may inform the king your master with 
what liberality a Greek and prince of Mace- 
donia has entertained you at bed and at board." 
When he had thus said, Alexander commanded 
the Macedonians, whom he had dressed as 
females, to sit by the side of the Persians : but 



1 Insist upon it.J — The reader will in this place, I pre- 
sume, be naturally suspicious that the good old king 
Amyntas was well aware what his son Alexander in- 
tended to perpetrate. If he suspected what was about 
to be done, and had not wished its accomplishment, he 
would probably, notwithstanding his age, have stayed 
Hud prevented it.— T. 



on their first attempt to touch them, the Mace- 
donians put every one of them to death. 

XXI. These Persians with their retinue 
thus forfeited their lives ; they had been at- 
tended on this expedition with a number of 
carriages and servants, all of which were seized 
and plundered. At no great interval of time, 
a strict inquisition was made by the Persians 
into this business ; but Alexander, by his dis- 
cretion, obviated its effects. To Bubaris, 8 a 
native of Persia, and one of those 3 who had 
been sent to inquire into the death of his coun- 
trymen, he made very liberal presents, and 
gave his sister in marriage. By these means 
the assassination of the Persian officers was 
overlooked and forgotten. 

XXII. These Greeks were descended from 
Perdiccas : this they themselves affirm, and 
indeed I myself know it, from certain circum- 
stances which I shall hereafter relate. My 
opinion of this matter is also confirmed by the 
determination of those who preside at the 
Oljsmpic games : 4 for when Alexander, with 
an ambition of distingushing himself, expressed 
a desire of entering the lists, the Greeks, who 
were his competitors, repelled him with scorn, 
asserting, that this was a contest, not of Bar- 
barians, but of Greeks; but he proved him- 
self to be an Argive, and was consequently 



2 Bubaris. ] — It appears from book the seventh, chap. 
21, of our author, that this Bubaris was the son of Mega- 
fa yzus. — T. 

3 One of those.] — It is contended by Valknaer, and 
who is answered by Larcher, in a very long note, that 
instead of ruv trr^a,-rr,'yaiv, it should De roi o-T£a.TY,yca, that 
is, in fact, whether it should be " one of those," &c. or 
" chief of those," &c. Which of these is the more pro- 
per reading, is not, I think, of sufficient importance to 
warrant any hasty suspicion, not to say alteration of the 
text. That Bubaris was a man of rank we know, for 
he was the son of Megabyzus ; that he was the chief of 
those employed on this occasion, may be presumed, from 
his receiving from Alexander many liberal presents, and 
his own sister in marriage. — T. 

4 Preside at the Olympic games.] — The judges Avho 
presided at the Olympic games were called Hellanodicse ; 
their number varied at different times ; they were a long 
time ten, sometimes more, sometimes less, according to 
the number of the Elean tribes ; but it finally reverted 
to ten. They did not all judge promiscuously at every 
contest ; but only such as were deputed to do so. Their 
decisions might be appealed from, and they might even 
be accused before the senate of Olympia, who sometimes 
set aside their determinations. They who were elected 
Hellanodicse were compelled to reside ten months suc- 
cessively in a building appropriated to their use at 
Olympia, and named from them the Hellanodicaeon, in 
order to instruct themselves, previous to their entering 
on their office. — Larcher. 



TERPSICHORE. 



251 



allowed to be a Greek. He was then per- 
mitted to contend, and was matched with the 
first combatant. 8 

XXIII. I have related the facts which hap- 
pened. Megabyzus, taking the Paeonians along 
with him, passed the Hellespont, and arrived 
at Sardis. At this period, Histiaeus the Mi- 
lesian was engaged in defending with a wall 
the place which had been given him by Darius, 
as a reward for his preserving the bridge ; it is 
called Myrcinus," and is near the river Stry- 
mon. Megabyzus, as soon as he came to Sar- 
dis, and learned what had been done with res- 
pect to Histiaeus, thus addressed Darius ; 
" Have you, Sir, done wisely, in permitting a 
Greek of known activity and abilities to erect 
a city in Thrace ? in a place which abounds 
with every requisite for the construction and 
equipment of ships ; and where there are also 
mines of silver? A number of Greeks are 
there, mixed with Barbarians, who, making 
him their leader, will be ready on every occa- 
sion to execute his commands. Suffer him 
therefore to proceed no farther, lest a civil war 
be the consequence. Do not, however, use 
violent measures ; but when you shall have 
him in your power, take care to prevent the 
possibility of his return to Greece." 

XXIV. Darius was easily induced to yield 
to the arguments of Megabyzus, of whose saga- 
city he entirely approved. He immediately 
therefore sent him a message to the following 
purport : " Histiaeus, king Darius considers you 
as one of the ablest supports of his throne, of 
which he has already received the strongest 

5 With the first combatant.] — See Lucian, Hermoti- 
mus, vol. i. p. 782, 783. — Hemsterhusius. 

Lycinus. — Do not, Hermotiinus, tell me what an. 
cientl y was done, but what you yourself have seen at no 
great distance of time. 

Hermotimus. — A silver urn was produced sacred to 
the god, into which some small lots of the size of beans 
wore thrown : two of these are inscribed with the letter 
A, two more with B, two others with G, and so on, 
according to the number of competitors, there being 
always two lots marked with the same letter. The com- 
batants then advanced one by one, and calling on the 
name of Jupiter, put his hand into the urn, and drew out 
a lot. An officer stood near with a cudgel in his hand, 
and ready to strike if any one attempted to see what let- 
ter he had drawn. Then the Alytarch, or one of the 
Hellanodicae, obliging them to stand in a circle, paired 
such together as had drawn the same letter. If the 
number of competitors was not equal, he who drew the 
odd letter was matched against the victor, which was no 
small advantage, as he had to enter the lists quite fresh, 
against a man already fatigued. 

6 Myrcinus-] — This place in some books of geography 
is written Myrcenus. — T. 



testimony. He has now in contemplation a 
business of great importance, and requires your 
presence and advice." Histiaeus believed the 
messenger, and, delighted with the idea of be- 
ing invited to the king's councils, hastened to 
Sardis, where on his arrival Darius thus ad- 
dressed him : " Histiaeus, my motive for solicit- 
ing your presence is this ; my not seeing you at 
my return from Scythia filled me with the ex- 
tremist regret : my desire to converse with you 
continually increased, being well convinced that 
there is no treasure so great as a sincere and 
sagacious friend, for of your truth as well as 
prudence I have received the most satisfactory 
proofs. You have done well in coming to me ; 
I therefore entreat that, forgetting Miletus, and 
leaving the city you have recently built in 
Thrace, you will accompany me to Susa; you 
shall there have apartments in my palace, and 
live with me, my companion and my friend." 

XXV. Darius, having thus accomplished 
his wishes, took Histiaeus with him, and de- 
parted for Susa. Artaphernes, his brother by 
the father's side, was left governor of Sardis ; 
Otanes was intrusted with the command of the 
sea-coast. Sisamnes, the father of the latter, 
had been one of the royal judges ; but having 
been guilty of corruption in the execution of his 
office, was put to death by Cambyses. By order 
of this prince, the entire skin was taken from 
his body, and fixed over the tribunal 7 at which 
he formerly presided. Cambyses gave the office 
of Sisamnes to his son Otanes, commanding 
him to have constantly in memory in what tri- 
bunal he sat. 

XXVI. Otanes having at first the above 
appointment, succeeded afterwards to the com- 
mand of Megabyzus, when he reduced Byzan- 
tium and Chalcedon. He took also Lamponium 8 
and Antandros, 9 which latter is in the province of 
Troy. With the assistance of a fleet from 
Lesbos, he made himself master of Lemnos and 
Imbros, both of which were then inhabited by 
Pelasgi. 

7 Fixed over the tribunal.] — This it seems was a com- 
mon custom in Persia ; and corrupt judges were some- 
times flayed alive, and their skins afterwards thus dis- 
posed. Larcher quotes a passage from Diodorus Siculus, 
which informs us that Artaxerxes punished some unjust 
judges precisely in this manner. — T. 

8 Lamponium.] — Pliny, and I believe Strabo, call this 
place Lamporea. It was an island of the Chersonese 

9 Antandroi.~^~ 

Classemque sub ipsa 
Antandro et Phrygise molimur montibus Idre. Virg. j£n. iii. 5. 

This place has experienced a variety of names, Assos, 
Apollooia, and now Dhnitri.— T. 



252 



HERODOTUS. 



XXVII. The Lemnians fought with great 
bravery, and made a long and vigorous resist- 
ance, but were at length subdued. Over such 
as survived-the conflict, the Persians appointed 
Lycaretus governor : he was the brother of 
Maeander, who had reigned at Samos, but he 
died during his government. All the above 
mentioned people were reduced to servitude : 
it was pretended that some had been deserters 
in the Scythian expedition, and that others had 
harassed Darius in his retreat. Such was the 
conduct of Otanes in his office, which he did 
not long enjoy with tranquillity. 

XXVIII. The Ionians were soon visited 
by new calamities, from Miletus and from 
Naxos. 1 Of all the islands, Naxos was the 
happiest; but Miletus might be deemed the 
pride of Ionia, and was at that time in the 
height of its prosperity. In the two preced- 
ing ages it had been considerably weakened by 
internal factions, but the tranquillity of its in- 
habitants was finally restored by the interposi- 
tion of the Parians, 2 whom the Milesians had 
preferred on this occasion to all the other 
Greeks. 

XXIX. To heal the disorders which exist- 
ed amongst them, the Parians applied the fol- 
lowing remedy : — Those employed in this office 
were of considerable distinction ; and perceiv- 
ing, on their arrival at Miletus, that the whole 
state was involved in extreme confusion, they 
desired to examine the condition of their terri- 
tories ; wherever, in their progress through this 
desolate country, they observed any lands well 
cultivated, they wrote down the name of the 
owner. In the whole district, however, they 
found but few estates so circumstanced. Return- 
ing to Miletus, they called an assembly of the 
people, and they placed the direction of affairs in 
the hands of those who had best cultivated their 

1. Naxos. 2— This place was first called Strongyle, after- 
wards Dia, and then Naxos ; there was a place of this 
name also in Sicily. The Naxos of the JEgeaa is now 
called Naxia ; it was anciently famous for its whetstones, 
and Naxia cos became a proverb. In classical story, this 
island is famous for being the place where Theseus, re- 
turning from Crete, forsook Ariadne, who afterwards 
became the wife of Bacchus : a very minute and satis- 
factory account of the ancient and modern condition of 
this island, is to be found in Tournefort. Stephens the 
geographer says, that the women of Naxos went with 
child but eight months, and that the island possessed a 
spring of pure wine. — T. 

2 Parians."} — The inhabitants of Paros have always 
been accounted people of good sense, and the Greeks of 
the neighbouring islands often make them arbitrators of 
their disputes.— See Tournefort; who gives an excellent 
Recount of this island. 



lands : for they concluded, that they would be 
watchful of the public interest, who had taken 
care of their own : they enjoined all the Mile- 
sians who had before been factious, to obey 
these, and they thus restored the general tran- 
quillity. 

XXX. The evils which the Ionians expe- 
rienced from these cities were of this nature ; — 
Some of the more noble inhabitants of Naxos, 
being driven by the common people into banish- 
ment, sought a refuge at Miletus ; Miletus was 
then governed by Aristagoras, son of Molpago- 
ras, the son-in-law and cousin of Histiaeus, 
son of Lysagoras, whom Darius detained 
at Susa : Histiaeus was prince of Miletus, 
but was at Susa when the Naxians arrived 
in his dominions.- — These exiles petitioned 
Aristagoras to assist them with supplies, 
to enable them to return to their country : he 
immediately conceived the idea, that by accom- 
plishing their return, he might eventually become 
master of Naxos. He thought proper, how- 
ever, to remind them of the alliance which sub- 
sisted betwixt Histiaeus and their countrymen ; 
and he addressed them as follows ; I am not 
master of adequate force to restore you to your 
country, if they who are in possession of Naxos 
shall think proper to oppose me : the Naxians 
I am told, have eight thousand men in arms, 
and many ships of war ! I, nevertheless, wish 
to effect it, and I think it may be thus accom- 
plished : — Artaphernes, son of Hystaspes, and 
brother of Darius, is my particular friend ; he 
has the command of all the sea-coast of Asia, 
and is provided with a numerous army, and a 
powerful fleet ; he will, I think, do all that I 
desire." The Naxians instantly intrusted Anaxa- 
goras with the management of the business, en- 
treated him to complete it as he could : they 
engaged to assist the expedition with forces, and 
to make presents to Artaphernes ; and they 
expressed great hopes that as soon as they should 
appear before the place, Naxos, with the rest 
of the islands, would immediately submit ; for 
hitherto none of the Cyclades were under the 
power of Darius. 

XXXI. Aristagoras went immediately to 
Sardis, where meeting with Artaphernes, he 
painted to him in flattering terms the island of 
Naxos, which, though of no great extent, he 
represented as exceedingly fair and fertile, con- 
veniently situated with respect to Ionia, very 
wealthy, and remarkably populous — " It will 
be worth your while," said he, " to make an ex- 
pedition against it, under pretence of restoring 



TERPSICHORE. 



253 



its exiles ; to facilitate this, I already possess a 
considerable sum of money, besides what will 
be otherwise supplied. It is proper that we 
who set the expedition on foot should provide 
the contingent expenses ; but you will certainly 
acquire to the king our master, Naxos with its 
dependencies, Paros and Andros, with the rest 
of the islands called the Cyclades : from hence 
you may easily attempt the invasion of Euboea, 3 
an island large and fertile, and not at all inferior 
to Cyprus ; this will afford you an easy conquest, 
and a fleet of one hundred ships will be sufficient 
to effect the whole." To this Artaphernes 
replied, " What you recommend will, unquestion- 
ably, promote the interest of the king, and the 
particulars of your advice are reasonable and 
consistent ; instead of one hundred, a fleet of 
two hundred vessels shall be ready for you in 
the beginning of spring; it will be proper, 
however, to have the sanction of the king's 
authority." 

XXXII. Pleased with the answer he receiv- 
ed, Aristagoras returned to Miletus. Arta- 
phernes sent immediately to acquaint Darius 
with the project of Aristagoras, which met his 
approbation ; he accordingly fitted out two hun- 
dred triremes, which he manned partly with 
Persians and partly with their allies ; Mega- 
bates had the command of the whole ; a Persian 
of the family of the Achsemenides, related to 
Darius and himself, whose daughter, if report 
may be credited, 4 was, in succeeding times, 
betrothed to Pausanias the Lacedaemonian, son 
of Cleombrotus, who aspired to the sovereignty 
of Greece. These forces, under the direction 
of this Megabates, were sent by Artaphernes 
to Aristagoras. 

XXXIII. Megabates embarking at Mile- 
tus, with Aristagoras, a body of Ionians, and 
the Naxians, pretended to sail towards the 
Hellespont ; but arriving at Chios, he laid-to 
near Caucasa, 5 meaning, under the favour of a 



3 Euhcea.~\ — This large island is now commonly called 
Negropont or Negrepont, by the Europeans ; which is a 
corruption of its proper appellation Egripo : anciently 
it had, at different times, a great variety of names, Macris, 
Chalcis, Asopis, &c At Artemisium, one of its pro- 
montories, the first battle was fought betwixt Xerxes and 
the Greeks.— T. 

4 If report may be credited-'}— It appears by this, that 
when Herodotus composed this work, he had no know- 
ledge of the letter in which Pausanias demanded of Xer- 
xes his daughter in marriage — It may be seen in Thucy- 
dides. — Larcher. 

5 Xear Caucasa.]— This passage has been erroneously 
retKiered, by the French translators of Herodotus who 



north wind, to pass from thence to Naxos. 
The following circumstance, however, happen- 
ed, as if to prove that it was not ordained for 
the Naxians to suffer from this expedition: — 
Megabates on going his rounds, found a Myn- 
dian vessel deserted by its crew ; he was so 
exasperated, that he commanded his guards to 
find Scylax, who commanded it, and to bind 
him in such a situation, that his head should 
appear outwardly from the aperture through 
which the oar passed, his body remaining in 
the vessel- Aristagoras being informed of the 
treatment which his friend the Myndian had 
received, went to Megabates to make his ex- 
cuse, and obtain his liberty ; but as his expos- 
tulations proved ineffectual, he went himself 
and released Scylax. Megabates was much 
incensed, and expressed his displeasure to Aris- 
tagoras ; from whom he received this reply : 
" Your authority," said Aristagoras, " does not 
extend so far as you suppose ; you were sent 
to attend me, and to sail wherever I should 
think expedient ; — you are much too officious.' 
Megabates took this reproach so ill, that at 
the approach of night he despatched some emis- 
saries to Naxos, to acquaint the inhabitants 
with the intended invasion. 

XXXIV. Of this attack the Naxians had 
not the remotest expectation ; but they took 
the advantage of the intelligence imparted to 
them, and provided against a siege, by remov- 
ing their valuables from the fields to the town, 
and by laying up a store of water and provi- 
sions, and, lastly, by repairing their walls ; 
they were thus prepared against every emer- 
gence, whilst the Persians, passing over from 
Chios to Naxos, found the place in a perfect 
state of defence. Having wasted four months 
in the attack, and exhausted all the pecuniary 
resources which themselves had brought, to- 
gether with what Aristagoras supplied, they 
still found that much was wanting to accomplish 
their purpose ; they erected, therefore, a fort 
for the Naxian exiles and returned to the con- 
tinent greatly disappointed. 

XXXV. Aristagoras thus found himself 
unable to fulfil his engagements with Artapher- 

preceded Larcher, as well as by our countryman Little- 
bury, " over-against mount Caucasus;" but whoever 
will be at the pains to attend to the geographical distan- 
ces of mount Caucasus and the islands of the iEgean 
sea, Chios and Naxos, will easily perceive that the place 
here meant must be some strait in the island of Chios, 
or some small island in its vicinity. — c oe the Kssais de 
Critique sur Ic-s Traductions d'Herodotc, by the Abbe 
Bcllanger.— T. 



254 



HERODOTUS. 



nes ; and he was also, to his great vexation, 
called upon to defray the expense of the expe- 
dition ; he saw moreover, in the person of Me- 
gabates, an accuser, and he feared that their ill 
success should be imputed to him, and made a 
pretence for depriving him of his authority at 
Miletus ; all these motives induced him to 
meditate a revolt. Whilst he was in this per- 
plexity, a messenger arrived from Histiaeus, at 
Susa, who brought with him an express com- 
mand to revolt ; the particulars of which were 
impressed in legible characters upon his skull ;' 
Histiseus was desirous to communicate his in- 
tentions to Aristagoras, but as the ways were 
strictly guarded, he could devise no other 
method; he therefore took one of the most 
faithfid of his slaves, and inscribed what we 
have mentioned upon his skull, being first 
shaved ; he detained the man till his hair was 
again grown, when he sent to him Miletus, de- 
siring him to be as expeditious as possible ; and 
simply requesting Aristagoras to examine his 
skull, he discovered the characters which com- 
manded him to commence a revolt. To this mea- 
sure Histiseus was induced, by the vexation he 
experienced from his captivity at Susa. He 
flattered himself, that as soon as Aristagoras 
was in action, he should be able to escape to 
the sea-coast ; but whilst every thing remained 
quiet at Miletus, he had no prospect of effect- 
ing his return. 

XXXVI. With these views Histiaeus des- 
patched his emissary ; the message he delivered 
to Aristagoras was alike grateful and season- 
able, who accordingly signified to his party, 

1 Upon his skull']— Many curious contrivances are on 
record, of which the ancients availed themselves to con- 
vey secret intelligence. Ovid mentions an example of a 
letter inscribed on a person's back : 

Caveat hoc custos, pro charta, conscia tergum 
Pra^beat, inque suo corpore verba ferat. 

The circumstance here mentioned by Herodotus is told 
at greater length by Aulus Gellius, who says that His- 
tiseus chose one of his domestics for this purpose who 
had sore eyes, to cure which he told him that his hair 
must be shaved, and his head scarified ; having done 
which, he wrote what he intended on the man's head 
and then sent him to Aristagoras, who, he told him, 
would effect his cure by shaving his head a second time. 
Josephus mentions a variety of stratagems to effect this 
purpose ; some were sent in coffins, during the Jewish 
war, to convey intelligence ; others crept out of places 
disguised like dogs j some have conveyed their intentions 
in various articles of food : and in bishop Wilkin's Mer- 
cury, where a number of examples of this nature are 
collected, mention is made of a person, who rolled up a 
letter in a wax candle, bidding the messenger inform the 
party that was to receive it, that the candle woidd give 
him light for his business. — T. 



that his own opinions were confirmed by the 
commands of Histiaeus : his intentions to com- 
mence a revolt met with the general approbation 
of the assembly, Hecataeus the historian being 
the only one who dissented. To dissuade them 
from any act of hostility against the Persian 
monarch, he enumerated the various nations 
which Darius had subdued, and the prodigious 
power he possessed : when he found these argu- 
ments ineffectual, he advised them to let their 
fleet take immediate possession of the sea, as 
the only means by which they might expect 
success. He confessed that the resources of 
the Milesians were but few ; but he suggested 
the idea that if they would make a seizure of 
the wealth deposited by Croesus the Lydian in 
the Branchidian temple, 2 they might promise 
themselves these two advantages ; they would be 
able to make themselves masters of the sea, and 
by thus using these riches themselves, would pre- 
vent their being plundered by the enemy. — That 
these riches were of very considerable value, I 
have explained in my first book. This advice, 
however, was as ill received, although the deter- 
mination to revolt was fixed and universal t it 
was agreed that one of their party should sail 
to the army, which, on its return from Naxos 
had disembarked at Myus, 3 with the view of 
seizing the persons of the officers. 

XXXVII. Iatragoras was the person em- 
ployed in this buisness ; who so far succeeded, 
that he captured Oliatus the Mylassensian, son 
of Ibanolis ; Histiaeus of Termene, 4 son of 
Tymnis ; Coe's the son of Erxander, to whom 
Darius had given Mitylene ; together with Ar- 
istagoras the Cymaean, son of Heraclides ; with 
many others. Aristagoras thus commenced a 
regular revolt, full of indignation against Darius. 



2 Branchidian temple.]— For an account of the temple 
of Branchidae, see page 15. " If Aristagoras," says Lar- 
cher, " had followed the prudent counsel of Hecataeus, 
he would have had an increase of power against the Per- 
sians, and deprived Xerxes of the opportunity of pillaging 
this temple,and employing its riches against Greece."— T. 

3 Myus.] — This city was given to Themistocles, to 
furnish his table with fish, with which the bay of Myus 
formerly abounded : the bay, in process of time, became a 
fresh-water lake, and produced such swarms of gnats, 
that the inhabitants deserted the place, and were after- 
wards incorporated with the Milesians. Chandler, who 
visited this place, complains that the old nuisance of Myus 
tormented him and his companions exceedingly, and that 
towards the evening the inside of their tent was made 
quite black by the number of gnats which infested them. 
— T. 

4 Termene.] — Larcher remarks on this word, that no 
such place existed in Caria as Termere, which is the 
common reading : it certainly ought to be Termene.— T. 



TERPISCHORE. 



255 



To engage the Milesians to act in concert with 
him, he established among them a republican 
form of government. He adopted a similar con- 
duct with respect to the rest of Ionia ; and to 
excite a general prejudice in his favour, he ex- 
pelled the tyrants from some places, and he also 
sent back those who had been taken in the ves- 
sels which served against Naxos, to the cities to 
which they severally belonged. 

XXXVIII. The inhabitants of Mitylene 
had no sooner got Coes into their hands, than 
they put him to death, by stoning him. The 
Cymeans sent their tyrant back again ; and the 
generality of those who had possessed the su- 
preme authority being driven into exile, an equal 
form of government was established : this being 
accomplished, Aristagoras the Milesian direct- 
ed magistrates, 5 elected by the people, to be 
established in the different cities ; after which 
he himself sailed in a trireme to Lacedaemon, 
convinced of the necessity of procuring some 
powerful allies. 

XXXIX. Anaxandrides, son of Leontes, 
did not then sit upon the throne of Sparta : he 
was deceased, and his son Cleomenes had suc- 
ceeded him, rather on account of his family than 
his virtues : Anaxandrides had married his 
niece, of whom he was exceedingly fond though 
she produced him no children; in consequence of 
which the ephori thus expostulated with him : 
" If you do not feel for yourself, you ought for 
us, and not suffer the race of Eurysthenes to be 
extinguished. As the wife which you now have 
is barren, repudiate her and marry another, by 
which you will much gratify your countrymen." 
He replied, that he could not comply with either 
of their requests, as he did not think them to be 
justified in recommending him to divorce an in- 
nocent woman, and to marry another. 

XL. The ephori consulted with the senate, 
and made him this reply : " We observe your 
excessive attachment to your wife ; but if you 
would avoid the resentment of your countrymen, 
do what we advise : we will not insist upon 
your repudiating your present wife,— behave to 
her as you have always done ; but we wish you 
to marry another, by whom you may have off- 
spring." — To this Anaxandrides assented, and 
from that time had two wives," and two separate 



5 Magistrates.] — The original is e-T^ocr^yos, which, as 
M. Larcher remarks, does not in this place mean the 
leader of an army, but a magistrate, corresponding with 
the archons of Athens. — T. 

6 Two wives.] — " He was the only Lacedaemonian," 
Bays Pausanias, "who had two wives at the same time, 



dwellings, contrary to the usage of his coun- 
try. 

XLI. At no great interval of time the 
woman whom he last married produced him 
this Cleomenes, the presumptive heir of his 
dominions ; about the same period his former 
wife, who had hitherto been barren, proved 
with child. Although there was not the small- 
est doubt of her pregnancy, the relations of the 
second wife, vexed at the circumstance, indus- 
triously circulated a report, that she had not 
conceived, but intended to impose upon them a 
supposititious child. Instigated by these insin- 
uations, the ephori distrusted and narrowly 
observed her; she was, however, delivered, 
first of Dorieus, then of Leonidas, 7 and lastly 
of Cleombrotus : by some it has been affirmed, 
that Leonidas and Cleombrotus were twins. 
The second wife, who was the daughter of 
Prinetades, and grandaughter of Demarme- 
nus, had never any other child but Cleomenes. 

XLII. Of Cleomenes it is reported, that 
he had not the proper use of his faculties, but 
was insane ; Dorieus, on the contrary, was 
greatly distinguished by his accomplishments, 
and trusted to find his way to the throne by 
valour and by merit. On the death of Anax- 
andrides, 8 the Lacedaemonians, agreeably to 
the custom of their nation, preferred Cleo- 
menes," as eldest, to the sovereignty. This 
greatly disgusted Dorieus, who did not choose 
to become the dependent of his brother ; taking 
with him, therefore, a number of his country- 
men, he left Sparta, and founded a colony: 
but so impetuous was his resentment, that he 
neglected to inquire of the Delphic oracle 
where he should fix his residence ; nor did he 
observe any of the ceremonies ,0 usual on such 
occasions. Under the conduct of some The- 



and had two separate dwellings." — See Pausanias, La- 
con. lib. iii. chap. 3. 211.— T. 

7 Leonidas.]— This was the Leonidas who died with 
so much glory at the straits of Thermopylae, 

8 Anaxandrides.] — An apothegm of this Anaxandri- 
des is left by Plutarch : being asked why they preserved 
no money in the exchequer; "That the keepers of it," 
he replied, "might not be tempted to become knaves." 
—T. 

9 Cleomenes.] — This Cleomenes, as is reported by 
JElian, used to say that Homer was the poet of the La- 
cedaemonians, and Hesiod the poet of the Helots : one 
taught the art of war, the other of agriculture. — T. 

10 Of the cere?nonies.] — Amongst other ceremonies 
which they observed, when they went to e sta blis h a 
colony, they took some lire from the Prytaneum of the 
metropolis; and if in the colony this ever was ex- 
tingiushed, they returned to the metropolis to rekindle 
it. — Lurcher. 



256 



HERODOTUS. 



reans, he sailed to Africa, and settled on the 
banks of a river near Cinyps, 1 one of the most 
delightful situations in that part of the world : 
in the third year of his residence, being expelled 
by the joint efforts of the Maci, Afri, and 
Carthaginians, he returned to the Peloponnese. 

XLIII. Here Antichares of Elis advised 
him, in conformity to the oracles of Laius, 
to found Heraclea in Sicily: affirming that 
all the region of Eryx was the property ot 
the Heraclidse, 8 as having belonged to Her- 
cules : he accordingly went to Delphi to con- 
sult the oracle, whether the country where he 
was about to reside would prove a permanent 
acquisition. The reply of the Pythian being 
favourable, he embarked in the same vessels 
which had accompanied him from Africa, and 
sailed to Italy. 

XLIV. At this period, as is reported, the 
Sybarites, under the conduct of Telys their king, 
meditated an attack upon the inhabitants of 
Crotona ; apprehensive of which, these latter 



1 Cinyps.] — The vicinity of this river abounded in 
goats, and was celebrated for its fertility. — See Virgil : 

Nee minus interea barbas, incanaque menta 
Ciniphii tondent hirci. 

It may be proper to observe, that this passage, quoted 
from Virgil, has been the occasion of much literary con- 
troversy. — See Heyne on Georgic. lib. iii. 312. 

Ciniphiae segetis citius numerabis aristas. 

This river is in the district belonging to the modern 
Tripoli. 

The Cinyps fell into the sea, near Leptis, in Proper 
Africa; Claudian has called it Vagus, without much 
appropriation of his epithet ; for its course is short and 
not wandering : 

Quos Vagus humectat Cinyps, et proximus hortis 
Hesperidum Triton, et Gir notissimus amnis, 
/Ethiopum, simili mentitus gurgite Nilum. — 

De Laud. Slit. 251.— T. 

2 Oracles of Laius.]—The Greek is £» ™v Aeuev 
X%yitrftuv : — this M. Larcher has rendered " the oracles 
declared to Laius." 

3 Belonged to Hercules.]— When Hercules came into 
the country of Eryx, the son of Venus and Bula 
the king of the country, challenged Hercules to wrestle 
with him : both sides proposed the wager to be won and 
lost. Eryx laid to stake his kingdom, but Hercules his 
oxen : Eryx at first disdained such an unequal wager, not 
fit to be compared with his country ; but when Hercules, 
on the other side, answered, that if he lost them, he 
should lose Ms immortality with them, Eryx was con- 
tented with the condition, and engaged in the contest : 
but he was overcome, and so was stripped of the pos- 
session of his country, which Hercules gave to the in- 
habitants, allowing them to take the fruits to their own 
use, till some of his posterity came to demand it, which 
afterwards happened ; for, many ages after, Dorieus the 
Lacedaemonian, sailing into Sicily, recovered his ances- 
tor's dominion, and there built Heraclea.— Booth's Dio- 
dorus Siculus. 



implored the assistance of Dorieus : he listened 
to their solicitations, and joining forces, he 
marched with them against Sybaris, 4 and took 
it. 5 The Sybarites say, that Dorieus and his 
companions did this ; but the people of Crotona 
deny that in their contest with the Sybarites 
they availed themselves of the assistance of any 
foreigner, except Callias of Elis, a priest of the 
family of the Iamidae. 6 He had fled from Telys, 
prince of Sybaris, because on some solemn sacri- 
fice he was not able from inspecting the entrails 
of the victim to promise success against Crotona, 
— The matter is thus differently stated by the 
two nations. 

XLV. The proofs of what they severally 
assert are these :«— The Sybarites show near the 
river Crastis, which is sometimes dry, a sacred 
edifice, built, as they affirm, by Dorieus, after 
the capture of his city, and consecrated to the 
Crastian 7 Minerva. The death of Dorieus him- 
self is another, and with them the strongest tes- 
timony, for he lost his life whilst acting in 



4 Sybaris] — was founded by the Achseans, betwixt 
the rivers Crastis and Sybaris ; it soon became a place 
of great opulence and power ; the effeminacy of the peo- 
ple became proverbial; see Plutarch. — " It is reported," 
says he, in his Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, " that 
the Sybarites used to invite their neighbours' wives a 
whole twelvemonth before their entertainments, that 
they might have convenient time to dress and adorn them- 
selves." — See also Athenaeus, book xii c. 3, by whom 
many whimsical things are recorded of the Sybarites. Their 
attendants at the bath had fetters, that they might not, 
by their careless haste, burn those who bathed ; all noisy 
trades were banished from their city, that the sleep of 
the citizens might not be disturbed ; for the same reason, 
also, they permitted no cocks to be kept in their city. 
An inhabitant of this place being once at Sparta, was 
invited to a public entertainment, where with other 
guests, he was seated on a wooden bench : " Till now," 
he remarked, " the bravery of the Spartans has excited 
my admiration ; but I no longer wonder that men living 
so hard a life should be fearless of death. This place was 
afterwards called Thurium. — T. 

5 And took it.] — The cause of the war, according to 
Diodorus Siculus, was this ; " Telys persuaded the Sybar- 
ites to banish five hundred of their most powerful citizens, 
and to sell their effects by public auction; the exiles 
retired to Crotona. Telys sent ambassadors to demand 
the fugitives, or in case of refusal to denounce war; the 
people were disposed to give them up, but the celebrated 
Pythagoras persuaded them to engage in their defence : 
Milo was very active in the contest, and the event was 
so fatal to the Sybarites, that their town was plundered 
and reduced to a perfect solitude. — Larcher. 

6 Iamidce.] — To Iamus and his descendants, who were 
after him called Iamidae, Apollo gave the art of divination. 
— See the fifth Olympic of Pindar. 

7 Crastian.]— The city Crastis, or, as it is otherwise 
called, Crastus, was celebrated for being the birth-place 
of the comic poet Epicharmus, and of the courtesan 
Lais.— T. 



TERPSICHORE. 



257 



opposition to the express commands of the 
oracle. For if he had confined his exertions to 
what was the avowed object of his expedition, 
he would have obtained, and effectually secured, 
the possession of the region of Eryx, and thus 
have preserved himself and his followers. The 
inhabitants of Crotona are satisfied with exhibit- 
ing certain lands, given to the Elean Callias, 
in the district of Crotona, which even within 
my remembrance the descendants of Callias pos- 
sess : this was not the case with Dorieus, nor 
any of his posterity. It must be obvious, that 
if this Dorieus, in the war above mentioned, 
had assisted the people of Crotona, they would 
have given more to him than to Callias. To 
the above different testimonies, every person is 
at liberty to give what credit he thinks proper. 

XLVI. Amongst those who accompanied 
Dorieus, with a view of founding a colony, were 
Thessalus, Paraebates, Celees, and Euryleon, 
all of whom, Euryleon excepted, fell in an en- 
gagement with the Phenicians and iEgestans, 
on their happening to touch at Sicily ; this man, 
collecting such as remained of his companions, 
took possession of Minoas, a Selinusian colony, 
which he delivered from the oppression of Pytha- 
goras. Euryleon putting the tyrant to death as- 
sumed his situation and authority. These, how- 
ever, he did not long enjoy, for the Selinusians 
rose in a body against him, and slew him before 
the altar of Jupiter Forensis, 8 where he had fled 
for refuge. 

XLVIL Philip, 9 a native of Crotona, and 
son of Butacides, was the companion of Dorieus 
in his travels and death : he had entered into 
engagements of marriage with a daughter of 
Telys of Sybaris, but not choosing to fulfil them, 
he left his country, and went to Cyrene ; from 
hence also he departed, in search of Dorieus, 
in a three- oared vessel of his own, manned with 
a crew provided at his own expense : he had 
been victorious in the Olympic games, and was 
confessedly the handsomest man in Greece. 
On account of his accomplishments of person, 10 



8 Jupiter Forensis.']— That is to say, in the public forum, 
where the 4 altar of this god was erected. — T. 

9 Philip.'] — «.« There seems in this place," says Reiskc, 
" to be something wanted : how did Plulip come amongst 
the iEgestans; or how did he obtain their friendship; 
or, if he was killed with Dorieus, in Italy, how did he 
escape in a battle with the ^gestans ? These, " con eludes 
Reiske, " are difficulties which I am totally unable to re- 
concile." 

10 Accomplishments of perso?i.] — For *.«Xko$ in this 
place, some are for reading »*£*? ; but Eustathius quotes 
the circumstance and passage at length, a strong argu- 



the people of iEgestus distinguished him by 
very unusual honours : they erected a monu- 
ment over the place of his interment, where 
they offered sacrifices as to a divinity. 

XL VIII. We have above related the for- 
tunes and death of Dorieus. If he could have 
submitted to the authority of his brother Cieo- 
menes, and had remained at Lacedaemon, he 
would have succeeded to the throne of Sparta. 
Cleomenes, after a very short reign, died, leav- 
ing an only child, a daughter, of the name of 
Gorgo. 11 

XLIX. During the reign of Cleomenes, 
Aristagoras, prince of Miletus, arrived at 
Sparta : the Lacedaemonians affirm, that desir- 
ing to have a conference with their sovereign, 
he appeared before him with a tablet of brass 
in his hand, upon which was inscribed every 
known part of the habitable world, the seas, 
and the rivers. He thus addressed the Spartan 
monarch ■. " When you know my business, 
Cleomenes, you will cease, to wonder at my 
zeal in desiring to see you. The Ionians, who 
ought to be free, are in a state of servitude, 
which is not only disgraceful, but also a source 
of the extremest sorrow to us, as it must also 
be to you, who are so pre-eminent in Greece. 
— I entreat you therefore, by the gods of Greece, 
to restore the Ionians to liberty, who are con- 
nected with you by ties of consanguinity. The 
accomplishment of this will not be difficult ; the 
Barbarians are by no means remarkable for their 
valour, whilst you, by your military virtue, have 
attained the summit of renown. They rush to 
the combat armed only with a bow and a short 
spear; 12 their robes are long, they suffer their 

ment for retaining the reading of y.a.XXes : — " Designa- 
tor," says Wesseling, "quid fieri solebat Egestae :" but 
that it was usual in various places to honour persons for 
their beauty, is evident from various passages in ancient 
authors. A beautiful passage from Lucretius, which I 
have before quoted in this work, sufficiently attests tlris, 
—K.c&6i<rrcov 5e fccti troXXot tous xctXXitrrovs (5*iri\zct; : 
many nations assign the sovereignty to those amongst 
them who are the most beautiful, says Athenseus. 
Beauty, declares Euripides, is worthy of a kingdom— 
-x^onto (iivutics c&fyuv rv^Kwides. —See a very entertaining 
chapter on this subject in Athenaeus, book xiii. c. 2. — T. 

11 Gorgo.] — She married Leonidas. When this prince 
departed for Thermopylae, Gorgo asked him what com- 
mands he had for her ; " Marry," says he, " some worthy 
man, and become the mother of a valiant race." — He 
himself expected to perish. This princess was remarka- 
ble for her virtue, and one of the women whom Plutarch 
proposed as a model to Eurydice. — Larcher. 

12 Bow a7id a short spear.]— A particular account of 
the military habit and arms of the oriental nations is given 
in the seventh book of Herodotus, in which place he 
minutely describes the various people which composed 

2 K 



258 



HERODOTUS. 



hair to grow, and they will afford an easy con- 
quest ; add to this, that they who inhabit the 
continent are affluent beyond the rest of their 
neighbours. They have abundance of gold, of 
silver, and of brass ; they enjoy a profusion of 
every article of dress, have plenty of cattle, and 
prodigious number of slaves ;* all these, if you 
think proper, may be yours. The nations by 
which they are surrounded I shall explain : next 
to these Ionians are the Lydians, who possess 
a fertile territory, and a profusion of silver." 
Saying this, he pointed on the tablet in his hand, 
to the particular district of which he spake. 
" Contiguous to the Lydians," continued Aris- 
tagoras, " as you advance towards the east, are 
the Phrygians, a people who beyond all the na- 
tions of whom I have any knowledge, enjoy the 
greatest abundance of cattle, and of the earth's 
produce. The Cappadocians, whom we call 
Syrians, join to the Phrygians : then follow the 
Cilicians, who possess the scattered islands of 
our sea, in the vicinity of Cyprus : these people 
pay annually to the king a tribute of five hun- 
dred talents. The Armenians, who have also 
great plenty of cattle, border on the Cilicians. 
The Armenians have for their neighbours the 
Matieni, who inhabit the region contiguous to 
Cissia : in this latter district, and not far re- 
mote from the river Choaspes, is Susa, where 
the Persian monarch occasionally resides, and 
where his treasures are deposited. — Make your- 
selves masters of this city, and you may vie in 
affluence with Jupiter himself. Lay aside, 
therefore, the contest in which you are engaged 

the prodigious army of Xerxes. It may not be improper 
to add, that the military habits of the Greeks and Ro- 
mans very much resembled each other. — T. 

1 Number of slaves.] — The first slaves were doubtless 
captives taken in war, who were employed for menial 
purposes ; from being sought after for use, they finally 
were purchased and possessed for ostentation. A pas- 
sage in Athenseus informs us that he knew many Ro- 
mans who possessed from ten to twenty thousand slaves- 
According to Tacitus, four hundred slaves were discov- 
ered in one great man's house at Rome, all of whom 
were executed for not preventing the death of their 
master. Some nations marked their slaves like cattle ; 
and in Menjan's history of Algiers, the author represents 
a Turk saying scornfully to a Christian, " What, have 
you forgot the time when a Christian at Algiers was 
scarce worth an onion ?" We learn from Sir John Char- 
din, that when the Tartars made an incursion into Po- 
land, and carried away as many captives as they could, 
perceiving they would not be redeemed, they sold them 
for a crown a head. To enter into any elaborate disquisi- 
tion on the rights of man, would in this place be imper- 
tinent ; and the reader will perceive that I have rather 
thrown together some detached matters on this interest- 
ing subject, perhaps not so generally known. 



with the M essenians, who equal you in strength, 
about a tract of land not very extensive, nor 
remarkably fertile. Neither are the Arcadians, 
nor the Argives, proper objects of your am- 
bition, who are destitute of those precious 
metals, 2 which induce men to brave dangers 
and death : but can any thing be more desir- 
able, than the opportunity now afforded you, 
of making the entire conquest of Asia?" Aris- 
tagoras here finished. " Milesian friend," re- 
plied Cleomenes, " in the space of three days 
you shall have our answer." 

L. On the day, and at the place appointed, 
Cleomenes inquired of Aristagoras, how many 
days' journey it was from the Ionian sea to the 
dominions of the Persian king. Aristagoras, 
though very sagacious, and thus far successful 
in his views, was here guilty of an oversight. 
As his object was to induce the Spartans to 
make an incursion into Asia, it was his interest 
to have concealed the truth, but he inconsider- 
ately replied, that it was a journey of about 
three months. As he proceeded to explain 
himself, Cleomenes interrupted him ; " Stran- 
ger of Miletus," said he, " depart from Sparta 
before sunset : what you say cannot be agree- 
able to the Lacedaemonians, desiring to lead us 
a march of three months from the sea." Hav- 
ing said this, Cleomenes withdrew. 

LI. Aristagoras taking a branch of olive 3 in 

2 Precious metals.'} — I have always been much de- 
lighted with the following passage in Lucretius, where- 
in he informs his readers that formerly brass was sought 
after and valued, and gold held in no estimation, because 
useless : 

Nam fuit in pretio magis aes, aurumque jacebat 
Propter inutilitatem hebeti mucrone retusum. 
Nunc jacet aes, aurum in summum successit honorem. 
Sic volvenda setas commutat tempora rerum, 
Quod fuit in pretio, sit nullo denique honore : 
Porro aliud succedit, et e contemptibus exit, 
Inque dies magis appetitur, floretque repertum 
Laudibus, et miro 'st mortaleis inter honore. 

Again, 

Tunc igitur pelles, nunc aurura et purpura curis 
Exercent hominum vitam belloque fatigant. — T. 

3 Branch of olive.] — It would by na means be an easy 
task to enumerate the various uses to which the olive 
was anciently applied, and the different qualities of mind 
of which it was the symbol. It rewarded the victors at 
the Olympic games ; it was sacred to Minerva, and sus- 
pended round her temples ; it was the emblem of peace ; 
it indicated pity, supplication, liberty, hope, &c. &c. 
The invention of it was imputed to Minerva 

Oleaeque Minerva 
Inventrix. 
Statius calls it supplieis arbor olivae. — Directions for 
the mode of planting them had place amongst the insti- 
tutes of Solon : he who pulled up for his own private use 
more than two olives in the year, paid a fine of one 
hundred drachmas. They were not known till a very 
late period at Rome, but when introduced their fruit 



TERPSICHORE. 



259 



his hand, presented himself before the house of 
Cleomenes, entering which as a suppliant, he 
requested an audience, at the same time desir- 
ing that the prince's daughter might retire ; 
for it happened that Gorgo, the only child of 
Cleomenes, was present, a girl of about eight 
or nine years old : the king begged that the 
presence of the child might be no obstruction 
to what he had to say. Aristagoras then pro- 
mised to give him ten talents, if he would ac- 
cede to his request. As Cleomenes refused, 
Aristagoras rose in his offers to fifty talents; 
upon which the child exclaimed, " Father, un- 
less you withdraw, this stranger will corrupt 
you." The prince was delighted with the wise 
saying of his daughter, and instantly retired. 
Aristagoras was never able to obtain another 
audience of the king, and left Sparta in disgust. 

LII. In that space of country about which 
Cleomenes had inquired, the Persian king has 
various stathmi, or mansions, with excellent 
inns ; 4 these are all splendid and beautiful, the 
whole of the country is richly cultivated, and 
the roads good and secure. In the regions of 
Lydia and Phrygia, twenty of the above stath- 
mi occur within the space of ninety parasangs 
and a half. Leaving Phrygia, you meet with 
the river Halys, where there are gates which 
are strongly defended, but which must be 
necessarily passed. Advancing through Cap- 
became an indispensable article of luxury, and was eaten 
before and after meals. See Martial : 

Inchoat atque eadem finit oliva dapes. 

It should seem from a passage in Virgil, that the sup- 
pliant carried a wreath of olive in his hands : 

Praaferimusmanibus vittas et verba precantum. 

Of its introduction into the western world, Mr Gib- 
bon speaks thus : " The olive followed the progress of 
peace, of which it was considered as the symbol. Two 
centuries after the foundation of Rome, both Italy and 
Africa were strangers to that useful plant : it was natu- 
ralized in those countries, and at length carried into the 
heart of Spain, and Gaul. The timid errors of the an- 
cients, in supposing that it required a certain degree of 
heat, and could only flourish in the neighbourhood of 
the sea, were insensibly exploded by industry and expe- 
rience." — T. 

4 Excellent inns. ]— There can be little doubt, but that 
these are the same with what are now called caravanse- 
ras, and which abound in all oriental countries ; these 
are large square buildings, in the centre of which is 
a spacious court. The traveller must not expect to meet 
with much accommodation in these places, except that 
he may depend upon finding water : they are esteemed 
sacred, and a stranger's goods, whilst he remains in one 
of them, are secure from pillage. 

Such exactly are also the choultries of Indostan, many 
of which are buildings of great magnificence, and very 
curious workmanship. What the traveller has there to 
expect is little more than mere shelter.— T. 



padocia, to the confines of Cilicia, in the space 
of one hundred and four parasangs, there are 
eight-and-tvventy stathmi. At the entrance of 
Cilicia are two necks of land, both well defend- 
ed ; passing beyond which through the country, 
are three stathmi in the space of fifteen para- 
sangs and a half: Cilicia, as well as Armenia, 
are terminated by the Euphrates, which is 
only passable in vessels. In Armenia, and 
within the space of fifty-six parasangs and a 
half, there are fifteen stathmi, in which 
also are guards : through this country flow 
the waters of four rivers, the passage of which 
is indispensable, but can only be effected in 
boats. Of these the first is the Tigris ; by 
the same name also the second and third are 
distinguished, though they are by no means the 
same, nor proceeding from the same source : 
of these latter the one rises in Armenia, the 
other from amongst the Matieni. The fourth 
river is called the Gyndes, which was formerly 
divided by Cyrus into three hundred and sixty 
channels. From Armenia to the country of 
the Matieni, are four stathmi : from hence 
through Ci-ssia, as far as the river Choaspes, 
there are eleven stathmi, and a space of forty- 
two parasangs and a half. The Choaspes is 
also to be passed in boats, and beyond this Su- 
sa is situated. Thus it appears, that from 
Sardis to Susa are one hundred and eleven 5 
stations, or stathmi. 

LI 1 1. If this measurement of the royal road 
by parasangs, be accurate, and a parasang be 
supposed equal to thirty stadia, which it really 
is, from Sardis to the royal residence of Mem- 
non are thirteen thousand five hundred stadia, 
or four hundred and fifty parasangs : allowing, 
therefore, one hundred and fifty stadia to each 
day, the whole distance will be a journey of 
ninety entire days. 

LIV. Aristagoras was, therefore, correct in 



5 One hundred and eleven."] — According to the account 
given by Herodotus in this chapter : 

Stathmi. Parasangs. 

In Lydia and Phrygia are - - 20 - - 9-1^ 
In Cappadocia ------ 28-- 101 

In Cilicia 3-- lS^ 

In Armenia 15-- 56^- 

In the country of the Matieni - 4 

In Cissia 11-- 42^ 

So that here must evidently be some mistake, as instead 
of 111 stathmi, we have only 81 ; instead of 450 parasangs, 
only 313. Wesseling remarks on the passage, that if the 
numbers were accurate, much advantage might be de- 
rived from knowing the exact proportion of distance be- 
tween a stathmus and a parasang. The 6ame defect is 
observable in the Anabasis of Xenophon, which Hut- 
chinson tries in vain to explain. — T. 



260 



HERODOTUS. 



telling Cleomenes the Lacedaemonian, that it 
was a three months' march to the residence of 
the Persian monarch. For the benefit of those 
who wish to have more satisfactory information 
on the subject, it may not be amiss to add the 
particulars of the distance betwixt Sardis and 
Ephesus. From the Greek sea to Susa, the 
name by which the city of Memnon 1 is gener- 
ally known, is fourteen thousand and forty 
stadia : from Ephesus to Sardis is five hundred 
and forty stadia ; thus three days must be added 
to the computation of the three months. 

LV. From Sparta, Aristagoras went to 
Athens, which at this period had recovered its 
liberty. Aristogiton and Harmodius, 2 who 
were Gephyreans by descent, had put to death 
Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus, and brother of 
Hippias the tyrant. We are informed that 
Hipparchus had received intimation in a vision 3 

1 Of Memnon.'] — Strabo says that Susa was built by 
Titron. the father of Memnon; Herodotus also, in 
another place, calls Susa the city of Memnon. 

2 Aristogiton and Harmodius.] — To the reader of the 
most common classical taste the story of these Athenians 
must be too familial 1 to requireany repetitionin tliis place. 
An extract from a poem of Sir William Jones, in which 
the incident is happily introduced, being less common, 
may not perhaps be unacceptable. It is entitled, 

Julii Melesigoni ad Libertatem Carmen. 

Virtus renascens quem jubet ad sonos 

Spartanam avitos ducere tibiam ? 

Quis fortium ccetus in auras 

Athenias juvenum ciebit ; 

Quos Marti amicos, aut hyacinthinis 

Flava in palsestra conspicuos comis 

Aut alma liber tas in undis 

Egelidis agiles videbat, 

Plausitque visos ? Quis modulabiiur 

Excelsaplectrocarmina Lesbio, 

Quae dirus Alcaeo sonante 

Audiit, et tremuit dynastes ? 

Quis myrtea. ensem fronde reconditum 

Cantabit ? Ilium civibus Harmodi 

Dilecte servatis, nee ullo 

Interiture die tenebas : 

Vix se refraenat fulmineus chalybs, 

Mox igne coelesti emicat, exilit 

Et cor reluctantis tyranni 

Perforat ictibus haud remissis. 

O ter placentem Palladi victimam, &c. 
The reader will perceive that Julii Melesigoni is an ana- 
gram of Gulielmi Jonesii. 

A more particular account of these deliverers of their 
country may be found in Thucydides, book vi. c. 12. 
Pausanias, book i, and in Suidas.— T. 

3 In a vision.] — The ancients imagined that a distinct 
dream was a certain declaration of the future, or that 
the event was not to be averted, but by certain expiatory 
ceremonies. See the Electra of Sophocles, and other 
places. — LarcTier. 

One method which the ancients had of averting the ef- 
fects of disagreeable visions, was to relate them to the 
Sun, who they believed had the power of turning aside 
any evils which the night might have menaced. — T. 

From Larcher's prolix note on the subject of Aristogi- 
ton and Harmodius, I extract such particulars as I 
think will be most interesting to an English reader. 



of the disaster which afterwards befell him ; 
though for four years after his death, the peo- 
ple of Athens suffered greater oppression than 
before. 

LVI. The particulars of the vision which 
Hipparchus saw are thus related : in the night 
preceding the festival of the Panathenaea, 8 Hip- 
parchus beheld a tall and comely personage, 
who addressed him in these ambiguous terms : 

Brave lion, thy unconquer'd soul compose 

To meet unmoved intolerable woes ; 

In vain th' oppressor would elude his fate, 

The vengeance of the gods is sure, though late. 

As soon as the morning appeared, he dis- 
closed what he had seen to the interpreters of 
dreams. He however slighted the vision, and 



Harmodius is reported to have inspired the tyrant 
Hipparchus with an unnatural passion, who loving and 
being beloved by Aristogiton, communicated the secret 
to him, and joined with him in his resolution to destroy 
their persecutor. This is sufficiently contradicted with 
respect to the attachment betwixt Harmodius and Aris- 
togiton, which appears to have been the true emotions 
of friendship only. 

The courtezan Leaena, who was beloved by Harmo- 
dius, was tortured by Hippias, to make her discover the 
accomplices in the assassination of Hipparchus. Dis- 
trusting her own fortitude, she bit off her tongue. The 
Athenians, in honour of her memory, erected in the ves- 
tibule of the citadel a statue in bronze of a lioness with- 
out a tongue. 

Thucydides seems willing to impute the action which 
caused the death of Hipparclms to a less noble motive 
than the love of liberty ; but the cotemporaries of the 
conspirators, and posterity, have rendered Harmodius 
and Aristogiton the merit which was their due. 

Popular songs were made in their honour, one of 
which is preserved in Athenaeus, book xv. chap. 15. It 
is also to be seen in the Analecta of Brunck, i. 155. This 
song has been imputed to Alcaeus, but falsely, for that 
poet died before Hipparchus. 

The descendants of the conspirators who destroyed the 
tyrant were maintained in the Prytaneum at the public 
expense. 

One of the posterity of Harmodius, proud of his birth, 
reproached Iphicrates with the meanness of his family : 
" My nobility," answered Iphicrates, " commences with 
me, yours terminates in you." In the very time of the 
decline of Athens, the love of liberty was there so here- 
ditary and indelible, that they erected statues to the as- 
sassins of Caesar. 

4 Panafnencea.]— On this subject I give, from different 
writers, the more interesting particulars. 

The festival was in honour of Minerva. There were 
the greater and less Panathenaea. The less originated 
with Theseus ; these were celebrated every year in the 
month Hecatombeonj the greater were celebrated every 
five years. In the procession on this occasion old men, 
selected for their good persons, carried brandies of olive. 
There were also races with torches both on horse and 
foot ; there, was also a musical contention. The conquer- 
or in any of these games was rewarded with a vessel of 
oil. There was also a dance by boys in armour. The 
vest of Minerva was carried in a sacred procession 
of persons of all ages, &c. &c— T. 



TERPSICHORE. 



261 



was killed in the celebration of some public 
festival. 

LVII. The Gephyreans, of which nation 
were the assassins of Hipparchus, came, as 
themselves affirm, originally from Eretria. 
But the result of my inquiries enables me to 
say that they were Phenicians, and of those 
who accompanied Cadmus into the region now 
called JBceotia, where they settled, having the 
district of Tanagria assigned them by lot. 
The Cadmeans were expelled by the Argives ; 
the Boeotians afterwards drove out the Gephy- 
reans, who took refuge at Athens. The 
Athenians enrolled them amongst their citi- 
zens, under certain restrictions of trifling im- 
portance. 

LVIIL The Phenicians who came with 
Cadmus, and of whom the Gephyreans were a 
part, introduced during their residence in 
Greece various articles of science ; and amongst 
other things letters, 5 with which, as I conceive, 

5 Amongst other things letters.] — Upon the subject of 
the invention of letters, it is necessary to say something ; 
but so much has been written by others, that the task 
of selection, though all that is necessary, becomes suffi- 
ciently difficult. 

The first introduction of letters into Greece has been 
generally assigned to Cadmus ; but this has often been 
controverted, no arguments on either side have been 
adduced sufficiently strong to be admitted as decisive. 
It is probable that they were in use in Greece before 
Cadmus, which Diodorus Siculus confidently affirms. 
But Lucan in a very enlightened period of the Roman 
empire, without any more intimation of doubt, than is 
implied in the words famae si creditur, wrote thus : 

Thncnices primi, faraae si creditur, ausi 
Mansuramrudibus voccm signare figuris; 
Nondum flumineas Memphis contexere biblos 
Noverat, et saxis tantum, volucresque feraeque 
Sculptaque scrvabant magicas animalia linguas. 

Phenicians first, if ancient fame be true, 

The sacred mystery of letters knew: 

They first by sound, in various lines design'd, 

Express'd the meaning of the thinking mind; 

The power of words by figures rude convey'd, 

And useful science everlasting made. 

Then Memphis, ere the reedy leaf was known, 

Engraved her precepts and her arts in stone; 

While animals, in various order placed, 

The learned hieroglyphic column graced. 

Rome. 

To this opinion, concerning the use of hieroglyphics, 
bishop Warburton accedes, in his Divine Legation of 
Moses, who thinks that they were the production of an 
unimproved state of society, as yet unacquainted with 
alphabetical writing. With respect to this opinion of 
Herodotus, many learned men thought it worthy of 
credit, from the resemblance betwixt the old Eastern 
and earliest Greek characters, which is certainly an ar- 
gument of some weight. 

No European nation ever pretended to the honour of 
this discovery ; the Romans confessed they had it from 
the Greeks, the Greeks from the Phenicians. 

Tiiny says the use of letters was eternal ; and many 



the Greeks were before unacquainted. These 
were at first such as the Phenicians themselves 
indiscriminately use ; in process of time, how- 
ever, they were changed both in sound and 
form. 6 At that time the Greeks most con- 
tiguous to this people were the Ionians, who 
learned these letters of the Phenicians, and, 
with some trifling variations, received them in- 
to common use. As the Phenicians first made 
them known in Greece, they called them, as 
justice required, Phenician letters. By a very 
ancient custom, the Ionians call their books 
dlphtherce or skins, because at a time when the 
plant of the biblos was scarce, 7 they used in- 
stead of it the skins of goats and sheep. Many 
of the barbarians have used these skins for this 
purpose within my recollection. 

LIX. I myself have seen, in the temple of the 
Ismenian Apollo, at Thebes of Boeotia, these 
Cadmean letters inscribed upon some tripods, 
and having a near resemblance to those used 

have made no scruple of ascribing them to a divine reve- 
lation. Our countryman Mr Astle, who has written 
perhaps the best on this complicated subject, has this 
expression, with which I shall conclude the subject. 

" The vanity of each nation induces them to pretend 
to the most early civilization ; but such is the uncer- 
tainty of ancient history, that it is difficult to determine 
to whom the honour is due. It should seem however, 
that the contest may be confined to the Egyptians, Phe- 
nicians, and Cadmeans." — T. 

6 In sound and form.'}— The remark of Dr Gillies on 
this passage seems worthy of attention. 

" The eastern tongues are in general extremely deficient 
in vowels. It is, or rather was, much disputed whether the 
ancient orientals used any characters to express them : 
their languages therefore had an inflexible thickness of 
sound, extremely different from the vocal harmony of 
the Greek, which abounds not only in vowels but in 
diphthongs. This circumstance denotes in the Greeks 
organs of perception more acute, elegant, and discerning. 
They felt such faint variations of liquid sounds as escaped- 
the dulness of Asiatic ears, and invented marks to ex- 
press them. They distinguished in this manner not only 
their articulation, but their quantity, and afterwards 
their musical intonation." 

7 Biblos was scarce."} — Je ne parlerai point ici de toutes 
les matieres sur lesquelles on a trace l'ecriture. Les 
peaux de chevre et de mouton, les differens especes de 
toile furent successivement employees : on a fait depuis 
usage du papier tissu des couches interieures de la tige 
d'une plante qui croit dans les marais de l'Egypte, ou 
au millieu des eaux dormantes que le Nil laisse aprcs 
son inondation. On en fait des rouleaux, a 1'extremitc 
desquels est suspendu une etiquette contenant le titre 
du livre. L'ecriture n'est tracee que sur une des faces de 
chaquc rouleau ; et pour en faciliter la lecture, elle s'y 
trouve divisee en plusieurs compartimens ou pages, &c. 
— Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis. 

Every tiling necessary to be known on the subject of 
paper, its first invention, and progressive improvement, 
is satisfactorily discussed in the edition of Chambers' 
Dictionary by Rees.— T. 



262 



HERODOTUS. 



by the Ionians. One of the tripods has this 
inscription : ' 

Amphytrion's present from Teleboan spoils. 
This must have been about the age of Laius, 
son of Labdacus, whose father was Polydore, 
the son of Cadmus. 

LX. Upon the second tripod, are these hexa- 
meter verses : — 

Scseus, victorious pugilist, bestow'd 
Me, a fair offering, on the Delphic god. 
This Sceeus was the son of Hippocoon, if in- 
deed it was he who dedicated the tripod, and 
not another person of the same name, contem- 
porary with CEdipus the son of Laius. 

LXI. The third tripod bears this inscrip- 
tion in hexameters : - 

Royal Laodamas to Phoebus' slirine 
This tripod gave, of workmanship divine. 

Under this Laodamas, the son of Eteocles, 
who had the supreme power, the Cadmeans 
were expelled by the Argives, and fled to the 
Encheleans. 2 The Gephyreans were com- 
pelled by the Boeotians to retire to Athens. 3 
Here they built temples for their own particu- 
lar use, resembling in no respect those of the 
Athenians, as may be seen in the edifice and 
mysteries of the Achaean Ceres. 

LXII. Thus have I related the vision of 
Hipparchus, and the origin of the Gephyreans, 
from whom the conspirators against Hipparchus 
were descended : but it will here be proper to 
explain more at length the particular means by 
which the Athenians recovered their liberty, 
which I was beginning to do before. Hippias 
had succeeded to the supreme authority, and, as 
appeared by his conduct, greatly resented the 
death of Hipparchus. The Alcmaeonidae, who 
were of Athenian origin, had been driven from 
their country by the Pisistratidae : they had, in 
conjunction with some other exiles, made an 
effort to recover their former situations, and to 
deliver their country from its oppressors, but 



1 This inscription.] — Some curious inscriptions upon 
the shields of the warriors who were engaged in the 
siege of the capital of Eteocles, are preserved in the 
" Seven against Thebes of iEschylus," to which the 
reader is referred. 

2 Encheleans.]— The Cadmeans and Encheleans of 
Herodotus are the Thebans and Illyrians of Pausanias. 

3 To Athens.]— They were permitted to settle on the 
borders of the Cephissus, which separates Attica from 
Eleusis ; there they built a bridge, in order to have a free 
communication on both sides. I am of opinion that 
bridges, yepugaw, took their name from these people. 
The author of the Etymologicum Magnum pretends that 
the people were called Gephyreans from this bridge ; but 
it is very certain that they bore this name before they 
settled in Attica. — Lurcher. 



were defeated with considerable loss. They 
retired to Lipsydrium beyond Pseonia, which 
they fortified, still meditating vengeance against 
the Pisistratidae. Whilst they were thus cir- 
cumstanced, the Amphictyons 4 engaged them 
upon certain terms to construct that which is 
now the temple of Delphi, 5 but which did not 
exist before. They were not deficient in point 
of wealth; and, warmed with the generous 
spirit of their race, they erected a temple far 
exceeding the model which had been given, in 
splendour and in beauty. Their agreement only 
obliged them to construct it of the stone of 
Porus, fi but they built the vestibule of Parian 
marble. 

LXIII. These men, as the Athenians relate, 
during their continuance at Delphi, bribed the 
Pythian to propose to every Spartan who should 
consult her, in a private or public capacity, the 
deliverance of Athens. The Lacedaemonians, 
hearing incessantly the same thing repeated to 
them, sent an army under the conduct of 
Anchimolius, son of Aster, a man of a very 
popular character, to expel the Pisistratidae from 
Athens. They in this respect violated some 
very ancient ties of hospitality ; but they thought 
it better became them to listen to the commands 
of heaven, than to any human consideration. 
These forces were despatched by sea, and being 
driven to Phalerus, were there disembarked by 

4 Amphictyons. 1 — The Amphictyons were an assembly 
composed of deputies from the different states of Greece. 
Each state sent two deputies, one to examine into what 
related to the ceremonies of religion, the other to decide 
disputes betwixt individuals. Their general residence 
was at Delphi, and they determined disputes betwixt the 
different states of Greece. Before they proceeded to busi- 
ness, they sacrificed an ox cut into small pieces ; their 
decisions were sacred, and without appeal. They met 
twice in the year, in spring and in autumn. In spring at 
Delphi, in autumn at Thermopylae. 

This council represented but a certain number of the 
states of Greece ; but these were the principal and most 
powerful. Demosthenes makes mention of a decree where 
the Amphictyonic council is call to zotvov im 'EkXvjvw 
trwttyov ; and Cicero also calls them commune Graeciae 
concilium.— T. 

5 Temple of Delphi.]— The temple of Delphi was in its 
origin no more than a chapel made of the branches of 
laurel growing near the temple. One Pteras of Delphi 
aftenvards built it of more solid materials : it was then 
constructed of brass ; the fourth time it was erected of 
stone. — Larcher. 

6 Stone of Porus.]— This stone resembled the Parian 
marble in whiteness and hardness : but, according to 
Pliny and Theophrastus, it was less ponderous. Of the 
marble of Paros I have spoken elsewhere. Larcher re- 
marks that Phidias, Praxiteles, and the more eminent 
sculptors of antiquity, always preferred it for their works. 
Tournefort without hesitation prefers the marbles of 
Italy to those of Greece. 



TERPSICHORE. 



263 



Anchimolius. The Pisistratidae being aware 
of this, applied for assistance to the Thessalians, 
with whom they were in alliance. The people 
of Thessaly obeyed the summons, and sent 
them a thousand horse,' commanded by Cineas 
their king, a native of Coniaeus ; on the arrival 
of their allies, the Pisistratidae levelled all the 
country about Phalerus, and thus enabling the 
cavalry to act, they sent them against the Spar- 
tans. They accordingly attacked the enemy, 
and killed several, amongst whom was Anchi- 
molius. Those who escaped were driven to 
their vessels. Thus succeeded the first attempt 
of the Lacedaemonians : the tomb of Anchimo- 
lius is still to be seen near the temple of Her- 
cules, in Cynosarges, 8 in the district of Alo- 
pece," in Attica. 

7 Thousand horse.] — The cavalry of Thessaly were 
very famous.— See Theocritus, Id. xviii. 30. 

H xairu) xvv actors- oz, *j a^aw QitrffocXos itvos, 

As the cypress is an ornament to a garden, as a Thes- 
salian horse to a chariot, so is the lovely Helen to the 
glory of Lacedaemon. — Larcher. 

Amongst other solemnities of mourning which Adme- 
tus prince of Thessaly orders to be observed in honour of 
his deceased wife, he bids his subjects cut the manes of all 
the chariot horses. 

TiQyttoc. n £ivyvv<r8i text [x.ovctfjt^tvxix.; 

TlwXovs tri$7igq> rzf/.vir ctv%tvcvv <po(3*]v. 
From which incident it may perhaps be inferred, that 
the Thessalians held their horses in no small estimation : 
the speech of Admetus being as much as to say, " All that 
belongs to me, all that have any share of my regard, shall 
aid me in deploring my domestic loss." — See vol. 1, 215. 
— T. 

8 Cynosarges.']— This place gave name to the sect of 
the Cynics. It was a gymnasium, or place for public ex- 
ercises, annexed to a temple, and situated near one of the 
gates of Athens. The origin of its appellation Cynosar- 
ges is thus related : an Athenian named Didymus was 
performing a sacrifice in his house, but was interrupted 
by a large white dog, winch coming in unexpectedly, 
seized the \ictim, carried it off, and left it in another place. 
Much disturbed by an accident so inauspicious, Didymus 
consulted the oracle in what manner he might avert the 
omen ; he was told to build a temple to Hercules in the 
place where the dog had deposited the victim : he did so 
and called it Cynosarges, oc-ro too zwo; ot^yov, from the 
white dog, which that name expresses. When Antis- 
thenes founded his sect, he hired this place as conve- 
niently situated for his lectures ; and from the name of 
the place, added to the consideration of the snarling dog- 
gish nature of those philosophers, was derived the appel- 
lation Cynic, which means doggish. Antisthenes himself 
was sometimes called ottrXozvuv, mere or genuine dog. 

The expression ad Cynosarges was proverbial.— See 
this explained at length in the Adagia of Erasmus; it 
signified the same as abi ad cervos, ad malam rem, &c. 
— T. 

9 Alopece.]— This place was appropriated to the tribe 
of Antiochis, and according to Diogenes Laertius, was 
celebrated for being the birth-place of Socrates.— T. 



LXIV. The Lacedaemonians afterwards 
sent a greater body of forces against Athens, 
not by sea but by land, under the direction of 
their king Cleomenes, son of Anaxandrides. 
These, on their first entrance into Attica, were 
attacked by the Thessalian horse, who were 
presently routed, 1 " with the loss of forty of their 
men, the remainder retired without any further 
efforts into Thessaly. Cleomenes advancing 
to the city, was joined by those Athenians 
who desired to be free; in conjunction with 
whom he besieged the tyrants in the Pelasgian 
citadel. 

LXV. The Lacedaemonians would have 
found themselves finally inadequate to the ex- 
pulsion of the Pisistratidae, for they were totally 
unprepared for a siege, whilst their adversaries 
were well provided with necessaries. After 
therefore continuing the blockade for a few 
days ; they were about to return to Sparta, when 
an accident happened, as fatal to one party as 
favourable to the other. The children of the 
Pisistratidae in their attempts privately to es- 
cape, were taken prisoners: this incident 
reduced them to extreme perplexity, so that 
finally, to recover their children, they submitted 
to such terms as the Athenians imposed, and 
engaged to leave Attica within five days. Thus, 
after enjoying the supreme authority for thirty- 
six years, they retired to Sigeum beyond the 
Scamander. They were in their descent Py- 
lians, of the family of Peleus ; they were by 
birth related to Codrus and Melanthus, who 
had also arrived at the principality of Athens, 
though strangers like themselves. In memory 
of which Hippocrates, the father of Pisistratus, 
had named his son from the son of Nestor. 
The Athenians were thus delivered from op- 
pression ; and it will now be my business to 
commemorate such prosperous or calamitous 
events as they experienced after they had thus 
recovered their liberties, before Ionia had re- 
volted from Darius, and Aristagoras the Mile- 
sian had arrived at Athens to supplicate assist- 
ance. 

LXVI. Athens was considerable before, 
but, its liberty being restored, it became great- 
er than ever. Of its citizens, two enjoyed 
more than common reputation : Clisthenes, of 

10 Presently routed.] — Frontinus, in his Sfratagemata, 
relates that Cleomenes obstructed the passage of the 
Thessalian horse, by throwing branches of trees over the 
plain. Tins delivery of the Athenians by Cleomenes, is 
alluded to by Aristophanes, in his play called Lysistra- 
te. — Larcher. 



264 



HERODOTUS. 



the family of the Alcmseonidae, who according 
to the voice of fame had corrupted the Pythian ; 
and Isagoras, son of Tisander, who was cer- 
tainly of an illustrious origin, but whose par- 
ticular descent I am not able to specify. The 
individuals of this family sacrifice to the Ca- 
rian Jupiter : ' these two men, in their conten- 
tion for superiority, divided the state into fac- 
tions : Clisthenes, who was worsted by his 
rival, found means to conciliate the favour of 
the people. The four tribes, 2 which were be- 
fore named from the sons of Ion, Geleon, 
JEgicores, Argades, and Hoples, he divided 
into ten, naming them according to his fancy, 
from the heroes of his country. One however 
he called after Ajax, 3 who had been the neigh- 
bour and ally to this nation. 

LXVII. In this particular, Clisthenes seems 
to me to have imitated his grandfather of the 
same name by his mother's side, who was prince 
of Sicyon : this Clisthenes having been engag- 
ed in hostilities with the Argives, abolished at 

1 Carian Jupiter.'}— The Carians were exceedingly 
contemned, and they were regarded as slaves, because 
they were the first who let out troops for hire ; for which 
reason they were exposed to the most perilous enter, 
prises. This people had a temple common to themselves, 
with the Lydians and Mysians ; this was called the tem- 
ple of the Carian Jupiter. They who sacrificed to the 
Carian Jupiter acknowledged themselves to have been 
originally from Caria. Plutarch does not omit this op- 
portunity of reproaching Herodotus ; and indeed this is 
amongst the very few instances of his having justice 
on his side. As early as in the time of Homer, the fol- 
lowing proverb was current : 

no) $i piv tv Ka.%cs aurv), 

" I value him no more than a Carian." Larcher. 

This interpretation has, however, been justly consider- 
ed as doubtful. See Dr Clarke's excellent note on that 
passage.— JZ. ix. 378.— T. 

2 TJie four tribes.}— The names of the four ancient 
tribes of Athens varied at different times : they were 
afterwards, as in this place represented, multiplied into 
ten ; two others were then added. Each of these ten 
tribes, like so many different republics, had their presi- 
dents, officers of police, tribunals, assemblies, and differ- 
ent interests. Fifty senators were elected as representa- 
tives of each tribe, which of course made the aggregate 
representation of the state of Athens amount to five 
hundred. The motive of Clisthenes in dividing the Athe- 
nians into ten tribes, was a remarkable instance of polit- 
ical sagacity j till then any one tribe uniting with a second 
must have rendered any contest equal. The names here 
inserted have been the subject of much learned contro- 
versy. See the Ion of Euripides, ver. 1576, and the com- 
mentators upon it. An inscription published by Count 
Caylus has at length removed many of the difficulties. 

3 Ajax.} — Ajax, son of Telamon, had been prince of 
iEgina, an island in the neighbourhood of Attica — 
Larcher. This is amost remarkable mistake in Larcher : 
Ajax was of Salamis and not of iEgina. See the well- 
known line in Homer : 

Aiot,; ?' ix ~2a.XetMvos txyiv dvozcudtzci r<5«?. 



Sicyon the poetical contests of the rhapsodists, 4 
which he was induced to do, because in the 
verses of Homer, which were there generally 
selected for this purpose, Argos and its in- 
habitants were such frequent objects of praise. 
From the same motive he was solicitous to 
expel the relics of Adrastus, an Argive, the 
son of Talaus, which were deposited in the 
forum of Sicyon ; 5 he went therefore to inquire 
of the Delphic oracle, whether he might expel 
Adrastus. The Pythian said in reply, that 
Adrastus was a prince of Sicyon, whilst he him- 
self was a robber. Meeting with this repulse 



4 Rhapsodists.} — This word is compounded either of 
potxTiu, to sew, or pafiSos, a rod or branch, and u^, a song 
or poem. According to the first derivation it signifies a 
poet, author of various songs or poems which are con- 
nected together, making one poem, of which the differ- 
ent parts may be detached and separately recited. Ac- 
cording to the second, it signifies a singer, who holding 
in lus hand a branch of laurel, recites either Ms own 
compositions or those of some celebrated poet. 

Hesiod inclines to the former etymology. Homer, 
Hesiod, &c. were rhapsodists in this sense ; they com- 
posed their poems in different books and parts, which 
uniting together made one perfect composition. The 
ancient poets went from country to country, and from 
town to town, to instruct and amuse the people by the 
recital of their verses, who in return treated them with 
great honours, and much liberality. The most ancient 
rhapsodist on record is Phemius, whom Homer, after 
being his disciple, immortalizes in his Odyssey. The 
most probable opinion is, that in singing the verses which 
they themselves composed, they carried in their hand a 
branch of laurel. The rhapsodists of the second kind 
were invited to feasts and public sacrifices, to sing the 
poems of Orpheus, Musseus, Hesiod, Archilochus, Mim- 
nermus, Phocylides, and in particular of Homer. These 
were satisfied with reciting the compositions of others, 
and certainly carried a branch of laurel, which particu- 
larly has been disputed with respect to the first. 

They were also called Homerides or Homerists, be- 
cause they generally recited verses from Homer. 

They sung sitting on a raised chair, accompanying 
their verses with a cithera or some other instrument, 
and in return a crown of gold was given them. In pro- 
cess of time the words rhapsodist and rhapsody became 
terms of contempt, from the abuse which the rhapsodists 
made of their profession ; and at the present day the term 
rhapsody is applied to a number of vile pieces ill put to- 
gether. — L archer. 

The note above given from Larcher will necessarily 
bring to the mind of the English reader the character and 
office of our ancient bards, whom the rhapsodists of old 
in many respects resembled. Of the two, the bards were 
perhaps the more honourable, as they confined them- 
selves to the recital of the valorous actions of heroes, and 
of such sentiments as inspired bravery and virtue. In 
our language also rhapsody is now always used in a bad 
sense but it was not so with our more ancient writers, 
and our poets in particular. — T. 

5 Forum of Sicyon. ]— Dieutychidas relates that Ad- 
rastus was buried at Megara, and that at Sicyon there was 
only a cenotaph of this hero. See Scholiast to Pindar, ad 
Nem, 30. — Larcher. 



TERPSICHORE. 



265 



from the oracle, he on his return concerted 
other means to rid himself of Adrastus. Think- 
ing he had accomplished this, he sent to Thebes 
of Boeotia to bring back Melanippus," a native 
of Sicyon, and son of Astacus. By the con- 
sent of the Thebans, his request was granted ; 
he then erected to his honour a shrine in the 
Prytaneum, and deposited his remains in a place 
strongly fortified. His motive for thus bring- 
ing back Melanippus, which ought not to be 
omitted, was the great enmity which subsisted 
betwixt him and Adrastus, and.farther, because 
Melanippus had been accessary to the deaths 
of Mecistus the brother, and Tydeus the son- 
in-law of Adrastus. When the shrine was 
completed, Clisthenes assigned to Melanippus 
the sacrifices and festivals which before had been 
appropriated to Adrastus, and solemnized by the 
Sicyonians with the greatest pomp and magni- 
ficence. 1'his district had formerly been under 
the sovereignty of Polybus, who dying without 
children, had left his dominions to Adrastus, 
his grandson by a daughter. Amongst other 
marks of honour which the Sicyonians paid the 
memory of Adrastus, they commemorated in 
tragic choruses 7 his personal misfortunes, to the 



G Melanippus.] — When the Argives attacked Thebes, 
tlus warrior slew Tydeus, and Mecistus, the brother of 
Adrastus, whilst he himself perished by the hands of 
Amphiaraus. 

7 Tragic choruses.] — It may be inferred, says Larcher, 
from this passage, that Thespis was not the inventor of 
tragedy ; and he quotes Themistius as saying, " The 
Sicyonians were the inventors of tragedy, but the Atheni- 
ans brought it to perfection." Suidas also at the word 
Strxis, says, that Epigenes of Sicyon was the first trage- 
dian, and Thespis only the sixteenth. M. Larcher is of 
a contrary opinion, but avoids any discussion of the argu- 
ment, as beyond the proposed limits of hi3 plan. 

To exhibit a chorus, was to purchase a dramatic piece 
of an author,and defray the expense of its representation. 
This at Athens was the office of the archon, at Rome 
of the aediles. The following passage from Lysias may 
serve to explain the ancient chorus with regard to its 
variety and expense. 

" When Theopompus was archon, I was fnrnisher to 
a tragic chorus, and I laid out 30 minae — afterwards I got 
the victory with the chorus of men, and it cost me 20 
minae. When Glaucippus was archon, I laid out 8 minae 
upon the pyrrichists ; when Diodes was archon, I laid 
out upon the cyclian chorus three minae ; afterwards, 
when Alexias was archon, I furnished a chorus of boys, 
and it cost me fifteen minae ; when Euclides was archon, 
I was at the charge of sixteen minae on the comedians, 
and of seven upon the young pyrrichists." 

From which it appears that the tragic was the most 
expensive chorus, and its splendour in after-times became 
so extravagant, that Horace complains the spectators 
minded more what they saw than what they heard : 

niy.it adhuc aliquid? nil sane: quid placet etgo ? 
Lana Tarentino violas imitata veneno. 



neglect even of Bacchus. But Clisthenes ap- 
propriated the choruses to Bacchus, and the 
other solemnities to Melanippus. 

L XVIII. He changed also the names of 
the Doric tribes, that those of the Sicyonians 
might be altogether different from those of the 
Argives, by which means he made the Sicyoni- 
ans extremely ridiculous. He distinguished the 
other tribes by the words Hys and Onos, 8 sup- 
eradding only their respective terminations : to 
his own tribe he prefixed the word Arche, ex- 
pressive of authority ; those of his own tribe 
were therefore termed Archelaens; of the others, 
some were called Hyafce, some Oneatse, others 
Chasrseatse. The Sicyonians were known by 
these appellations during the time of Clisthenes, 
and for sixty years afterwards. After this 
period, in consequence of a consultation held 
among themselves, they changed these names 
to Hylleans, Pamphylians, and Dymanatie. 
To these they added a fourth tribe, which in 
honour of iEgialeus, son of Adrastus, they 
called iEgialeans. 

LXIX. Such was the conduct of Clis- 
thenes of Sicyon. The Clisthenes of Athens, 
grandson of the former by a daughter, and 
named after him, was, as it appears to me, de- 
sirous of imitating him from whom he was call- 
ed. To show his contempt of the Ionians, he 
would not suffer the tribes of Athens to bear 
any resemblance to those of Ionia. Having 
conciliated his countrymen, who had before 
been averse to him, he changed the names of 
the tribes, and increased their number. In- 
stead of four phylarchi he made ten, into 
which number of tribes he also divided the 
people ; by which means he so conciliated their 
favour, that he obtained a decided superiority 
over his opponents. 9 



The business of the chorus at its first institution was to 
sing dithyrambic verses in honour of Bacchus. How it 
afterwards became improved and extended, has been too 
often and too well discussed to require any elaborate dis- 
cussion in this place. — T. 

8 Hys and Onos.] — Literally, a swine and an ass. 

9 Over his opponents.] — Clisthenes and Isagoras had 
no intention of becoming tyrants, and were united to 
expel the Pisistratidae from Athens : but they were not 
at all the more harmonious on this account. The first 
desired to establish a democracy, and to accorupiish it 
he gave the people more authority than ever they pos- 
sessed before, by distributing them into a greater num- 
ber of tribes, making them by these means the less easy 
to be gained. Isagoras, on the contrary, wished to es- 
tablish an aristocracy ; and as he could not possibly suc- 
ceed in his views, unless by force, lie therefore invited 
the Lacedaemonians to assist \\\m.— Larcher. 

2 L 



266 



HERODOTUS. 



LXX. Isagoras, though overcome, en- 
deavoured to recover his importance; he ac- 
cordingly applied to Cleomenes the Spartan, 
with whom he had formed the tie of hospital- 
ity whilst he was besieging the Pisistratidae, 
and who had been suspected of an improper 
connection with Isagoras's wife. The Lace- 
daemonian prince, sending a herald before him, 
pronounced sentence of expulsion against Clis- 
thenes, and many other Athenians, on pretence 
of their being polluted by sacrilegious murder. 
Isagoras prevailed upon him to make this his 
excuse, because the Alcmaeonidae, with those of 
their party, had been guilty of a murder, in 
which neither Isagoras nor any of his followers 
were concerned. 

LXXI. The reason why these Athenians 
were called polluted,' was this : Cylon, a na- 
tive of Athens, who had obtained the prize in 
the Olympic games, had been convicted of 
designs upon the government, for, having pro- 
cured a number of young men of the same age 
with himself, he endeavoured to seize the cita- 
del ; disappointed in his hopes, he with his 
companions placed themselves before the shrine 
of Minerva, as suppliants. The Prytanes of 
the Naucrari, 8 who then governed Athens, 

1 Polluted.]— Literally Enagees, that is, polluted by 
their crime, and therefore devoted to the curse of the 
goddess whom they had offended : the term implies a 
sacrilegious offence. — T. 

2 The Prytanes of the Naucrari.] — I shall endeavour, 
as concisely as possible, to make this intelligible to the 
English reader. 

The magistrates of Athens were composed of the Ar- 
chons, the Areopagites, and the senate of five hundred. 
When the people of Athens consisted only of four tribes, 
one hundred were elected by lot from each tribe ; when 
afterwards they were divided into ten, fifty were chosen 
from each tribe ; these were the Prytanes, and they go- 
verned the city by turns. Each body of fifty, according 
to Solon's establishment, ruled for the space of thirty- 
five days, not all at once, but in regular divisions of their 
body for a certain limited time. To expatiate on the 
subject of the Prytanes, the particulars of their duty, 
and their various subdivisions into other responsible ma- 
gistracies, would require a long dissertation. 

Of the Naucrari, or, as it is sometimes written, Nau- 
cleri, what follows may perhaps be sufficient. 

To the ten tribes of Clisthenes, two more were after- 
wards added ; these twelve were divided into Ayi/lcoi, or 
boroughs, who anciently were named Naucraurise : of 
these the magistrates were called Naucrari ; each Nau- 
craria furnished for the public service two horsemen and 
one vessel. Each Athenian borough had anciently its 
own little senate ; thus the Prytanes of the Naucrari 
were a select number, presiding in each of these senates. 
"With respect to the passage before us, " Many," says 
Larcher, " are of opinion that Herodotus uses the ex- 
pression of Prytanes of the Naucrari in a particular 
sense, meaning by Naucrari the Athenians in general; 
and by Prytanes, the Archons."— T. 



persuaded them to leave this sanctuary, under 
a promise that their lives should not be for- 
feited. Their being soon afterwards put to 
death 3 was generally imputed to the Alcmseon- 

idae These events happened before the time 

of Pisistratus. 

LXXII. Cleomenes having thus ordered 
the expulsion of Clisthenes, and the other 
Enagees, though Clisthenes had privately re- 
tired, 4 came soon afterwards to Athens with a 
small number of attendants. His first step was 
to send into exile as polluted seven hundred 
Athenian families, 6 which Isagoras pointed out 
to him. He next proceeded to dissolve the se- 
nate, and to intrust the offices of government 
with three hundred of the faction of Isagoras. 
The senate exerted themselves, and positively 
refused to acquiesce in his projects ; upon which 
Cleomenes, with Isagoras and his party, seized 
the citadel : they were here, for the space of two 
days, besieged by the Athenians in a body, who 
took the part of the senate. Upon the third 
day certain terms were offered, and accepted, 
and the Spartans all of them departed from 
Athens ; thus was an omen which had happen- 
ed to Cleomenes accomplished. For when he 
was employed in the seizure of the citadel, he 
desired to enter the adytum and consult the 
goddess ; the priestess, as he was about to open 
the doors, rose from her seat, and forbade him 
in these terms ; " Lacedaemonian, return, pre- 
sume not to enter here, where no admittance is 
permitted to a Dorian." " I," returned Cleo- 
menes, " am not a Dorian, but an Achaean." 
This omen, however, had no influence upon 

3 Put to death.] — The particulars of this strange bus- 
iness are related at length by Thucydides ; much also 
concerning it may be found in the Sera numinis vindicta 
of Plutarch, and in the Life of Solon. The detail in this 
place would not be interesting ; the event happened 612 
years before the Christian era. — T. 

4 Privately retired.] — "We are told by JElian, that 
Clisthenes, having introduced the law of the ostracism, 
was the first who was punished by it. Few English 
readers will require to be informed, that the ostracism 
was the Athenian sentence of banishment, determined 
by the people writing the name of the person to be ban- 
ished on an oyster-shell. 

The punishment itself was not always deemed dishon- 
ourable, for the victim, during the term of his banish- 
ment, which was ten years, enjoyed his estate. A per- 
son could not be banished by the ostracism, unless an as- 
sembly of six thousand were present.— T. 

5 Athenian families.]— This expression is not so un- 
important as it may appear to a careless reader. There 
wero at Athens many domesticated strangers, who en- 
joyed all the rights of citizens, except that they could 
not be advanced to a station of any authority in the state. 
— Larcher. 



TERPSICHORE. 



267 



his conduct ; he persevered in what he had un- 
dertaken, and with his Lacedaemonians was a 
second time 6 foiled. The Athenians who had 
joined themselves to him were put in irons, and 
condemned to die ; amongst these was Time- 
sitheus of Delphi, concerning whose gallantry 
and spirit I am able to produce many testi- 
monies — These Athenians were put to death 
in prison. 

* L XXIII. The Athenians having recalled 
Clisthenes, and the seven hundred families ex- 
pelled by Cleomenes, sent ambassadors to Sar- 
dis to form an alliance with the Persians : for 
they were well convinced that they should have 
to support a war against Cleomenes and Spar- 
ta. On their arrival at Sardis, and explaining 
the nature of their commission, Artaphernes, 
son of Hystaspes, and chief magistrate of 
Sardis, inquired of them who they were, and 
where they lived, desiring to become the allies 
of Persia. Being satisfied in this particular, 
he made them this abrupt proposition : if the 
Athenians would send to Darius earth and 
water, he would form an alliance with them, if 
not, they were immediately to depart. After 
deliberating on the subject, they acceded to the 
terms proposed, for which, on their return to 
Athens, they were severely reprehended. 

LXXIV. Cleomenes knowing that he was 
reproached, and feeling that he was injured by 
the Athenians, levied forces in the different 
parts of the Peloponnese, without giving any 
intimation of the object he had in view. He 
proposed, however, to take vengeance on Athens, 
and to place the government in the hands of 
Isagoras, who with him had been driven from 
the citadel : with a great body of forces he him- 
self took possession of Eleusis, whilst the 
Boeotians, as had been agreed upon, seized 
Oenoe and Hysias, 7 towns in the extremity of 
Attica : on another side the Chalcidians laid 
waste the Athenian territories. The Athen- 
ians, however, perplexed by these different at- 
tacks, deferred their revenge on the Boeotians 
and Chalcidians, and marched with their army 
against the Pelopennesians at Eleusis. 

LXXV. Whilst the two armies were pre- 

6 Second time.'} — See chapter lxiv. and lxv. — See also 
the Lysistrate of Aristophanes, verse 273. 

" Non inemini," says Reiske, " de primo Cleomenis 
irrito conatu Athenas occupandi in superioribus legere. 
Nam quod, p. 263, narravit non Cleomeni, sed Anchi- 
molio id evenit." 

7 Hysias.]— Larcher thinks that Hysias never consti- 
tuted a part of Attica, and therefore, with WeBSeling, 
wishes to read Phyle.— See Wesseling's note. 



pared to engage, the Corinthians first of all, as 
if conscious of their having acted an unjustifiable 
part, turned their backs and retired. Their ex- 
ample was followed by Demaratus, son of Aris- 
ton, who was also a king of Sparta, had con- 
ducted a body of forces from Lacedaemon, and 
till now had seconded Cleomenes in all his 
measures. On account of the dissension be- 
tween their princes, the Spartans passed a law, 
forbidding both their kings to march with the 
army at the same time. They determined 
also, that one of the Tyndaridae" should remain 
with the prince who was left at home, both of 
whom, till now, had accompanied them on 
foreign expeditions. The rest of the confeder- 
ates at Eleusis, perceiving this disunion of the 
princes, and the secession of the Corinthians, 
returned to their respective homes. 

LXXVI. This was the fourth time that 
the Dorians had entered Attica, twice as ene- 
mies, and twice with pacific and friendly views. 
Their first expedition was to establish a colony 
at Megara, which was when Codrus y reigned 
at Athens. They came from Sparta the 
second and third time to expel the Pisistrati- 
dae. The fourth time was when Cleomenes 
and the Peloponnesians attacked Eleusis. 

LXXVII. The Athenians, observing the 
adversary's army thus ignominiously diminish, 
gave place to the desire of revenge, and deter- 
mined first to attack the Chalcidians, to assist 
whom the Boeotians advanced as far as the 
Euripus. 10 On sight of them the Athenians 



8 One of the Tyndaridce. ]— It may perhaps be inferred 
from this passage, that the symbol or image represent- 
ing Castor and Pollux, which before was one piece of 
wood, was separated into two distinct emblems. See 
Abbe Winckelman :— " Chez les Lacedaemoniens Castor 
et Pollux avoient la forme de deux morceaux de bois 
paralleles, joints par deux baguettes de traverse : et cette 
ancienne figure s'est conservee j usqu'a nous par le signe 
n, qui denote ces freres gemeaux du zodiaque." — T. 

9 Codrus.]— Of this Codrus the following story is re 
lated : — The Dorians of the Peloponnese, as here men- 
tioned, marched against the Athenians, and were pro- 
mised success from the oracle of Delphi, provided they 
did not kill Codrus the Athenian prince. Cleomantis of 
Delphi gave intimation of this to the Athenians ; upon 
which Codrus left his camp, in the habit of a beggar, 
mingled with the enemy's troops, and provoked some 
amongst them to kill him ; when the Athenians sent to 
demand the body of their prince, the Peloponnesians, on 
hearing the incident, retreated. — T. 

10 Euripus.]— This was the name of the very narrow 
strait between Boeotia and Euboaa, where the sea was 
said by the ancients to ebb and flow seven times a day. 
It was rendered more memorable, because Aristotle was 
reported here to have destroyed lumself from mortifica- 
tion, being unable to explain the cause of this pheiMMBC- 



268 



HERODOTUS. 



resolved to attack them before the Chalcidians : 
they accordingly gave them battle, and obtained 
a complete victory, killing a prodigious number, 
and taking seven hundred prisoners. On the 
same day they passed into Euboea, and fought 
the Chalcidians ; over these also they were 
victorious, and they left a colony to the num- 
ber of four thousand on the lands of the Hip- 
pobotae, 1 by which name the most opulent of 
the Chalcidians were distinguished. Such of 
these as they took prisoners, as well as their 
Boeotian captives, they at first put in irons, and 
kept in close confinement : they afterwards 
suffered them to be ransomed at two minse a 
man, suspending their chains from the citadel. 
These were to be seen even within my memory, 
hanging from the walls which were burnt by 
the Medes, near the temple facing the west. 
The tenth part of the money produced from 
the ransom of their prisoners was consecrated ; 
with it they purchased a chariot of brass 2 for 
four horses : it was placed at the left hand side 
of the entrance of the citadel, with this inscrip- 
tion : — 
Her arms, when Chalcis and Bceotia tried, 
Athens in chains and darkness quell'd their pride : 
Their ransom paid, the tenths are here bestow'd, 
A votive gift to favouring Pallas owed. 

LXXVIII. The Athenians continued to 
increase in number and importance : not from 
their example alone, but from various instances, 
it may be made appear that an equal form of 
government is the best. Whilst the Athenians 
were in subjection to tyrants, they were su- 
perior in war to none of their neighbours, but 
when delivered from their oppressors, they far 
surpassed them all ; from whence it is evident, 
that whilst under the restraint of a master, 
they were incapable of any spirited exertions, 
but as soon as they obtained their liberty, each 
man zealously exercised his talents on his own 
account. 

LXXIX. The Thebans after this, desirous 
of obtaining revenge, sent to consult the oracle. 

non. It afterwards became an appellation for any 
strait of the sea. 

The circumstance of the ebb and flow of the sea in this 
place happening seven times a day, is thus mentioned in 
the Hercules of Seneca : 

Euripus undas fleclit instabilis vagas, 
Septemque cursus volvit et totidem rcfert, 
Sum lassa Titan tuergat oceano juga — T. 

1 Hippobotce] — literally means keepers of horses, from 
inros, a horse, and fioo-zu, to feed. 

2 Chariot of brass.']— From the tenth of the spoils of 
the Boeotians, and of the people of Chalcis, they made a 
chariot of brass.— See Pausanias, Attic, chap, xxviii. 



In reply, the Pythian assured them, that of 
themselves they would be unable to accom- 
plish this. She recommended them to consult 
their popular assembly, and to apply to their 
nearest neighbours" for assistance. Those 
employed in this business called on their re- 
turn an assembly of their countrymen, to whom 
they communicated the reply of the oracle. 
Hearing that they were required to ask assist- 
ance of their neighbours, they deliberated 
amongst themselves. " What," said some of 
them, « do not the Tanagrsei, 4 the Coronaei, 5 
and the Thespians, 6 who are our neighbours, 
constantly act in concert with us ; do they not 
always assist us, in war, with the most friendly 
and spirited exertions ? To these there can be 
no occasion to apply ; the oracle must therefore 
have some other meaning." 

LXXX. Whilst' they were thus debating, 
some one amongst them exclaimed, " I think 
that I am able to penetrate the meaning of the 
oracle ; Asopus 7 is reported to have had two 
daughters, Thebe and iEgina ; as these were 
sisters, I am inclined to believe that the deity 
would have us apply to the iEginetae, to assist 
us in obtaining revenge." The Thebans, not 
being able to devise any more plausible inter- 
pretation, thought that they acted in conform- 
ity to the will of the oracle, by sending to the 
iEginetse for assistance, as to their nearest 



3 Nearest neighbours."] — The term rm «y%/<rT#. *s am- 
biguous, and may be understood either of neighbours oi 
relations. 

4 TanagrceL] — The country of Tanagra, according to 
Pliny and others, was very celebrated for a breed of 
fighting cocks. — Jam ex his quidarn (galli) ad bella tan 
turn et prcelia assidua nascuntur, quibus etiam patrias 
nobilitarunt Rhodum ac Tanagram.— Pliny, x. 21. 

Its modern name is Anatoria.— T. 

5 Coroncei.]— Of Coronea a very singular circumstance 
is related, that whereas all the rest of Bceotia abounded 
with moles, not one was ever seen in Coronea. — T. 

6 Thespians.] — Thespia was one of those cities con. 
sidered by the ancients as sacred to the muses, whence 
one of their names, Thespiades. — T. 

7 Asopus.]— Oceanus and Tethys, as the story goes, 
amongst other sons after whom rivers were named, had 
also Peneus and Asopus ; Peneus remained in the coun- 
try now called Thessaly, and gave his name to the river 
which waters it. Asopus residing at Phlyus, married 
Merope, the daughter of Laden, by whom he had two 
sons, Pelasgus and Ismenus, and twelve daughters, 
Cencyra, Salamis, ^Igina, Pirene, Cleone, Thebe, Tana- 
gra, Thespia, Asopis, Sinope, iEnia, and Chalcis. iEgina 
was carried away by Jupiter to the island which was 
called after her. 

Asopus, informed of this by Sisyphus, pursued her, 
but Jupiter struck him with his thunder.— Diodww 
Siculus. 



TERPSICHORE. 



269 



neighbours, who, in return, engaged to send 
the ^Eacidre 8 to their aid. 

LXXXI. The Thebans, relying on the as- 
sistance of iEacidae, commenced hostilities with 
the Athenians, but they met with so ill a re- 
ception, that they determined to send back the 
iEacidae, and 'to require the aid of some troops. 
The application was favourably received, and 
the iEginetae, confident in their riches, and 
mindful of their ancient enmity with the 
Athenians, began hostilities against them, with- 
out any formal declaration of war. Whilst the 
forces of Athens were solely employed against 
the Boeotians, they passed over with a fleet into 
Attica, and not only plundered Phalerum, 9 but 
almost all the inhabitants of the coast ; by which 
the Athenians sustained considerable injury. 

LXXXII. The first occasion of the enmity 
between the iEginetae and the Athenians was 
this: — The Epidaurians, being afflicted by a 
severe and continued famine, consulted the 
Delphic oracle ; the Pythian enjoined them to 
erect statues to Damia and Auxesia, 10 promising 
that their situation would then be amended. 
The Epidaurians next inquired, whether they 
should construct these statues of brass or of 
stone. The priestess replied, of neither, but of 
the wood of the garden olive. The Epidaurians, 
in consequence, applied to the Athenians for 
permission to take one of their olives, believing 
these of all others the most sacred ; indeed it is 
said, that at this period olives were no where 
else to be found." The Athenians granted 
their request, on condition that they should 
every year furnish a sacrifice to Minerva Po- 



8 JEacidce.} — M. Larcher, comparing this with a par- 
agraph in the following chapter, is of opinion that Her- 
odotus here speaks not of any persons, but of images 
representing the JEacida?, which the iEginetae lent the 
Thebans. 

i) Phalerum.'} — This place is now called Porto Leone. 
— T. 

10 Damia and Auxesia,}— These were the same as 
Ceres and Proserpine : these goddesses procured fertility, 
and had a temple in Tegea, where they were called 
Carpophore. Pausanias relates the same fact as Her- 
odotus, except that he calls the two goddesses Auxesia 
and Lamia. 

They were also worshipped at Troezene, but for dif- 
ferent reasons : Damia was the Bona Dca of the Romans ; 
she was, also, according to Valcnaer, the same as the 
Roman Main. — Larcher. 

11 To he found.} — This assertion was by no means true, 
and, as Larcher remarks, Herodotus knew it, but not 
choosing to hurt the pride of the Athenians, he admits 
the report, qualifying it with, " it is said." 

The olive, which loves a warm climate, was probably 
a native of the East, and was carried from thence to 
<1 recce. 



| lias, 12 and to Erectheus. 13 The Epidaurians ac- 
I ceding to these terms, constructed of Athenian 
1 olive the figures which had been enjoined, and as 
| their lands immediately became fruitful, they 
punctually fulfilled their engagements with the 
Athenians. 

LXXXIII. At and before this period, the 
iEginetae were so far in subjection to the Epi- 
daurians, that all subjects of litigation betwixt 
themselves and the people of Epidaurus were 
! determined among the latter. In process of 
time they built themselves a fleet, and revolted 
I from their allegiance ; becoming still more 
' powerful, they made themselves masters of the 
sea, and plundered their former masters, carry- 
ing away the images of Damia and Auxesia. 
These they deposited in the centre of their own 
territories, in a place called (Ea, about twenty 
stadia from their city ; having done this they 
instituted sacrifices in their honour, with ludi- 
crous choruses of women, 14 assigning to each of 
these goddesses ten men, who were to preside 
over the choruses. These choruses did not in- 
[ suit any male, but the females of the country. 
The Epidaurians had dances similar to these, 
with other ceremonies which were mysterious. 
L XXXIV. From the time of their losing 
these images, the Epidaurians ceased to observe 
their engagements with the Athenians, who 
sent to remonstrate with them on the occasion. 
They made reply, that in this respect they were 
guilty of no injustice, for as long as they pos- 
sessed the images, they had fulfilled all that was 
expected from them ; having lost these, their 
obligation became void, devolving from them to 
the iEginetae. On receiving this answer, the 
Athenians sent to iEgina to demand the im- 
ages, but the iEginetae denied that the Atheni- 
ans had any business with them. 



12 Minerva Polias.} — Patroness of the city; for the same 
reason she was called Poliouchos. 

13 Erectheus}— Was the sixth king of Athens, in whose 
reign Ceres came to Athens, and planted corn ; not only 
he but his daughters were received into the number of 
the gods. — 

Nostri quidem publicani, cum essent in Bceotia, deorum 
immortalium excepti lege censoria, negabantimmortales 
esse ullos qui aliquando homines fuissent. — Sedsisunt hi 
dii, est certe Erectheus, cnjus Athenis et delubrum vidi- 
mus et sacerdotcm. — Cic. de Nat. Deor. iii. 19. 

14 Ludicrous ciioruses of women.} — If Herodotus,where 
he says that the Epidaurians honoured the goddesses 
Damia and Auxesia, x e ?°" r ' yvvctixrjourt xi^routntri, with 
choruses of women, that used to abuse and burlesque 
the women of the country, had called them xW*' «*««- 
xokti, comical choruses, he had said nothing unworthy of 
a great historian ; because those choruses of women were 
much of the same sort that were afterwards called comi- 
cal. — Bentltu on Ph alar is. 



270 



HERODOTUS. 



LXXXV. Tbe Athenians relate, that 
after this refusal of their demand, they sent 
the persons before employed in this business 
in a vessel to iEgina. As these images were 
made of the wood of Athens, they were com- 
missioned to carry them away from the place 
where they stood ; but their attempt to do this 
not prevailing, they endeavoured to remove them 
with ropes : in the midst of their efforts they 
were alarmed by an earthquake, and loud claps 
of thunder ; those employed were seized with a 
madness, which caused them to kill one another ; 
one only survived, who immediately fled to 
Phaleros. 

LXXXVI. The above is the Athenian 
account. The iEginetae affirm, that this ex- 
pedition was not made in a single vessel, for 
the attacks of one, or even of many vessels, 
they could easily have repelled, even if they 
had possessed no ships of their own ; but they 
say that the Athenians invaded them with a 
powerful fleet ; in consequence of which they 
retired, not choosing to hazard a naval engage- 
ment. It is, however, by no means evident, 
whether they declined a sea-fight from a want 
of confidence in their own power, or whether 
they retired voluntarily and from design. It 
is certain that the Athenians, meeting with no 
resistance, advanced to the place where the 
images stood, and not able to separate them 
from their bases, they dragged them along with 
ropes ; during which, both the figures did what 
seems incredible to me, whatever it may to 
others. ' They assert, that they both fell up- 
on their knees, in which attitude they have ever 
since remained. Such were the proceedings of 
the Athenians. The people of iEgina, ac- 
cording to their own account, hearing of the 
hostile intentions of the Athenians, took care 
that the Argives should be ready to assist them. 
As soon therefore, as the Athenians landed 
at iEgina, the Argives were at hand, and un- 
perceived by the enemy, passed over from Epi- 
daurus to the island, whence intercepting their 
retreat to their ships, they fell upon the Athe- 
nians ; at which moment of time an earthquake 
happened, accompanied with thunder. 



1 Whatever it may to others."]— This is one of the num- 
erous examples in Herodotus, which concur to prove, 
that the character of credulity, so universally imputed to 
our historian, ought to be somewhat qualified. For my 
own part, I am able to recollect very few passages in- 
deed, where, relating' any thing marvellous, or exceed- 
ing credibility, he does not at the same time intimate, in 
Borne form or other, his own suspicions of the fact.— T. 



L XX XVII. In their relation of the 
above circumstances, the iEginetse and the 
Argives concur. The Athenians acknow- 
ledge, that one only of their countrymen re- 
turned to Attica j but this man, the Argives 
say, was the sole survivor of a defeat, which 
they gave the Athenians ; whilst these affirm, 
that he escaped from the vengeance of the 
divinity, which, however, he did not long elude, 
for he afterwards perished in this manner : 
when he returned to Athens, and related at 
large the destruction of his countrymen, the 
wives of those who had been engaged in the ex- 
pedition against iEgina were extremely exas- 
perated that he alone should survive ; they ac- 
cordingly surrounded the man, and each of 
them asking for her husband, they wounded 
him with the clasps 3 of their garments, till he 
died. This behaviour of their women was to 
the Athenians more afflicting than the misfor- 
tune which preceded it ; all however they could 
do was to make them afterwards assume the 
Ionian dress. Before this incident, the women 
of Athens wore the Doric vest, which much 
resembles the Corinthian ; that they might 
have no occasion for clasps, they obliged them 
to wear linen tunics. 

L XXXVIII. It seems reasonable to be- 
lieve, that the vest was not originally Ionian 
but Carian : formerly the dress of the Grecian 
females was universally the same with what we 
now call Dorian. It is reported, that the Ar- 

2 With the clasps."] — The Greeks called the clasp or 
buckle with which they fastened their garments, m^ov/i, 
and sometimes sre§!«j : the Latins for the same tiling used 
the word Jibula. Various specimens of ancient clasps or 
buckles may be seen in Montfaucon, the generality of 
which resemble a bow that is strung. Montfaucon re- 
jects the opinion of those who affirm, that the buckles of 
which various ancient specimens were preserved, were 
only styli, or instruments to write with. — " The styli," 
he adds, " were long pins, and much stronger than the 
pins with which they fastened the buckles anciently.' 
When Julius Csesar was assassinated, he defended him- 
self with his stylus, and thrust it through the arm of 
Casca. When the learned Frenchman says, that the an- 
cient clasps or buckles could not possibly serve for offen- 
sive weapons, he probably was not acquainted with the 
fact here mentioned by Herodotus. An elegant use is 
made by Homer, of the probability of a wound's being 
inflicted by a clasp : when Venus, having been wounded 
by Diomed, retires from the field, Minerva says sarcasti- 
cally to Jupiter, 

Permit thy daughter, gracious Jove, to tell 

How this mischance the Cyprian queen befell; 

As late she tried with passion to inflame 

The tender bosom cf a Grecian dame, 

Allured the fair with moving thoughts of joy, 

To quit her country for some youth of Troy ; 

The clasping zone, with golden buckles bound, 

Razed her soft hand with this lamented wound. T 



TERPSICHORE. 



271 



gives and the JEginetee, in opposition to the 
above ordinance of the Athenians, directed 
their women to wear clasps, almost twice as 
large as usual, and ordained these to be the 
particular votive offering made by the women, 
in the temples of the above divinities. They 
were suffered to offer there nothing which 
was Attic, even the common earthen vessels 
were prohibited, of which they were allowed 
to use none but what were made in their 
own country. Such, even to my time, has 
been the contradictory spirit of the women of 
Argos and iEgina, with respect to those of 
Athens, that the former have persevered in 
wearing their clasps larger than before. 

LXXXIX. This which I have related, 
was the origin of the animosity between the 
people of Athens and iEgina. The latter 
still having in mind the old grievance of the 
statues, readily yielded to the solicitations of the 
Thebans, and assisted the Boeotians, by ravag- 
ing the coast of Attica. Whilst the Athe- 
nians were preparing to revenge the injury, 
they were warned by a communication from 
the Delphic oracle, to refrain from all hostili- 
ties with the people of iEgina for the space of 
thirty years ; at the termination of this period, 
they were to erect a fane to iEacus, and might 
then commence offensive operations against the 
^Eginetse with success ; but if they immediate- 
ly began hostilities, although they would do the 
enemy essential injury, and finally subdue them, 
they would in the interval suffer much them- 
selves. On receiving this communication 
from the oracle, the Athenians erected a sacred 
edifice to IEacus, 3 which may now be seen in 
their forum; but notwithstanding the menace 
impending over them, they were unable to de- 
fer the prosecution of their revenge for the 
long period of thirty years. 

XC Whilst they were thus preparing for 
revenge, their designs were impeded by what 
happened at Lacedaemon. The Spartans hav- 
ing discovered the intrigues between the Alc- 
maeonidae and the Pythian, and what this last 



3 JEacus.1 — The genealogy of iEacus is related in Ovid, 
book xiii. The circumstance of Jupiter, at the request 
of iEacus, turning ants into men, who were called from 
thence Myrmidons, may be found in Ovid, book vii. — 

Myrmidonasque voco, nee origine nomina fraudo; 

Oorpora vidisti ; mores, quos ante perebant, 

Nunc quoque habent; parcum genus est, patiensque laborum, 

Quaesitique tenax, et qui quoesita reservent. 

The word Myrmidons has been anglicised, and is used 
to express any bold hardy ruffians, by no less authority 
than Swift.— T. 



had done against the Pisistratidoe and them- 
selves, perceived that they were involved in a 
double disappointment. Without at all con- 
ciliating the Athenians, they had expelled from 
thence their own friends and allies. They 
were also seriously impressed by certain oracles, 
which taught them to expect from the Athe- 
nians many and great calamities. Of these 
they were entirely ignorant, till they were 
made known by Cleomenes at Sparta. Cleo- 
menes had discovered and seized them in the 
citadel of Athens, where they had been origi- 
nally deposited by the Pisistratidae, who, on 
being expelled, had left them in the temple. 

XCI. On hearing from Cleomenes the above 
oracular declarations, the Lacedaemonians ob- 
served that the Athenians increased in power, 
and were but little inclined to remain subject to 
them ; they farther reflected, that though when 
oppressed by tyrants, the people of Athens 
were weak and submissive, the possession ot 
liberty would not fail to make them formidable 
rivals. In consequence of these deliberations, 
they sent for Hippias the son of Pisistratus, 
from Sigeum on the Hellespont, where the 
Pisistratidae had taken refuge. On his arrival, 
they assembled also the representatives of 
their other allies, and thus expressed them- 
selves : " We confess to you, friends and allies, 
that under the impression of oracles, which de- 
ceived us, we have greatly erred. The men 
who had claims upon our kindness, and who 
would have rendered Athens obedient to our 
will, we have banished from their country, and 
have delivered that city into the power of an 
ungrateful faction. Not remembering that to 
us they are indebted for their liberty, they are 
become insolent, and have expelled disgrace- 
fully from amongst them, us, and our king. 
They are endeavouring, we hear, to make 
themselves more and more formidable ; this 
their neighbours the Boeotians and Chalcidians 
have already experienced, as will others also 
who may happen to offend them. To atone 
for our past errors and neglect, we now profess 
ourselves ready to assist you in chastising them : 
for this reason, we have sent for Hippias, and 
assembled you ; intending, by the joint opera- 
tions of one united army, to restore him to 
Athens, and to that dignity of which we for- 
merly deprived him." 

XCII. These sentiments of the Spartans 
were approved by very few of the confederates. 
After a long interval of silence, Sosicles of 
Corinth made this reply : " We may henceforth 



272 



HERODOTUS. 



certainly expect to see the heavens take the place 
of the earth, 1 the earth that of the heavens; to 
see mankind existing in the waters, and the scaly 
tribe on earth, since you, O Lacedaemonians, 
meditate the subversion of free and equal gov- 
ernments, and the establishment of arbitrary 
power ; than which surely nothing can be more 
unjust in itself, or more sanguinary in its effects. 
If you consider tyranny with so favourable an 
eye, before you think of introducing it elsewhere, 
show us the example, and submit first to a tyrant 
yourselves ; at present, you are not only without 
a tyrant, but it should seem, that in Sparta, no- 
thing can be guarded against with more vigilant 
anxiety ; why then wish to involve your confed- 
erates in what to you appears so great a calam- 
ity ; a calamity which like us if you had known, 
experience would doubtless have prompted a 
more sagacious counsel. The government of 
Corinth was formerly in the hands of a few ; 
they who were called the Bacchiadse 2 had the 
administration of affairs. To cement and con- 
firm their authority, they were careful to con- 
tract no marriages but amongst themselves. 
One of these whose name was Amphion, had 
a daughter called Labda, 3 who was lame. As 
none of the Bacchiadae were willing to marry 
her, they united her to Eetion, son of Eehecra- 
tes, who, though of the low tribe of Petra, was 

1 Take the place of the earth.] — With a sentiment sim- 
ilar to this, Ovid commences one of his most beautiful 
eiegies: 

In caput alta suum labentur ab aequore retro 

Flumina, conversis solque recurret equis, 
Terra feret Stellas, coelum findetur aratro, 

Unda dabit flammas, et dabit ignis aquas; 
Omnia naturae praepostera legibus ibunt, 

Parsque suum mundi nulla tenebit iter. 
Omnia jam fient fieri quae posse negabam, 

Et nihil est de quo non sit habenda fides. T. 

2 Bacchiadat.J—T&usanias and Diodorus Siculus are a 
little at variance with our author in their accounts of the 
Bacchiadse. The matter, however, seems from them all 
to be this : Bacchis was one of the Heraclidae, and prince 
of Corinth ; on account of his splendid character and 
virtues, his descendants took the name of Bacchiadae, 
which, with the sovereignty of Corinth, they retained till 
they were expelled by Cypselus. — T. 

3 Labda.] — This, says M. Larcher, was not her real 
name, but was given her on account of the resemblance 
which her lameness made her bear to the letter L, or 
Lambda. Anciently the letter Lambda was called Labda 
It was the common custom amongst the ancients to give 
as nicknames the letters of the alphabet. JEsop was 
called Theta, by his master Iadinus, from his superior 
acuteness, Thetes being also a name for slaves. Galerius 
Crassus, a military tribune under the Emperor Tiberius, 
was called Beta, because he loved Beet (poiree). Or- 
pyllis, a courtesan of Cyzicum, was named Gamma ; 
Anthenor, who wrote the history of Crete, was called 
Delta ; Apollonius, who lived in the time of Philopater, 
was named Epsilon, &c. — Larcher. 



in his origin one of the Lapithae 1 descended from 
Caeneus. 5 As he had no children by this or by 
any other wife, he sent to Delphi to consult the 
oracle on the subject. At the moment of his 
entering the temple, he was thus addressed by 
the Pythian : — 

• Eetion, honour'd far below thy worth ; 
Know Labda shall produce a monstrous birth, 
A stone, which, rolling with enormous weight, 
Shall crush usurpers, and reform the state. ' 

This prediction to Eetion came by accident to 
the ears of the Bacchiadae. An oracle had be- 
fore spoken concerning Corinth, which though 
dark and obscure, was evidently of the same 
tendency with that declared to Eetion ; it was 
this :— 

' Amidst the rocks an eagle 6 shall produce 
An eagle, who shall many knees unloose, 
Bloody and strong : guard then your measures well, 
Ye who in Corinth and Pirene 7 dwell!' 

When this oracle was first delivered to the Bac- 
chiadae, they had no conception of its meaning ; 
but as soon as they learned the particulars of 
that given to Eetion, they understood the first 
from the last. The result was, that they con 
fined the secret to themselves, determined to 
destroy the future child of Eetion. As soon 
as the woman was delivered, they commission- 
ed ten of their number to go to the place where 
Eetion lived, and make away with the infant. 
As soon as they came to where the tribe of 
Petra resided, they went to Eetion's house, and 
asked for the child : Labda, ignorant of their 
intentions, and imputing this visit to their 
friendship for her husband, produced her infant, 
and gave it to the arms of one of them. It had 
been concerted, that whoever should first have 
the child in his hands, was to dash it to the 
ground: it happened, as if by divine inter- 
position, that the infant smiled in the face 8 

4 Lapithce.] — The Lapithae were celebrated in anti- 
quity, as being the first who used bridles and harness for 
horses : 

Fraena Pelethronii Lapithae gyrosque dedere 
Impositi dorso. Virgil. 

5 Caeneus.] — The story of Caeneus is this: Caenis was 
a virgin, and was ravished by Neptune, who afterwards 
at her request, turned her into a man, and caused her to 
be invulnerable. After this change of sex his name also 
was changed to Caeneus ; he then fought with the Lapi- 
thae against the Centaurs, who not being able otherwise 
to destroy him, overwhelmed him beneath a pile of wood. 
Ovid says he was then turned into a bird j Virgil, on the 
contrary asserts, that he resumed his former sex — T. 

6 An eagle.] — Eetion is derived from the Greek word 
kitoz, an eagle. 

7 Pirene.]— This fountain was sacred to the muses, 
and remarkable for the sweetness of its waters. 

8 Smiled in the face.]— The effects of an infant smiling 



TERPSICHORE. 



273 



of the man to whom the mother had intrusted it. 
He was seized with an emotion of pity, and 
found himself unable to destroy it ; with these 
feelings, he gave the child to the person next 
him, who gave it to a third, till thus it passed 
through the hands of all the ten ; no one of 
them was able to murder it, and it was re- 
turned to the mother. On leaving the house, 
they stopped at the gate, and began to reproach 
and accuse each other, but particularly him 
who first receiving the child, had failed in his 
engagements. After a short interval, they 
agreed to enter the house again, and jointly de- 
stroy the child : but fate had determined that 
the offspring of Eetion should ultimately prove 
the destruction of Corinth. Labda, standing 
near the gate, had overheard their discourse, 
and fearing that as their sentiments were chang- 
ed, they would infallibly, if they had opportu- 
nity, murder her infant, she carried it away, 
and hid it in a place little obvious to suspicion, 
namely, in a corn-measure. 9 She was satisfied, 
that on their return they would make a strict 
search after the child, which accordingly hap- 
pened : finding however all their diligence in- 
effectual, they thought it only remained for 
them to return and acquaint their employers, 
that they had executed their commission. 
When the son of Eetion grew up, he was call- 
ed Cypselus, in memory of the danger he had 
escaped in the ' corn-measure,' the meaning of 
the word Cypsela. On his arrival at manhood, 
he considted the Delphic oracle: the answer 
he received was ambiguous ; but confident of 
its favourable meaning, he attacked and made 
himself master of Corinth. The oracle was 
this: — 

in the face of rude untutored men, Sis. delightfully ex- 
pressed in part of an ode on the use and abuse of poetry, 
preserved by Warton, in his Essay on the Genius and 
Writings of Pope. 

Father of peace and arts — he first the city built : 
No more the neighbour's blood was by his neighbour spilt : 
He taught to till and separate the lands : 
He fix'd the roving youths in Hymen's myrtle bands, 
Whence dear domestic life began, 
And all the charities that softened man : 
The babes that in their fathers' faces smiled, 
With lisping blandishments their rage beguiled, 
And tender thoughts inspired. 
9 In a corn-measure.~]— The description of this chest, 
which was preserved in the temple of Juno at Olympia, 
employs several chapters in the fifth book of Pausanias. 
He tells us that the chest was made of cedar, and that its 
outside was enriched with animals, and a variety of his- 
torical representations in cedar, ivory, and gold. " It is 
not likely," says M. \Larcher, " that the chest described 
by Pausanias was the real chest in which Cypselus was 
preserved, but one made on purpose to commemorate 
the incident." — T. 



c .Behold a man whom fortune makes her care, 
Corinthian Cypselus, Eetion's heir ; 
Himself shall reign, his children too prevail, 
But there the glories of hi9 race must faiL* 

" When Cypselus had obtained possession of 
the government, he persecuted the inhabitants 
of Corinth, depriving many of their wealth, 
and more of their lives. After an undisturb- 
ed reign of thirty years, he was succeeded by 
his son Periander, who at first adopted a mild- 
er and more moderate conduct ; but having by 
his emissaries formed an intimate connection 
with Thrasybulus, sovereign of Miletus, he 
even exceeded his father in cruelty. The ob- 
ject of one of his embassies was to inquire of 
Thrasybulus what mode of government would 
render his authority most secure and most hon- 
ourable. Thrasybulus conducted the messen- 
ger to a corn-field without the town, where, 
as he walked up and down, he asked some 
questions of the man relative to his departure 
from Corinth ; in the meanwhile, wherever he 
discerned a head of corn taller than the rest, VJ 
he cut it off, till all the highest, and the richest 
were levelled with the ground. Having gone 
over the whole field in this manner, he retired, 
without speaking a word to the person who 
attended him. On the return of his emissary 
to Corinth, Periander was extremely anxious to 
learn the result of his journey, but he was in- 
formed, that Thrasybulus had never said a word 
in reply ; that he even appeared to be a man 
deprived of his reason, and bent on the destruc- 
tion of his own property. The messenger then 
proceeded to inform his master of what Thra- 
sybulus had done. Periander immediately 
conceived the meaning of Thrasybulus to be, 
that he should destroy the most illustrious of 
his citizens. He in consequence exercised 
every species of cruelty, till he completed what 
his father Cypselus had begun, killing some, 
and driving others into exile. On account of 
his wife Melissa, he one day stripped all the 
women of Corinth of their clothes. He had 
sent into Thesprotia near the river Acheron, 
to consult the oracle of the dead" concerning 

10 Taller than tJie rest] — A similar 6tory is told of 
Tarquin the Proud, and his son Sextus, who, striking off 
the heads of the tallest poppies in his garden, thus inti- 
mated his desire that his son should destroy the most 
eminent characters of Gabii, of which he was endeavour- 
ing by stratagem to make himself master— See Liny, b. i. 
ch. 51. It is remarkable that Aristotle, in his Politics, 
twice mentions this enigmatical advice as given by Per- 
iander to Thrasybulus.— T. 

11 The oracle of the dead.]— Ntx^ax-wjisv, a place 

2 M 



274 



HERODOTUS. 



something of value which had been left by a 
stranger. Melissa appearing, declared that she 
would by no means tell where the thing required 
was deposited, for she was cold and naked : for 
the garments in which she was interred were of 
no service to her, not having been burned. In 
proof of which she asserted, that Periander had 
' put bread into a cold oven ;' Periander, on 
hearing this, was satisfied of the truth of what 
she said, for he had embraced Melissa after her 
decease. On the return therefore of his mes- 
sengers, he commanded all the women of Cor- 
inth to assemble at the temple of Juno. On 
this occasion the women came as to some public 
festival, adorned with the greatest splendour. 
The king, having placed his guards for the pur- 
pose, caused them all to be stripped, free women 
and slaves, without distinction. Their clothes 
were afterwards disposed in a large trench, and 
burned in honour of Melissa, who was solemnly 
invoked on the occasion. When this was done, 
a second messenger was despatched to Melissa, 
who now vouchsafed to say where the thing 
required might be found. — Such, O men of 
Sparta, is a tyrannical government, and such 
its effects. Much therefore were we Corin- 
thians astonished when we learned you had 
sent for Hippias ; but the declaration of your 
sentiments surprises us still more. We adjure 
you therefore, in the names of the divinities of 
Greece, not to establish tyranny in our cities. 
But if you are determined in your purpose, and 
are resolved in opposition to what is just, to 
restore Hippias, be assured that the Corinthians 
will not second you." 

XCIII. Sosicles, the deputy of the Corin- 
thians, having delivered his sentiments, was 
answered by Hippias. He having adjured the 
same divinities, declared, that the Corinthians 
would most of all have occasion to regret the 
Pisistratidse, when the destined hour should 
arrive, and they should groan under the oppres- 
sion of the Athenians. Hippias spoke with 
the greater confidence, because he was best 
acquainted with the declarations of the oracles. 
The rest of the confederates, who had hitherto 
been silent, hearing the generous sentiments of 
Sosicles, declared themselves the friends of 
freedom, and favourers of the opinions of the 



where divination was carried on by calling up the dead 
with magical rites. Pausanias places this oracle at Aornos 
in Thesprotia. The superstitions of Italy seem to have 
been borrowed from that country ; hence Cicero men- 
tions an oracle of the same kind at the lake Avernus in 
Italy.— Tusc. i. 16. 



Corinthians. They then conjured the Lace- 
daemonians to introduce no innovations which 
might affect the liberties of a Grecian city. 

XCIV. When Hippias departed from 
Sparta, Amyntas'the Macedonian prince offered 
him for a residence, Anthemos, as did the Thes- 
salians, Iolcos ; l but he would accept of neither, 
and returned to Sigeum, which Pisistratus had 
taken by force from the people of Mitylene. 
He had appointed Hegesistratus, his natural 
son by a woman of Argos, governor of the 
place, who did not retain his situation without 
much and violent contest. The people of Mity- 
lene and of Athens issuing, the one from the 
city of Achillea, 2 the other from Sigeum, were 
long engaged in hostilities. They of Mitylene 
insisted on the restoration of what had been 
violently taken from them ; but it was answer- 
ed, that the iEolians had no stronger claims 
upon the territories of Troy than the Athenians 
themselves, and the rest of the Greeks, who 
had assisted Menelaus in avenging the rape of 
Helen. 

XCV. Among their various encounters it 
happened, that in a severe engagement, in which 
the Athenians had the advantage, the poet 
Alcseus 3 fled from the field. The Athenians 



1 Iolcos. ~\ — This place is now called Iaco; we learn 
from Horace, that it was formerly famous for producing 
poisonous plants : 

Herbasque quas Iolcos atque Iberia 
Mittit venenorum ferax. 

2 Achillea.] — In the fourth book, Herodotus calls this 
place the Course of Achilles. Its modern name is Fio- 
donisi. — T. 

3 Alcceus] — was a native of Mitylene, in the island of 
Lesbos ; he was cotemporary with Sappho, and generally 
is considered as the inventor of lyric poetry. Archiloehus, 
Alcseus, and Horace, were all unsuccessful in their at- 
tempts to distinguish themselves as soldiers ; and all of 
them ingenuously acknowledged their inferiority in this 
respect. Bayle doubts whether Horace would have con- 
fessed his disgrace, if he had not been sanctioned by the 
great examples above mentioned. However this may 
be, he writes thus of himself : 

Tecum Philippos et celerem fugam 
Sensi, relicta non bene parmula; 
Quum fracta virtus et minaces 
Turpe solum tetigere mento. 

Of Alcseus we have but very few remains ; but it is 
understood that Horace in many of his odes minutely 
imitated him. The principal subjects of his muse seem 
to have been the praise of liberty and a hatred of tyrants. 
The ancient poets abound with passages in his honour, 
and his memory receives no disgrace from the following 
apostrophe by Akenside, in his ode on lyric poetry : 
Broke from the fetters of his native land, 
Devoting shame and vengeance to her lords, 
With louder impulse and a threatening hand 
The Lesbian patriot smites the sounding chords. 
Ve wretches, ye perfidious train, 
Ve cursed of gods and free-born men. 



TERPSICHORE. 



275 



obtained his arms, and suspended them at Si- I 
geum, in the temple of Minerva. Alcaeus re- 
corded the event in a poem which he sent to 
Mitylene, explaining to a friend named Mela- 
rfippus the particulars of his misfortune. Pe- 
riander, the son of Cypselus, at length re-united 
the contending nations : he being chosen arbi- 
ter, determined that each party should retain 
what they possessed. Sigeum thus devolved 
to the Athenians. 

XCVI. Hippias, when he left Sparta, went 
to Asia, where he used every effort to render 
the Athenians odious to Artaphernes, and to 
prevail on him to make them subject to him 
and to Darius. As soon as the intrigues of 
Hippias were known at Athens, the Athenians 
despatched emissaries to Sardis, entreating the 
Persians to place no confidence in men whom 
they had driven into exile. Artaphernes in- 
formed them in reply, that if they wished for 
peace, they must recall Hippias. Rather than 
accede to these conditions, the Athenians 
chose to be considered as the enemies of 
Persia. 

XCVII. Whilst they were resolving on 
these measures, in consequence of the im- 
pression which had been made to their preju- 
dice in Persia, Aristagoras the Milesian, being 
driven by Cleomenes from Sparta, arrived at 
Athens, which city was then powerful beyond 
the rest of its neighbours. When Aristagoras 
appeared in the public assembly, he enumerated, 
as he had done in Sparta, the riches which 
Asia possessed, and recommended a Persian 
war, in which they would be easily successful 

Ye murderers of the laws, 
Though now ye glory in your lust, 
Though now ye tread the feeble neck in dust, 
Yet time and righteous Jove will judge your dreadful cause. 

After all, Alcseus does not appear to have been one of 
the fairest characters of antiquity, and has probably re- 
ceived more commendation than he deserved. His house, 
we learn from Athaeneus, was filled with military wea- 
pons j Ids great desire was to attain military glory ; but 
in his first engagement with an enemy, he ignominiously 
fled. The theme of his songs was liberty, but he was 
strongly suspected of being a secret friend to some who 
meditated the ruin of their country. I say nothing of 
his supposed licentious overture to Sappho, thinking 
with Bayle, that the verses cited by Aristotle have been 
too hardly construed. Of these verses the following is 
an imperfect translation : 

Alc/eus. 
I wish to speak, but still through shame conceal 
The thoughts my tongue most gladly would reveal. 

Sappho. 
Were your request, O bard, on virtue built, 
Your cheeks would wear no marks of secret guilt ; 
But in prompt words the ready thought had flown, 
And your heart's honest meaning quickly shown. 



against a people using neither spear nor shield. 4 
In addition to this, he remarked that Miletus 
was an Athenian colony, and that consequently 
it became the Athenians to exert the great 
power they possessed in favour of the Mile- 
sians. He proceeded to make use of the most 
earnest entreaties and lavish promises, till they 
finally acceded to his views. He thought, and 
as it appeared with justice, that it was far 
easier to delude a great multitude than a single 
individual ; he was unable to prevail upon Cle- 
omenes, but he won to his purpose no less than 
thirty thousand 5 Athenians. The people of 
Athens accordingly agreed to send to the assist- 
ance of the Ionians twenty vessels of war, of 
which Melanthius, a very amiable and popular 
character, was to have the command. This 
fleet was the source of the calamities" which 
afterwards ensued to the Greeks and Barbarians. 
XCVIII. Before their departure, Aristago- 
ras returned to Miletus, where he contrived a 
measure from which no advantage could possi- 
bly result to the Ionians. Indeed, his principal 
motive was to distress Darius. He despatched 
a messenger into Phrygia, to those Pseonians 
who from the banks of the Strymon had been led 
away captive by Megabyzus, and who inhabited 
a district appropriated to them. His emissaries 
thus addressed them : — " Men of Paeonia, I am 

I give them, with some slight alteration, from Bayle. 
— T. 

4 Spear nor shield.] — A particular account of the mili- 
tary habit and arms of the oriental nations may be found 
in the seventh book of Herodotus, where he speaks of 
the nations which composed the prodigious armament of 
Xerxes.— T. 

5 Thirty thousand.'], — Herodotus is the only ancient 
author who makes the aggregate of the Athenians 
amount to more than twenty-one thousand individuals. 
Is this, inquires M. Larcher, a fault of the copyists, or 
were the Athenians more populous before the Persian 
and Peloponuesian wars ? " The narrow policy," observes 
Mr Gibbon, " of preserving, without any foreign mix- 
ture, the pure blood of the ancient citizens, had checked 
the fortune, and hastened the ruin of Athens and Sparta 
The aspiring genius of Rome sacrificed vanity to ambi- 
tion, and deemed it more prudent as well as honourable, 
to adept virtue and merit for her own, wheresoever they 
were found, among slaves or strangers, enemies or bar- 
barians." 

6 Source of the calamities.] — This is another of the ex- 
amples which Plutarch adduces in proof of the malice of 
Herodotus. " He has the audacity," says Plutarch, "to 
affirm, that the vessels which the Athenians sent to the 
assistance of the Ionians, who had revolted from the 
Persians, were the cause of the evils which afterwards 
ensued, merely because they endeavoured to deliver so 
many and sucli illustrious Grecian cities, from servitude." 
In point of argument, a weaker tract than this of Plu- 
tarch was never written ; and this assertion in particular 
is too absurd to require any formal refutation.— 7. 



m 



276 



HERODOTUS. 



commissioned by Aristagoras, prince of Mi- 
letus, to say, that if you will follow his counsel, 
you may be free. The whole of Ionia has re- 
volted from Persia, and it becomes you to seize 
this opportunity of returning to your native 
country. You have only to appear on the 
banks of the ocean ; we will provide for the 
rest." The Paeonians received this informa- 
tion with great satisfaction, and with their wives 
and children fled towards the sea. Some, 
however, yielding to their fears, remained be- 
hind. From the sea-coast they passed over to 
Chios : here they had scarce disembarked be- 
fore a large body of Persian cavalry, sent in 
pursuit of them, appeared on the opposite 
shore. Unable to overtake them, they sent 
over to them at Chios, soliciting their return. 
This, however, had no effect : from Chios 
they were transported to Lesbos, from Lesbos 
to Doriscus, 1 and from thence they proceeded 
by land to Pseonia. 

XCIX. At this juncture, Aristagoras was 
joined by the Athenians in twenty vessels, 
who were also accompanied by five triremes of 
Eretrians. These latter did not engage in the 
contest from any regard for the Athenians, but 
to discharge a similar debt of friendship to the 
Milesians. The Milesians had formerly as- 
sisted the Eretrians against the Chalcidians, 
when the Samians had united with them against 
the Eretrians and Milesians. When these and 
the rest of his confederates were assembled, 
Aristagoras commenced an expedition against 
Sardis : he himself continued at Miletus, 
whilst his brother Charopinus commanded the 
Milesians, and Hermophantus had the conduct 
of the allies. 

C. The Ionians arriving with their fleet at 
Ephesus, disembarked at Coressus, a place in 
its vicinity. Taking some Ephesians for their 
guides, they advanced with a formidable force, 
directing their march towards the Cayster.* 
Passing over mount Tmolus, they arrived at 
Sardis, where meeting no resistance, they made 
themselves masters of the whole of the city, 
except the citadel. This was defended by Ar- 
taphernes himself, with a large body of troops. 

1 Doriscus.] — Doriscus is memorable for being the 
place where Xerxes numbered his army.— J". 

2 Cayster.] — This river was very famous in classic 
story. It anciently abounded with swans, and from its 
serpentine course has sometimes been confounded with 
the Mseander ; the Mseander was the appropriate river 
of the Milesians, as waa the Cayster of the Ephesians. 
The name the Turks now give it is Chiay.— T. 



CI. The following incident preserved the 
city from plunder:, — the houses of Sardis 3 were 
in general constructed of reeds ; the few which 
were of brick had reed coverings. One of these 
being set on fire by a soldier, the flames spread 
from house to house, till the whole city was 
consumed. In the midst of the conflagration, 
the Lydians, and such Persians as were in the 
city, seeing themselves surrounded by the flames, 
and without the possibility of escape, rushed 
in crowds to the forum, through the centre of 
which flows the Pactolus. This river brings, 
in its descent from mount Tmolus, a quantity 
of gold dust ; 4 passing, as we have described, 
through Sardis, it mixes with the Hermus, till 
both are finally lost in the sea. The Persians 
and Lydians, thus reduced to the last extremity, 
were compelled to act on the defensive. The 
Ionians seeing some of the enemy prepared to 
defend themselves, others advancing to attack 
them, were seized with a panic, and retired to 
mount Tmolus, 5 from whence, under favour of 
the night, they retreated to their ships. 

CII. In the burning of Sardis, the temple of 
Cybele, the tutelar goddess of the country, was 
totally destroyed, which was afterwards made a 
pretence by the Persians for burning the tem- 
ples of the Greeks. When the Persians who 
dwell on this side the Halys were acquainted 
with the above invasion, they determined to 
assist the Lydians. Following the Ionians 
regularly from Sardis. they came up with them 
at Ephesus. A general engagement ensued, 
in which the Ionians were defeated with great 
slaughter. Amongst others of distinction who 
fell, was Eualcis, chief of the Eretrians ; he 
had frequently been victorious in many contests, 
of which a garland was the reward, and had 
been particularly celebrated by Simonides of 
Ceos. 6 They who escaped from this battle, 
took refuge in the different cities. 



3 Sardis.]— The reader will recollect that Sardis was 
the capital of Croesus, which is here represented as con- 
sisting only of a number of thatched houses, a proof that 
architecture had as yet made no progress.— T. 

4 Gold dust.]— It had ceased to do this in the time of 
Strabo, that is to say, in the age of Augustus.— Larcher. 

5 Tmolus.]— Strabo enumerates mount Tmolus amongst 
the places which produced the most excellent vines. It 
was also celebrated for its saffi-on.— See Virgil. 

Nonne vides orooeos ut Tmolus odores, &c. 

It was also called Timolus. See Ovid, 

Deseruere sui nymphee vineta. Timoli. 

It is now named Timolitze. — T. 

6 Simonides of Ceos.]— There were several poets of 



TERPSICHORE. 



277 



CIII. After the event of the above expedi- 
tion, the Athenians withdrew themselves en- 
tirely from the Ionians, and refused all the soli- 
ictations of Aristagoras by his ambassadors, to 
repeat their assistance. The Ionians, though 
deprived of this resource, continued with no 
less alacrity to persevere in the hostilities they 
had commenced against Darius. They sailed 
to the Hellespont, and reduced Byzantium, 
with the neighbouring cities : quitting that part 
again, and advancing to Caria, the greater part 
of the inhabitants joined them in their offensive 
operations. The city of Caunus, which at first 
had refused their alliance, after the burning of 
Sardis, added itself to their forces. 

CIV. The confederacy was also farther 
strengthened by the voluntary accession of all 
the Cyprians, except the Amathusians. 7 The 
following was the occasion of the revolt of the 
Cyprians from the Medes: — Gorgus prince of 
Salamis, son of Chersis, grandson of Sinomus, 
great-grandson of Euelthon, had a younger bro- 
ther, whose name was Onesilus ; this man had 
repeatedly solicited Gorgus to revolt from the 
Persians ; and on hearing of the secession of the 
Ionians, he urged him with still greater importun- 
ity. Finding all his efforts ineffectual, assisted by 
his party, he took an opportunity of his brother's 
making an excursion from Salamis, to shut the 
gates against him : Gorgus, thus deprived of his 
city, took refuge amongst the Medes. Onesilus 
usurped his station, and persuaded the Cyprians 
to rebel. . The Amathusians, who alone oppos- 
ed him, he closely besieged. 

CV. At this period, Darius was informed 
of the burning of Sardis by the Athenians and 
Ionians, and that Aristagoras of Miletus was 

this name; the celebrated satire against women was 
written by another and more modern Simonides. The 
great excellence of this Simonides of Ceos was elegiac 
composition, in which Dionysius Halicarnassus does not 
scruple to prefer him to Pindar. The invention of local 
memory was ascribed to him, and it is not a little remark- 
able, that at the age of eighty, he contended for and won 
» poetical prize. His most memorable saying was con- 
cerning God. Hiero asked him what God was ? After 
many and reiterated delays, his answer was, " The longer 
I meditate upon it, the more obscure the subject appears 
to me." He is reproached for having been the first who 
prostituted Ms muse for mercenary purposes- Bayle 
seems to have collected every thing of moment relative 
to this Simonides, to whom for more minute particulars, 
I refer the reader. — T. 

7 Amathusians.] — From Amathus, which was sacred 
to Venus, the whole island of Cyprus was sometimes call- 
ed Amathusia. — According to Ovid, it produced abun- 
dance of metals ; 

Gravidamque Amathunta metallis. T. 



the principal instigator of the confederacy against 
him. On first receiving the intelligence, he is 
said to have treated the revolt of the Ionians with 
extreme contempt, as if certain that it was im- 
possible for them to escape his indignation ; 
but he desired to know who the Athenians 
were ? On being told, he called for bis bow, 
and shooting an arrow into the air, he exclaimed : 
— " Suffer me, O Jupiter, to be revenged on 
these Athenians !" He afterwards directed one 
of his attendants to repeat to him, three times 
every day, when he sat down to table, " Sir, re- 
member the Athenians." 

CVI. After giving these orders, Darius 
summoned to his presence Histiaeus of Miletus, 
whom he had long detained at his court. He 
addressed him thus : " I am informed, Histiaeus, 
that the man to whom you intrusted the govern- 
ment of Miletus, has excited a rebellion against 
me ; he has procured forces from the opposite 
continent, and seduced the Ionians, whom I 
shall unquestionably chastise, from their duty. 
With their united assistance, he has destroyed 
my city of Sardis. Can such a conduct pos- 
sibly meet with your approbation ? or, unadvised 
by you, could he have done what he has ? Be 
careful not to involve yourself in a second offence 
against my authority." — " Can you, Sir, believe," 
said Histiaeus in reply, " that I would be con- 
cerned in any thing which might occasion the 
smallest perplexity to you? What should I, 
who have nothing to wish for, gain by such con- 
duct ? Do I not participate all that you your- 
self enjoy ; and have I not the honour of being 
your counsellor and your friend? If my repre- 
sentative has acted, as you allege, it is entirely 
his own deed ; but I cannot easily be persuaded 
that either he or the Milesians would engage 
in any thing to your prejudice. If, nevertheless, 
what you intimate be really true, by withdraw- 
ing me from my own proper station you have 
only to blame yourself for the event. I suppose 
that the Ionians have taken the opportunity of 
my absence, to accomplish what they have for 
a long time meditated. Had I been present in 
Ionia, I will venture to affirm, that not a city 
would have revolted from your power : you have 
only therefore to send me instantly to Ionia, 
that things may resume their former situation, 
and that I may give into your power the present 
governor of Miletus, who has occasioned all 
this mischief. Having first effected this, I 
swear by the deities of Heaven, that I will not 
change the garb in which I shall set foot in 



278 



HERODOTUS. 



Ionia, without rendering the great island of 
Sardinia 1 tributary to your power." 

CVII. Histiseus made these protestations to 
delude Darius. The king was influenced by 
what he said, only requiring his return to Susa 
as soon as he should have fulfilled his engage- 
ments. 

C VIIL In this interval, when the messenger 
from Sardis had informed Darius of the fate of 
that city, and the king had done with his bow 
what we have described ; and when, after con- 
ferring with Histiseus, he had dismissed him to 
Ionia, the following incident occurred : Onesilus 
of Salamis being engaged in the siege of Araa- 
thus, word was brought him that Artybius, a 
Persian officer, was on his way to Cyprus with 
a large fleet, and a formidable body of Persians. 
On hearing this, Onesilus sent messengers to 
different parts of Ionia, expressing his want 
and desire of assistance. The Ionians, without 
hesitation, hastened to join him with a numer- 
ous fleet. Whilst they were already at Cyprus 
the Persians had passed over from Cilicia, and 
were proceeding by land to Salamis. The 
Phenicians in the mean time had passed the 
promontory which is called the Key of Cyprus. 

CIX. Whilst things were in this situation, 
the princes of Cyprus assembled the Ionian 
chiefs, and thus addressed them : — ■" Men of 
Ionia, we submit to your own determination, 
whether you will engage the Phenicians or the 
Persians. If you rather choose to fight on land 
and with the Persians, it is time for you to dis- 
embark, that we may go on board your vessels, 
and attack the Phenicians. If you think it 
more advisable to encounter the Phenicians, it 
becomes you to do so immediately. — Decide 
which way you please, that as far as our efforts 
can prevail, Ionia and Cyprus may be free." 
" We have been commissioned,", answered the 
Ionians, " by our country, to guard the ocean, 
not to deliver our vessels unto you, nor to en- 
gage the Persians by land. — We will endeavour 
to discharge our duty in the station appointed 
us ; it is for you to distinguish yourselves as 
valiant men, remembering the oppressions you 
have endured from the Medes." 

1 Sardinia.]— It has been doubted by many, whether 
on account of the vast distance of Sardinia from the 
Asiatic continent, the text of Herodotus has not here been 
altered. Rollin in particular is very incredulous on the 
subject; but as it appears by the preceding passages of 
our author, that the Ionians had penetrated to the ex- 
tremities of the Mediterranean, and were not unacquaint- 
ed with Corsica, all appearance of improbability in this 
narration ceases.— T. 



CX. When the Persians were drawn up be- 
fore Salamis, the Cyprian commanders placed 
the forces of Cyprus against the auxiliaries of 
the enemy, selecting the flower of Salamis 
and Soli to oppose the Persians : Onesilus 
voluntarily stationed himself against Artybius 
the Persian general. 

CXI. Artybius was mounted on a charger, 
which had been taught to face a man in complete 
armour : Onesilus hearing this, called to him 
his shield-bearer, who was a Carian of great 
military experience, and of undaunted courage : 
— " I hear," says he, " that the horse of Arty- 
bius, by his feet and his teeth, materially assists 
his master against an adversary ; deliberate on 
this, and tell me which you will encounter, the 
man or the horse." " Sir," said the attendant, 
" I am ready to engage with either, or both, or 
indeed to do whatever you command me ; I 
should rather think it will be more consistent 
for you, being a prince and a general, to contend 
with one who is a prince and a general also. — 
If you should fortunately kill a person of *his 
description, you will acquire great glory, 01 if 
you should fall by his hand, which heaven avert, 
the calamity is somewhat softened by the rank 
of the conqueror : it is for us of inferior rank to 
oppose men like ourselves. As to the horse, 
do not concern yourself about what he has been 
taught ; I will venture to say, that he shall never 
again be troublesome to any one." 

CXIL In a short time afterwards, the hos- 
tile forces engaged both by sea and land ; the 
Ionians, after a severe contest, obtained a vic- 
tory over the Phenicians, in which the bravery 
of the Samians was remarkably conspicuous. 
Whilst the armies were engaged by land, the 
following incident happened to the two generals : 
— Artybius, mounted on his horse, rushed 
against Onesilus, who, as he had concerted 
with his servant, aimed a blow at him as he 
approached : and whilst the horse reared up his 
feet against the shield of Onesilus, the Carian 

cut them off with an axe The horse, with his 

master, fell instantly to the ground. 

CXIII. In the midst of the battle, Stesenor, 
prince of Curium, with a considerable body of 
forces, went over to the enemy (it is said that 
the Curians are an Argive colony) ; their exam- 
ple was followed by the men of Salamis, in 
their chariots of war ; 8 from which events the 

2 Chariots of war.]— Of these chariots, frequent men- 
tion is made in Homer : they carried two men, oue ot 
whom guided the reins, the other fought.— Various speci- 
mens of ancient chariots may be seen in Montfaucon. — T. 



TERPSICHORE. 



279 



Persians obtained a decisive victory. The 
Cyprians fled. Among the number of the slain 
was Onesilus, son of Chersis, and principal in- 
stigator of the revolt ; the Solian prince Aris- 
tocyprus, also fell, son of that Philocyprus, 3 
whom Solon of Athens, when at Cyprus, cele- 
brated in verse amongst other sovereign princes. 

CXIV. In revenge for his besieging them, 
the Amathusians took the head of Onesilus, and 
carrying it back in triumph, fixed it over their 
gates : sometime afterwards, when the inside 
of the head was decayed, a swarm of bees set- 
tling in it, filled it with honey. The people of 
Amathus consulted the oracle on the occasion, 
and were directed to bury the head, and every 
year to sacrifice to Onesilus as to an hero. 
Their obedience involved a promise of future 
prosperity ; and even within my remembrance, 
they have performed what was required of them. 

CXV. The lonians, although successful in 
the naval engagement off Cyprus, as soon as 
they heard of the defeat and death of Onesilus, 
and that all the cities of Cyprus were closely 
blockaded, except Salamis, which the citizens 
had restored to Gorgus, their former sovereign, 
returned with all possible expedition to Ionia.^ 
Of all the towns in Cyprus, Soli made the 
longest and most vigorous defence; but of this, 
by undermining the place, the Persians obtained 
possession after a five months' siege. 

CXVL Thus the Cyprians, having enjoyed 
their liberties for the space of a year, were a 
second time reduced to servitude. All the 
lonians who had been engaged in the expedition 
against Sardis, were afterwards vigorously at- 
tacked by Daurises, Hymees, Otanes, and other 
Persian generals, each of whom had married a 
daughter of Darius : they first drove them to 
their ships, then took and plundered their towns, 
which they divided among themselves. 

CXVII. Daurises afterwards turned his 
arms against the cities of the Hellespont, and 
in as many successive days made himself master 
of Abydos, Percotes, Lampsacus, 4 and Paeson. 



3 Philocyprus.'] — Philocyprus was prince of Soli, when 
Solon arrived at Cyprus ; Soli was then called iEpeia, 
and the approaches to it were steep and difficult, and its 
neighbourhood unfruitful. Solon advised the prince to 
rebuild it on the plain which it overlooked, and undertook 
the labour of furnishing- it with inhabitants. In this he 
succeeded, and Philocyprus, from gratitude, gave his city 
the name of the Athenian philosopher. Solon mentions 
this incident in some verses addressed to Philocyprus, 
preserved in Plutarch — Larcher. 

4 Lampsacus.] — This place was given to Themistocles 
to furnish him wine, and was memorable in antiquity 



From this latter place he proceeded to Parion, 
but learning on his march, that the Carians, 
taking part with the lonians, had revolted from 
Persia, he turned aside from the Hellespont, 
and led his forces against Caria. 

C XVIII. Of this motion of Daurises the 
Carians had early information, in consequence 
of which they assembled at a place called the 
White Columns, not far from the river Marsy- 
as, which, passing through the district of Hi- 
dryas, flows into the Mseander. Various senti- 
ments were on this occasion delivered ; but the 
most sagacious in my estimation was that of 
Pixodarus, son of Mausolus ; he was a native 
of Cindys, and had married the daughter of 
Syennesis, prince of Cilicia. He advised, that 
passing the Maeander, they should attack the 
enemy, with the river in their rear ; that thus 
deprived of all possibility of retreat, they should 
from compulsion stand their ground, and make 
the greater exertions of valour. This advice 
was not accepted ; they chose rather that the 
Persians should have the Mseander behind them, 
that if they vanquished the enemy in the field 
they might afterwards drive fhem into the river. 

CXIX. The Persians advanced, and passed 
the Meeander ; the Carians met them on the 
banks of the Marsyas, when a severe and well 
fought contest ensued. The Persians had so 
greatly the advantage in point of number, that 
they were finally victorious ; two thousand 
Persians, and ten thousand Carians, fell in the 
battle ; they who escaped from the field fled tQ 
Labranda, and took refuge in a sacred wood of 
planes, surrounding a temple of Jupiter Stra- 
tius. 5 The Carians are the only people, as fat 
as I have been able to learn, who sacrifice to 
this Jupiter. Driven to the above extremity, 
they deliberated among themselves, whether it 
would be better to surrender themselves to the 
Persians, or finally to relinquish Asia. 



for producing many eminent men. — Epicurus resided 
here a long time. — T. 

5 Jupiter Stratius — (or Jupiter the warrior.)] — The 
Carians were the only people, in the time of Herodotus, 
who worshipped Jupiter under this title. He was par- 
ticularly honoured at Labranda, and therefore Strabo 
calls him the Labrandinian Jupiter. He held a hatchet 
in his hand, and Plutarch (in his Greek Questions) relates 
the reason ; he was afterwards worshipped in other 
places under the same appellation. Amongst the mar- 
bles at Oxford, there is a stone which seems to have 
served for an altar, having an axe, and this inscription ; 
AI02 AABPAYNAOT KAI AIOS MEriCTOT—" Of 
the Labrandinian Jupiter, and of the very Great Jupiter." 
It was found in a Turkish cemetery, between Aphrodisias 
and Hieropolis, and consequently in Caria, though at a 
great distance from Labranda.— Larcher. 



280 



HERODOTUS. 



CXX. In the midst of their consultation, 
the Milesians with their allies arrived to rein- 
force them ; the Carians resumed their courage, 
and again prepared for hostilities ; they a second 
time advanced to meet the Persians, and after 
an engagement more obstinate than the former, 
sustained a second defeat, in which a prodigious 
number, chiefly of Milesians, were slain. 

CXXI. The Carians soon recruited their 
forces, and in a subsequent action, somewhat 
repaired their former losses. Receiving in- 
telligence that the Persians were on their 
march to attack their towns, they placed them- 
selves in ambuscade, in the road to Pidasus. The 
Persians by night fell into the snare, and a vast 
number were slain, with their generals DaurL 
ses, Amorges, and Sisimaces ; Myrses, the son 
of Gyges, was also of the number. 

CXXII. The conduct of this ambuscade 
was intrusted to Heraclides son of Ibanolis, a 
Mylassian. — The event has been related. Hy- 
mees, who was engaged amongst others in the 
pursuit of the Ionians, after the affair of Sardis, 
turning towards the Propontis, took Cios, a 
Mysian city. Receiving intelligence that Dau- 
rises had quitted the Hellespont, to march 
against Caria, he left the Propontis, and pro- 
ceeded to the Hellespont, where he effectually 
reduced all the iEolians of the Trojan district ; 
he vanquished also the Gergithse, a remnant of 
the ancient Teucri. Hymees himself, after all 
these successes, died at Troas. 

CXXIII. Artaphernes, governor of Sardis, 
and Otanes, the third in command, received 
orders to lead their forces to Ionia and iEolia, 
which is contiguous to it; they made them- 
selves masters of Clazomense in Ionia, and of 
Cyma, an iEolian city. 

CXXIV. After the capture of these places, 
Aristagoras of Miletus, though the author of 
all the confusion in which Ionia had been in- 



volved, betrayed a total want of intrepidity ; 
these losses confirmed him in the belief, that 
all attempts to overcome Darius would be in- 
effectual ; he according determined to seek his 
safety in flight. He assembled his party, and 
submitted to them whether it would not be ad- 
visable to have some place of retreat, in case 
they should be driven from Miletus. He left it 
to them to determine, whether they should 
establish a colony in Sardinia, or whether they 
should retire to Myrcinus, a city of the Edo- 
nians, which had been fortified by Histiseus, 
to whom Darius had presented it. 

CXXV. Hecatseus the historian, who was 
the son of Hegasander, was not for establish- 
ing a colony at either of these places ; he affirm- 
ed, that if they should be expelled from Mile- 
tus, it would be more expedient for them to 
construct a fort in the island of Leros, and 
there remain till a favourable opportunity 
should enable them to return to Miletus. 

CXX VI. Aristagoras himself was more 
inclined to retire to Myrcinus ; he confided 
therefore the administration of Miletus to Py- 
thagoras, a man exceedingly popular, and taking 
with him all those who thought proper to accom- 
pany him, he embarked for Thrace, where he 
took possession of the district which he had fn 
view. Leaving this place, he proceeded to the 
attack of some other, where both he and his 
army fell by the hands of the Thracians, who 
had previously entered into terms to resign their 
city into his power. 1 



1 I cannot dismiss this book of Herodotus without re- 
marking, that it contains a great deal of curious history, 
and abounds with many admirable examples of private 
life. The speech of Sosicles of Corinth, in favour of 
liberty, is excellent in its kind ; and the many sagacious, 
and indeed moral sentiments, which are scattered 
throughout the whole book, cannot fail of producing 
both entertainment and instruction.— T. 



HERODOTUS. 



BOOK VI. 



ERATO. 



I. Such was the fate of Aristagoras, the in- 
stigator of the Ionian revolt. — Histiaeus of 
Miletus, as soon as Darius had acquiesced in 
his departure from Susa, proceeded to Sardis. 
On his arrival, Artaphernes the governor asked 
him what he thought could possibly have induced 
the Ionians to revolt? He expressed himself 
ignorant of the cause, and astonished at the 
event. Artaphernes, however, who had been 
informed of his preceding artifice, and was sen- 
sible of his present dissimulation, observed to 
him, that the matter might be thus explained : 
" You," says he, " made the shoe 1 which Aris- 
tagoras has worn." 

II. Histiaeus, perceiving himself suspected, 
fled the very first night towards the sea ; and 
instead of fulfilling his engagements with Darius, 
to whose power he had promised to reduce the 
great island of Sardinia, assumed the command 
of the Ionian forces against him. Passing over 
into Chios, he was seized and thrown into chains 
by the inhabitants, who accused him of coming 
from the king with some design against their 



1 Made the shoe.]—l have given a literal translation 
from the Greek ; but M. Larcher, thinking perhaps the 
expression somewhat inclining to vulgarity, has render- 
ed it thus, " You contrived the plot which he has execut- 
ed." Not very unlike this phrase used by the Persian to 
Aristagoras, is our English one of standing in another 
person's shoes ; which perhaps may be traced to times 
more remote than may at first be imagined. When the 
Greeks reclined upon their couches at meals and enter- 
tainments, they pulled of their sandals ; if any one, on 
any occasion, wanted to leave the apartment, he put them 
on again. Therefore, says the poet, I do that with res- 
pect to your manners, as a man does at an entertainment, 
who, wanting to go out of the room, uses another person's 
sandals. It would by no means be an uninteresting work, 
to trace the meaning of our proverbial expressions to 
their remotest application : for my own part I am well 
convinced, that more of them might be discovered in the 
customs and languages of Greece and Rome, than an 
English antiquary would at first perhaps be willing to 
allow.— T. 



state. When they had heard the truth, and 
were convinced that he was really an enemy to 
Darius, they released him. 

III. Histiaeus was afterwards interrogated 
by the Ionians, why he had so precipitately im- 
pelled Aristagoras to revolt, a circumstance 
which had occasioned the loss of so many of 
their countrymen. His answer was insidious, 
and calculated to impress the Ionians with 
alarm ; he told them what really was not the 
fact, that his conduct had been prompted by the 
avowed intentions of Darius, to remove the 
Phenicians 2 to Ionia, and the Ionians to Phe- 
nicia. 

IV. His next measure was to send letters 
to certain Persians at Sardis, 3 with whom he 



2 To remove the Phenicians, #c.] — It was the easier 
to make the Ionians credit this assertion, because such 
kind of transmigrations were frequent amongst the As- 
syrians and Persians. It is well known that the Jews 
were removed to Babylon and Media, and Hyrcanians 
were to be found in Asia Minor: it would indeed be 
endless to enumerate all the transmigrations which were 
made by the command of those people. — Larchex. — We 
have already seen a great part of the Paeonians of Thrace 
removed into Asia by order of Darius. See book v. ch. 
15.— T. 

3 Sardis.2 — As this city was one of the most celebrated 
in ancient history, for its dignity and wealth, the follow- 
ing succinct account of the various masters through whose 
hands it passed, may not be unacceptable. 

On the defeat of Croesus, it came under the power of 
Cyrus. On the division of the Persian monarchy into 
satrapies, it became the residence of the satrap, who had 
the government of the sea-coast. When the Ionians re- 
volted from Darius, son of Hystaspes, it was burnt by 
the confederates, under the conduct of Aristagoras, see 
chapter 99 of this book. This was one of the principal 
motives which induced Darius to make war on Greece. 
It soon recovered its splendour, and surpassed all the 
cities of Asia in its opulence. When Alexander the 
Great vanquished the generals of Darius on the banks of 
the Granicus, it fell into his hands ; but it finally came 
into the power of the kings of Syria. Attalus Philome- 
ter, one of the descendants of Antiochus the great, be- 
queathed this among his other possessions to the Romans, 
2N 



282 



HERODOTUS. 



had previously communicated on the subject of 
a revolt ; these he intrusted to Hermippus, a 
native of Atarnis, who abused the confidence 
reposed in him, by delivering the letters into 
the hands of Artaphernes. The governor, after 
acquainting himself with their contents, desired 
Hermippus to deliver them according to their 
first directions, and then to give to him the 
answers intended for Histiaeus. In consequence 
of the intelligence which he by these means 
obtained, Artaphernes put a great number of 
Persians to death. 

V. A tumult was thus excited at Sardis ; 
but Histiaeus failing in this project, prevailed 
on the Chians to carry him back to Miletus. 
The Milesians, delighted with the removal of 
Aristagoras, had already tasted the sweets of 
liberty, and were little inclined to give admis- 
sion to a second master. Histiaeus, attempting 
to effect a landing at Miletus in the night, was, 
by some unknown hand, wounded in the thigh : 
rejected by his country, he again set sail for 
Chios, whence, as the inhabitants refused to 
intrust him with their fleet, he passed over to 
Mitylene.' Having, from the Lesbians, obtain- 
ed the command of eight triremes properly 
equipped, he proceeded to Byzantium. Here 
he took his station, and intercepted all the ves- 
sels coming from the Euxine, except those which 
consented to obey him. 

VI. Whilst Histiaeus, with the aid of the 
people of Mitylene, was acting thus, Miletus it- 
self was threatened with a most formidable 
attack, both by sea and land. The Persian 
generals had collected all their forces into one 
body, and making but little account of the 
other cities, advanced towards Miletus. Of 
those who assisted them by sea, the Phenicians 
were the most alert ; with these served the 
Cyprians, who had been recently subdued as 
well as the Cilicians and Egyptians. 

VII. When the Ionians received intelligence 
of this armament, which not only menaced Mi- 
letus, but the rest of Ionia, they sent delegates 
to the Panionium. 3 The result of their de- 

and three years after his death it was reduced into a 
Roman province. 

For farther particulars concerning it, the reader may, 
with much satisfaction, consult a Dissertation by the 
Abbe Belley, in the 18th volume of the Memoirs of In- 
scriptions and Belles Lettres. 

1 Mitylene.~\ — In the first book, ch. 160. it is written 
Mytilene ; the difference is in the original. 

2 Panionium.]— See chap. 148 of book the first. — In 
my note upon this word, I omitted to mention, that the 
Panionium probably suggested to Milton the idea of his 
Pandemonium :— ■ 



liberations was, that they should by no means 
meet the' Persians by land ; that the people of 
Miletus should vigorously defend their city: 
and that the allies should provide and equip 
every vessel in their power ; that as soon as 
their fleet should be in readiness, they should 
meet at Lade, 3 and risk a battle in favour of 
Miletus. Lade is a small island immediately 
opposite to Miletus. 

VIII. The Ionians completed their fleet, 
and assembled at the place appointed : they 
were reinforced by the collective power of the 
iEolians of Lesbos, and prepared for an en- 
gagement in the following order. The Mile- 
sians furnished eighty vessels, which occupied 
the east wing ; next to these were the Prienians, 
with twelve, and the Mysians with three ships ; 
contiguous were the Chians in one hundred 
vessels, and the Teians in seventeen ; beyond 
these were the Erytheans and Phocaeans, the 
former with eight, the latter with three ships. 
The Lesbians in seventy ships were next to 
the Phocaeans ; in the extremity of the line, to 
the west, the Samians were posted in sixty 
ships : the whole fleet was composed of three 
hundred and fifty-three triremes. 

IX. The Barbarians were possessed of six 
hundred vessels : as soon as they came before 
Miletus, and their land forces also were arrived, 
the Persian commanders were greatly alarmed 
by the intelligence they received of their adver- 
saries' force ; they began to apprehend that their 
inferiority by sea might at the same time pre- 
vent their capture of Miletus, and expose them 
to the resentment of Darius. With these sen- 
timents, they called together those Ionian 
princes who, being deposed by Aristagoras, had 
taken refuge among the Medes, and were pre- 
sent on this expedition. — They addressed them 
to this effect : " Men of Ionia, let each of you 
now show his zeal in the royal cause, by en- 
deavouring to detach from this confederacy his 
own countrymen : allure them by the promise 
that no punishment shall be the consequence of 
their revolt; that neither their temples nor 
other edifices shall be burned : that their treat. 



Meanwhile the winged heralds by command 

Of sovereign power, with awful ceremony 

And trumpet's sound, throughout the host proclaim 

A solemn council forthwith to be held 

At Pandemonium, the high capital 

Of Satan and his peers. T. 

3 Lade. ]— Pausanias informs us that this island was 
divided into two, one of which parts was called Asterius, 
from Asterius, the son of Anactes. See book i. chap. 
5.— T. 



ERA T O. 



283 



n.ent shall not in any respect be more violent 
than before. If they persevere in trusting to 
the event of a battle, tell them that the con- 
trary of all these will assuredly happen ; — them- 
selves shall be hurried into servitude, their 
youths castrated, 4 their daughters carried to 
Bactra, 5 and their country given to others." 



4 Youths castrated,']— We learn that castration was in 
a very early period of society inflicted as a punishment 
for various crimes. Diodorus Siculus, book i. ch. 78. 
speaking' of the Egyptians, has this passage : 

" The laws with respect to women were remarkably 
6evere : if a man committed a rape upon a free woman, 
he had his private parts cut off; they were of opinion, 
that this one crime included three others of a heinous 
nature — injustice, defilement, (»«' ™v -rzxvw avyx v<r ' v ) 
and confusion with respect to cluldren." 

Castration, in many countries, was the punishment of 
adultery ; and by an edict of Justinian it was inflicted 
also on Sodomites. Hume, in his History of England, 
gives the following extraordinary act of cruelty from 
Fitzstephen, which was perpetrated on the clergy by 
Geoffrey, the father of Henry II. 

" When he was master of Normandy, the chapter of 
Seez presumed, without his consent, to proceed to the 
election of a bishop ; upon which he ordered all of them, 
with the bishop elect, to be castrated, and made all their 
testicles be brought him in a platter." 

Mr Gibbon, relating this anecdote, subjoins, in his 
usual sarcastic style. " Of the pain and danger they 
might justly complain; yet, since they had vowed chas- 
tity, he deprived them of a superfluous treasure." — T. 

It may not be improper to observe in this place, that 
the Hottentots have a most preposterous custom of de- 
priving their males of one testicle, which is religiously 
observed through all the Hottentot nations, with a great 
deal of ceremony, See Kolben. It is worthy also of re- 
mark, that this custom owes its rise to some precept of 
the most remote antiquity ; for the Hottentots confess it 
is a law, which has prevailed through all their genera- 
tions, that no man shall have carnal knowledge of a wo- 
man before he is deprived of the left testicle. A custom 
so singular as this must surely have originated from some 
adequate cause : what this may have been, well deserves 
the investigation of the learned. Jupiter castrated Sa- 
turn ; in Phrygia, Atys and the priests of Cyhele were 
castrated ; thus we see, that anciently it was considered 
as a religious rite. From some traditions of these facts 
the Hottentots might also take xip this practice. 

Bochart is of opinion, that the fable of Jupiter's cas- 
trating Saturn arose from the story which scripture tells 
of Noah lying in his tent, Gen. ix. 21. The Phrygian 
custom of castrating the priests of Cybele might perhaps 
be owing to some erroneous and imperfect tradition of 
this event. 

5 Bactra.]— This place, though mentioned by Strabo, 
and other ancient writers, as of great importance, and 
the capital of a province remarkable for its fertility, is 
now either entirely unknown, or a very insignificant 
place. — Some are of opinion, that its modern name is 
Terraend ; d'Anville thinks it is the city Balck, and Ma- 
jor Rennell is entirely of this opinion. Bactra is thus 
mentioned by Virgil : 

Sed neque Medorum sjlvae, ditissima terra, 
Ncc pulcher Ganges, atquc auro turbidus Uermus, 
Laudibus Italite cettent; non Eactra, ncque Indi, 
Totaque thuriferis Panchaia pinguis arena. T. 



X. Under cover of the night the Ionian 
princes were despatched with the above resolu- 
tions to their respective countrymen. The 
Ionians, who were thus addressed, refused to 
betray the common cause, believing these pro- 
positions made to themselves alone. — Such 
were the incidents which happened on the ar- 
rival of the Persians before Miletus. 

XI. The Ionians assembled at Lade, as had 
been appointed, and amongst the various 
opinions which were delivered in council, 
Dionysius the Phoccean leader expressed him- 
self as follows: — " Our affairs are come to that 
delicate point, O, Ionians, that we must either 
be free men or slaves, and even fugitive slaves. 
If you willingly submit to the trouble, your sit- 
uation will at first be painful, but having van- 
quished your enemies, you will then enjoy your 
liberties ; if you suffer your vigour to relax, or 
disorder to take place among you, 1 see no 
means of your evading the indignation with 
which the Persian king will punish your revolt. 
Submit yourselves to my direction, and I will 
engage, if the gods be but impartial, that either 
the enemy shall not attack you at all, or, if they 
<Io, it shall be greatly to their own detriment." 

XIL In consequence of this speech, the 
Ionians resigned themselves to the will of 
Dionysius. Every day he drew out the whole 
fleet in order of battle, leaving a proper interval 
for the use of the oars : he then taught them to 
manoeuvre 7 their ships, keeping the men at 

C Delicate jyoint] — Literally, " are upon the point of 
a razor." This passage is quoted by Longinus, sect. 22. 
as ahappy example of the hyperbaton, which he explains 
to be a transposition of words or sentiments, out of the 
natural order of discourse, and impl ying extreme viol ence 
of passion. 

The word hyperbaton is derived from vxi$, beyond, and 
$a.tvco, to go ; and Pearce, in Ms notes upon Longinus, 
gives two examples of the use of this figure from Virgil : 

Moriamur— et in media arma ruamus. iEn. ii. 348. 

Me, me, adsum qui feci ; in me convertite ferrum. JEn. ix. 427. 

Livy also has an expression similar to this of Herodo- 
tus : — "Jam enim sub ictu teli erant et undiquc insta- 
bant hostes. 

Erasmus, in his Adagia, gives us three examples of 
this proverbial expression, from Homer, Sophocles, and 
Theocritus. That of Homer is in the tenth book of 
the Iliad, where Nestor says, as Pope has rendered it, 
diffusely indeed, but with peculiar force and beauty, ex- 
cept in the second line, which is rather flat : 

But now Ihe last despair surrounds our host, 
No hour must pass, no moment must be lost ; 
Each single Greek in this conclusive strife 
Stands on the sharpest edge of death or lite. T. 

7 To manoeuvre. — AhztXoov ■xoiivy.t.voz''] — This passage 
Larcher renders thus : «' He made them pass betwixt the 
ranks, and quickly retreat " Emcsti understands the 



284 



HERODOTUS. 



their arms : the rest of the day the ships lay at 
their anchors. 1 Without being suffered to re- 
ceive any relaxation from this discipline, the 
Ionians, till the seventh day, punctually obeyed 
his commands ; on the eighth, unused to such 
fatigue, impatient of its continuance, and op- 
pressed by the heat, they began to murmur — 
" We must surely," they exclaimed one to 
another, " have offended some deity, to be ex- 
posed to these hardships ; or we must be both 
absurd and pusillanimous, to suffer this insolent 
Phocsean, master but of three vessels, to treat 
us as he pleases. Having us in his power, he 
has afflicted us with various evils. Many of us 
are already weakened by sickness, and more of 
us likely to become so. Better were it for us 
to endure any calamities than these, and sub- 
mit to servitude, if it must be so, than bear our 
present oppressions. Let us obey him no 
longer." The discontent spread, and all sub- 
ordination ceased ; they disembarked, fixed 
their tents in Lade, and keeping themselves 
under the shade, 2 would neither go on board 
nor repeat their military exercises. 

expression differently ; it is certainly a nautical term ; I 
have therefore preferred the interpretation which I 
think the words will admit, and which will certainly be 
more intelligible and satisfactory to the English reader. 
— T. 

1 At their anchors.] — The Greeks used to draw up 
their vessels along shore while they themselves were on 
land. When the sentinels perceived the enemy's fleet, 
they made signals, and their troops immediately came on 
board. The Ionians, whom their leader would not suf- 
fer to come on shore, found the service very laborious ; 
and, as they were not accustomed to military discipline, 
it is not surprising that they considered this as a species 
of servitude, which they were impatient to break. — 
Larcher. 

The first anchors were probably nothing more than 
large stones, and we know that they sometimes used 
for this purpose bags of sand, which might answer well 
enough for vessels of small burden, in a light and sandy 
bottom. Travellers to the east make mention of wood- 
en anchors ; and there belonged to the large ship made 
for king Hiero, eight anchors of iron and four of wood. 
The Phenicians used lead for some part of their anchors ; 
for, in a voyage which they made to Sicily, Diodorus 
Siculus says, they found silver in such great abundance, 
that they took the lead out of their anchors, and put 
silver in its place. 

More anciently, the anchor had but one fluke or arm : 
the addition of a second has been ascribed to Anacharsis 
the Scythian. 

Our vessels carry their anchors at the prow : but it 
should seem, from Acts xxvii. verse 29, that the ancients 
carried theirs at the stern. 

" Then fearing lest they should have fallen upon rocks, 
they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for 
the day."— T. 

2 Under the sluide.~\ — This expression may seem to 
border a little on the ridiculous, till it is remembered, 



XIII. The Samian leaders, observing what 
passed amongst the Ionians, were more inclined 
to listen to the solicitations of the Persians to 
withdraw from the confederacy ; these solicita- 
tions were communicated to them by iEaces, 
the son of Syloson ; and the increasing disorder 
which prevailed so obviously amongst the 
Ionians added to their weight. They moreover 
reflected that there was little probability of 
finally defeating the power of the Persian 
monarch, sensible that if the present naval 
armament of Darius were dispersed, a second, 
five times as formidable, would soon be at hand. 
Availing themselves therefore of the first refu- 
sal of the Ionians to perform their customary 
duty, they thought this no improper opportunity 
of securing their private, and sacred buildings. 
iEaces, to whose remonstrance the Samians 
listened, was son of Syloson, and grandson of 
^Eaces : he had formerly enjoyed the supreme 
authority of Samos, but, with the other Ionian 
princes, had been driven from his station by 
Aristagoras. 

XIV. Not long afterwards the Phenicians 
advanced, and were met by the Ionians, with 
their fleet drawn up with a contracted front. A 
battle ensued, but who amongst the Ionians 
on this occasion disgraced themselves by their 
cowardice, or signalized themselves by their 
valour, I am unable to ascertain ; for they reci- 
procally censure each other. It is said that the 
Samians, as they had previously concerted with 
iEaces, left their place in the line, and set sail 
for Samos. We must except eleven vessels, 
whose officers, refusing to obey their superiors 
in command, remained and fought. To com- 
memorate this act of valour, the general council 
of the Samians ordained that the names of these 
men, and of their ancestors, should be inscribed 
on a public column, 3 which is still to be seen 
in their forum. The Lesbians, seeing what 
was done by the Samians, next whom they 



that in all oriental climates, both travellers and natives 
place their greatest delight in sleeping and taking their 
repasts under shade. 

3 Public column.]— "Various were the uses for which 
pillars or columns were erected in the earlier ages of an- 
tiquity. In the second book of Herodotus, we read that 
Sesostris erected pillars as military trophies in the coun- 
tries which he conquered. In the book of Pausanias do 
Eliacis we find them inscribed with the particulars of the 
public treaties and alliances. There were some placed 
round the temple of iEseulapius at Corinth, upon which 
the names of various diseases were written, with their 
several remedies. They were also frequently used as 
monuments for the dead.—T. 



ERATO. 



285 



were stationed., followed their example, as did 
the greater number of the Ionians. 

XV. Of those who remained, the Chians 
suffered the most, as well from the efforts 
which they made, as from their wish not to act 
dishonourably. ' They had strengthened the 
confederacy, as I have before observed, by a 
fleet of a hundred vessels, each manned with 
four hundred chosen warriors. They observed 
the treachery of many of the allies, but disdain- 
ed to imitate their example. With the few of 
their friends which remained, they repeatedly 
broke the enemy's line ; till, after taking a great 
number of vessels, and losing many of their own, 
they retired to their own island. 

XVI. Their disabled ships being pursued, 
they retreated to Mycale. The crews here ran 
their vessels on shore, and leaving them, march- 
ed on foot over the continent. Entering the 
Ephesian territories, they approached the city 
in the evening, when the women were celebrat- 
ing the mysteries of Ceres. 4 The Ephesians 
had heard nothing concerning them, and seeing 
a number of armed men in their territories, 
they suspected them to be robbers, who had 
violent designs upon their women. They as- 
sembled therefore to repel the supposed invad- 
ers, and killed them all on the spot. Such was 
the end of these Chians. 

XVII. Dionysius the Phocaean, perceiving 
the Ionian power effectually broken, retreated, 
after taking three of the enemy's ships. He 
did not however go to Phocsea, which he well 
knew must share the common fate of Ionia, 
but he directed his course immediately to Phe- 
nicia. He here made himself master of many 
vessels richly laden, and a considerable quantity 
of silver, with which he sailed to Sicily : here 
he exercised a piratical life, committing many 
depredations on the Carthaginians and Tyrrhe- 
nians, but not molesting the Greeks. 

4 Mysteries of Ceres.] — The same jealousy which pre- 
vailed in Greece with respect to the intrusion of men at 
the celebration of the Thesmophoria, was afterwards 
imitated at Rome in the rites of the Bona Dea. Witness 
the abhorrence in which the criminality of Clodius in tliis 
instance was held by the more respectable part of his 
countrymen, and the very strong language applied 
against him by Cicero. This peculiarity is introduced 
with much humour and effect by Lucian, where speak- 
ing of two men, one remarkable for his attachment to 
boys, and another to women ; " the house of the one," 
says he, " was crowded with beardless youths ; of the 
other, with dancing and singing women," indeed, (us tv 
®i<r(jt,o<poyois) as in the Thesmophoria, there was not a 
male to be seen, except perhaps an infant, or an old 
cook too far advanced in years to excite jealousy. — See 
the edition of Hemsterhusius, vol. ii. 407.— T. 



XVIII. The Persians having thus routed 
the Ionians, laid close siege to Miletus, both 
by sea and land. They not only undermined 
the walls, but applied every species of military 
machines against it. In the sixth year after the 
revolt of Aristagoras, they took and plundered 
the place. By this calamity the former predic- 
tion of the oracle was finally accomplished. 

XIX. The Argives, having consulted the 
oracle of Delphi relative to the future fate of 
their city, received an answer which referred to 
themselves in part, but which also involved the 
fortune of the Milesians. Of what concerned 
the Argives, I shall make mention when I come 
to speak of that people ; what related to the ab- 
sent Milesians was conceived in these terms : — 

Thou, then, Miletus, versed in ill too long, 
Shalt be the prey and plunder of the strong ; 
Your wives shall stoop to wash a long-hair'd 5 train, 
And others guard our Didymaean fane. 

Thus, as we have described, was the prediction 
accomplished. The greater part of the Mile- 
sians were slain by the Persians, who wear 
their hair long ; their wives and children were 
carried into slavery ; the temple at Didymus, 6 
and the shrine near the oracle, were consumed 
by fire. Of the riches of this temple I have 
elsewhere and frequently spoken. 

XX. The Milesians who survived the 
slaughter were carried to Susa. Darius treated 
them with great humanity, and no farther pun- 



5 Long-hair' 'd.~] — From hence we may infer that it was 
not peculiar to the Greeks to use female attendants for 
the offices of the bath. The passages in Homer which 
describe the particulars of a custom so contradictory to 
modern delicacy and refinement, are too numerous to be 
specified, and indeed too familiar to be repeated here. I 
find the following passage in Athenaeus, which being less 
notorious, I insert for the gratification of the English 
reader :— 

" Homer also makes virgins and women wash stran- 
gers, which they did without exciting desire, or being 
exposed to intemperate passion, being well regulated 
themselves, and touching those who were virtuous also : 
such was the custom of antiquity, according to which the 
daughters of Cocalus washed Minos, who had passed 
over into Sicily." — See Athenceus, i. 8. — T. 

6 Didymus.] — This place was in the territories of 
Miletus, and celebrated for the temple of the Didymean 
Apollo. This temple was more anciently denominated 
the temple of Branchidae, the oracle of which I have be- 
fore described. As this title was given Apollo from 
the circumstance of the sun and moon enlightening the 
world alternately by day and night, it may not be im- 
proper to insert in this place the literal translation of an 
aenigmaon the day and night, the original lines of which 
are preserved in Athenaeus, from a tragedy of CEdipus ; 
" There are two sisters, one of which produces the other, 
and that which produces is in its turn produced by the 
other."— T. 



286 



HERODOTUS. 



ished them than by removing them to Ampe, 1 
a city near that part of the Erythrsean sea 
where it receives the waters of the Tigris. 
The low country surrounding the town of Mile- 
tus, the Persians reserved for themselves ; but 
they gave the mountainous parts to the Carians 
of Pedasus. 8 

XXI. The Milesians, on suffering these 
calamities from the Persians, did not meet 
with that return from the people of Sybarus, 
who had been driven from Laon and Scidron, 
which they might justly have expected. When 
Sybaris was taken by the Crotoniati, the Mile- 
sians had shaved their heads, 3 and discovered 
every testimony of sorrow : for betwixt these 
two cities a most strict and uncommon hospi- 
tality 4 prevailed. The Athenians acted very 



1 Ampe.] — See what Bryant says on the terms Ampe- 
lus or Ampe, vol. i. 275, 276.— T. 

2 Pedasus."} — This was also the name of one of the 
horses of Achilles. — See Homer, 27. xvi. — T. 

3 Shaved their heads."} — Consult Deuteronomy, chap, 
xxi. ver. 12, 13, from whence it seems that to shave the 
head was one instance of exhibiting sorrow among the 
ancient Jews.— T. 

4 Hospitality.] — As there is nothing in the manners of 
modern times which at all resembles the ancient cus- 
toms respecting hospitality, it may be pleasing to many 
readers to find the most remarkable particulars of them 
collected in this place. 

The barbarous disposition, to consider all strangers as 
enemies, gave way to the very first efforts towards civil- 
ization ; and, as early as the time of Homer, provision 
was made for the reception of travellers into those fam- 
ilies with winch they were connected by the ties of hos- 
pitality. This connection was esteemed sacred, and was 
under the particular sanction of the hospitable Jupiter, 
Zeus Xenius. The same word Xenos which had origin- 
ally denoted a barbarian and an enemy {Herodotus, ix. 
ch.. 11.) then became the term to express either an host, 
or his guest. When persons were united by the tie of 
hospitality, each was Xenos to the other, though, when 
they were together, he who received the other was pro- 
perly distinguished as the Xenodocus (Ss/veSoasa?.) In 
•the Alcestis of Euripides, 1. 546, and in Plato, we find 
mention of a Xenon ( Smmv, ) or an apartment appropri- 
ated to the reception of such visitors. The bond of hos- 
pitality might subsist, 1. between private individuals; 
2. between private persons and states ; 3. between dif- 
ferent states. Private hospitality was called Xenia ; 
public, Progenia. Persons who, like Glaucus and Dio- 
mede, ratified their hospitality in war, were called 
Doryxeni {Ao^tvoi.) See Horn. II. vi. 215. &c— This 
connection was in all cases hereditary, and was confirm- 
ed by gifts mutually interchanged, which at first were 
called symbols, (Eurip. Bledea, 613 ;) afterwards, when 
reduced to a kind of tickets, instead of presents, 
acr^ccyaXoi or tesserae, Plant. Pcen. act.-5. sc. 2.— Every 
tiling gave way to tliis connection : Admetus could not 
boar the thought of turning away his Xenos, Hercules, 
even when his wife was just dead j and is highly praised 
for it. Eurip. Alcest— Hospitality might, however, be 
/enounced by a -solemn form of abjuration, and yet after 
that might be renewed by a descendant. Thus, between 



differently. The destruction of Miletus af- 
fected them with the liveliest uneasiness, 
which was apparent from various circumstan- 
ces, and from the following in particular : — 
On seeing the capture of Miletus represented 
in a dramatic piece by Phrynichus, 5 the whole 
audience burst into tears. The poet, for thus 
reminding them of a domestic calamity, was fined 
a thousand drachmae, and the piece was for- 
bidden to be repeated. 

XXII. Thus was Miletus stripped of its 
ancient inhabitants. The Samians, to whom 
any part of their property remained, were far 
from satisfied with the conduct of their leaders 
in the contest with the Medes. After the event 
of the above naval fight, and previous to the re- 
turn of iEaces, they determined to remove, and 
found a colony, not choosing to expose them- 
selves to the complicated tyranny of the Medes 
and of iEaces. About this period the Zan 
cleans of Sicily sent a deputation to invite the 
Ionians to Calacte," wishing to found there an 
Ionian city. This coast belongs to the Sicilians, 
but is in that part of Sicily which inclines to- 
wards Tyrrhenia. The Samians were the only 

the city of Sparta and the family of Alcibiades, a public 
hospitality had subsisted ; his grandfather had solemnly 
renounced it, but he by acts of kindness revived it again. 
See Thucyd. v. 43 ; vi. 89. — This circumstance of renun- 
ciation has not been noticed, so far as I have seen, by 
any modern writers. See Feithius, Antiq. Homericae, 
iii. 12, 13. Potter, iv. 21.— Some of the ancient tesseroe 
have been dug up at Rome and elsewhere. See Thoma- 
sinus de Tesseris Hospitalitatis. — The rights of sup- 
pliants were similar to, and nearly connected with, those 
of hospitality. 
So Homer (Odyss. xvi. 56, as translated by Pope) : 

The swain replied, It never was our guise 
To slight the poor, or aught humane despise; 
For Jove unfolds our hospitable door, 
'Tis Jove that sends the stranger and the poor.— Pope. T. 

5 Phrynichus.]— .There were three dramatic authors \ 
of this name, not far distant from each other in time. 
The first, a tragic poet, the son of Polyphradmon ; the 
second, a writer of comedy ; the third, a tragic poet, the 
son of Melanthus. Suidas, who mentions all these par- 
ticulars, yet ascribes the tragedy of the taking of Miletus 
neither to the first nor to the third. But in all proba- 
bility it was the first and not the third whom Herodotus, 
and the numerous historians who copy him, mean to 
point out. The time in which he flourished (for Suidas 
informs us that he gained his first victory in the sixty- 
seventh Olympiad) makes this supposition the nearer to 
truth.— T. 

6 Calacte.]—Kct)i>/) ax.^, the beautiful coast.— See 
D'Orville's Sicula, xxii. 3. 

The learned author proceeds to prove, which he does 
incontestably, that they who would read Calata, are cer- 
tainly mistaken, nam oppida quibus Calata nomen Sara- 
cense et proinde recentioris originis, &c. Silius Italicus 
calls this place Piscosa CaJacte, which term is applied by 
Homer to the Hellespont.— T. 



ERATO. 



287 



Ionians who accepted the invitation, accom- 
panied by those Milesians who had escaped. 

XXIII. When they were on their way to 
Sicily, and had arrived off the Epizephyrian 
Locri, 7 the Zancleans, 8 under the conduct of 
Scythes their king, laid close siege to a Sicilian 
city. Intelligence of this w r as communicated to 
Anaxilaus, 9 prince of Rhegium: 1 " he being hos- 

1 Epizephyrian Locri.] — The Epizephyrian Locri 
were a colony from the Locri of Proper Greece, who 
migrating to Magna Graecia, took their distinctive name 
from the Zephyrian promontory, near which they settled. 
In Proper Greece there were the Locri Ozolae, situated 
betwixt the iEolians and Phocaeans, and so called, as 
Hoffman says, a gravitate odoris ; the Locri Epi-Cnemi- 
dii, who resided in the vicinity of mount Cnemis ; and 
the Locri Opuntii, who took their name from the city 
Opus. 

In Plutarch's Greek Questions, I find this accoimt of 
the Locri Ozolae : 

" Some affirm that these Locrians were called the Lo- 
cri Ozolae, from Nessus ; others say they were so named 
from the serpent Python, which being cast on shore by 
the foam of the sea there putrified. Others assert, that 
these Locri wore for garments the skins of he-goats, and 
lived constantly among the herds of goats, and from this 
became strong-scented ; wlulst there are others who re- 
port of this country, that it brought forth many flowers, 
and that the people were called Ozolae, from the grate- 
ful perfume which they diffused. Architas is one of 
those who asserts this last opinion. Athenaeus, in Ms 
first book, chap. xix. reckons the Epizephyrians amongst 
those who had a particular kind of dance appropriate to 
their nation. 

"There were certain nations," says he, "who had 
dances peculiar to themselves, as the Lacedaemonians, 
the Trezerians, the Epizephyrians, the Cretans, the Io- 
nians, and the Mantineans. Aristoxenus preferred the 
dances of the Mantineans to all the rest, on account of 
the quickness with which they moved their hands." 

8 Zancleans.]— Of all the cities of Sicily, this was the 
most ancient ; it was afterwards named Messana, and 
now Messina. See what Peter Burman says on tins 
city, in his Commentaries on the " Urbium Siculae nu- 
mismata."— D'Orville, 290. The reader may there find 
a very ancient coin, in which Zancle is represented by a 
dolphin in a semicircular position. 

Consult also Bentley's Dissertation upon Phalaris, 
page 107. 

The Greeks call it Zancle, or the Sickle, from the sup- 
position that the sickle of Saturn fell here, and occasion- 
ed its semicircular form. The Latins called it Messana 
or Messina, from Messis, a harvest. Modern travellers 
describe the approach to this place from the sea as re- 
markably beautiful, and the harbour, which the pro- 
montory forms in the shape of a reaping-hook, as one of 
the finest in the world. Near the entrance of this har- 
bour is the famous gulf of Charybdis, described by so 
many ancient writers ; compare Homer, Odyss. xii. with 
Virgil, JEn. iii. — T. 

9 Anaxilaus.]— This personage constituted one of the 
subjects of controversy betwixt Boyle and Bentley, who 
disputed whether the Anaxilaus mentioned by Pausa- 
nias is the Anaxilaus of Herodotus and Thucydides. 
Bentley, I think, proves beyond the possibility of dis- 
pute, that the three writers above mentioned spoke of 



tile to the Zancleans, went to the Samians, per- 
suading them that it would be better for them 
to turn aside from Calacte, where they were 
bound, and possess themselves of Zancle, now 
deserted by its inhabitants. The Samians fol- 
lowed his advice; upon which anxious to re- 
cover their city, the Zancleans called to their 
assistance Hippocrates their ally, prince of 
Gela. 11 He came with an army as desired, but 
he put in irons Scythes the Zanclean prince, 
already deprived of his city, together with his 
brother Pythogenis, and sent him to Inycus. I2 
The rest of the Zancleans he betrayed to the 
Samians, upon terms agreed upon between them 
at a previous interview. These terms were, 



the same person, and that the only difference was with 
respect to the time in which he was supposed to live. — T. 

10 Rhegium,]— now called Reggio. Its particular 
situation is thus described by Ovid : 

Oppositumque potens contra Zancleia saxa 
Ingretlitur Rhegium. 

Its name was taken *«•« tov ^yvvoci, because in this 
place, hy some convulsive operation of nature, Sicily was 
anciently supposed to have been torn from Italy. This 
incident is mentioned by almost all the Latin poets and 
philosophers. The best description in verse of this phe 
nomenon, is that of Virgil : 

Haec loca, vi quondam vasta convulsa ruina, 
(Tantum aevi longinqua valet mutare vetustas) 
Dissiluisse ferunt, &c. JEn. iii. 414. 

Pliny, Strabo, and others affirm, that the strata in the 
corresponding and opposite sides of thestraitare minutely 
similar. The same thing, it is almost unnecessary to 
add, is reported of England and France, and the oppo- 
site rocks of Dover and Boulogne. The curious reader 
will find some interesting particulars relating to Rhe- 
gium in D'Orville's Sicula, page 560, where is also en 
graved an ancient marble found at Rhegium. We learn 
from Strabo, that the deities principally worshipped here 
were Apollo and Diana, and that the inhabitants were 
eminent for works in marble.— T. 

11 Gela.]— I inform the reader once for all, that my in- 
telligence concerning the Sicilian cities is derived prin- 
cipally from the interesting work of D'Orville. 

Gela was anciently a considerable city, and situated 
near the river of the same name ; of the qualities of 
which, Ovid thus speaks : 

Praeterit et Cyanen et fontem lonis Anapi, 
Et te vorticibus non adeunde Gela. 
Virgil calls it immanis : 

Immanisque Gela fluvii cognomine dicta. 
It was built by the inhabitants of Rhodes and Crete in 
conjunction ; but whether the epithet immanis is applied 
by Virgil as descriptive of its greatness, may fairly be 
disputed ; D'Orville considers it as synonymous with 
crudelis, effera, $c. or else, as he afterwards adds, from 
its situation, adamnem vorticosum et immanem. The 
symbol of this city on the Sicilian coins was a minotaur. 
Its modern name is Terra Neva.— T. 

12 Inycus.]— I find no mention of Inycus in D'Orville, 
but Hesychius has the expression Imvximo; oivo; : who adds 
that Inycus was anciently famous for its wine. T. 



288 



HERODOTUS. 



that Hippocrates should have half of the booty, 
and the slaves found in the place, with every 
thing which was without the city. The great- 
er part of the Zancleans he put in chains, and 
treated them as slaves, selecting three hundred 
of the more distinguished to be put to death by 
the Samians, who nevertheless spared their 
lives. 

XXIV. Scythes, the Zanclean prince, es- 
caped from Inycus to Himera, 1 from thence he 
crossed over to Asia, and presented himself 
before Darius. Of all who had yet come to 
him from Greece, Darius thought this man the 
most just ; for having obtained the king's per- 
mission to go to Sicily, he again returned to 
the Persian court, where he happily passed the 
remainder of a very long life. 

XXV. The Samians, delivered from the 
power of the Medes, thus possessed them- 
selves, without any trouble, of the beautiful 
city of Zancle. After the sea fight, of which 
Miletus was the object, the Phenicians were 
ordered by the Persians to replace iEaces in 
Samos, as a mark of their regard, and as a re- 
ward of his services. Of this city alone, of all 
those which had revolted from the Persians, the 
temples and public buildings were not burned, 
as a compensation for its desertion of the allies. 
After the capture of Miletus, the Persians 
made themselves masters of Caria, some of its 
cities being taken by force, whilst others sur- 
rendered. 

XXVI. Histieeus the Milesian, from his 
station at Byzantium, was intercepting the 
Ionian vessels of burden in their way from 
the Euxine, when word was brought him of 
the fate of Miletus ; he immediately confided 
to Bisaltes, son of Apollophanes of Abydos, the 
affairs of the Hellespont, and departed with 
some Lesbians for Chios. The detachment to 
whom the defence of Chios was assigned re- 
fused to admit him ; in consequence of which 
he gave them battle, at a place in the territories 
of Chios, called Cceloe, 2 and killed a great nura- 



1 Himera.]— Himera was a Grecian city, built, accord- 
ing to Strabo, by the Zancleans. It was anciently fa- 
mous for its baths. It nourished for a long time, till it 
was taken and plundered by the Carthaginians. There 
are two rivers of this name, which has occasioned some 
perplexity to the geographers in ascertaining the pre- 
cise situation of the city here mentioned. It certainly 
emptied itself into the Tyrrhene sea. Its modern name 
i s Termini I should not omit mentioning that it was the 
birth-place of the lyric poet Stesichorus.— T. 

2 E» KciXoitrt. 



ber. The residue of the Chians, not yet re- 
covered from the shock they had sustained in 
the former naval combat, he easily subdued, ad- 
vancing for this purpose with his Lesbians from 
Polichna, 8 of which he had obtained possession. 
XXVII. It generally happens when a ca- 
lamity is impending over any city or nation, it 
is preceded by some prodigies.* Before this 
misfortune of the Chians, some extraordinary 
incidents bad occurred: — Of a band of one hun- 
dred youths 5 whom they sent to Delphi, ninety- 

3 Polichna. ]— The Latin versions render the Greek 
word sroXixvy, a small town; but Wesseling and Lar- 
cher are both of opinion, that it is the proper name of a 
town in the island of Chios. 

4 Prodigies.]— See Virgil's beautiful episode, where 
he introduces the prodigies preceding the assassination 
of Caesar : 

Solem quis dicere falsum 
Audeat ? Ille etiam caecos instare tumultus 
Sajpe monet, fraudemque et opeita tumescere bella : 
Hie etiam extincto miseratus Caesare Romam, 
Quum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit, 
Impiaque aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem ; &c. 
Georg. 1. 464. 

Consult all the whole history of ancient superstition, 
as it appeared in the belief of prodigies, admirably dis- 
cussed by Warburton, in his Critical and Philosophical 
Inquiry into the causes of Prodigies and Miracles. 

Jiilius Obsequens collected the prodigies supposed to 
have appeared within the Roman empire, from its first 
foundation to the year 742. 

Our Shakspeare has made an admirable use of human 
superstition, with regard to prodigies, in many of his 
plays, but particularly in Macbeth : 

Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man's act, 
Threaten his bloody stage : by the clock 'tis day, 
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp : 
Is it night's predominance, or the day's shame, 
That darkness does the face of earth intomb, 
When living light should kiss it ? 

However a moralist and divine may be inclined to re- 
probate the spirit of Mr Gibbon, Avith which he gene- 
rally seems influenced when speaking of religion, and 
of Christianity in particular, what he says on the subject 
of prodigies from its great good sense, and application to 
the subject in question, I may introduce without apo- 
logy. 

" The philosopher, who with calm suspicion examines 
the dreams and omens, the miracles and prodigies of pro- 
fane and even of ecclesiastical history, will probably 
conclude, that if the eyes of the spectators have some- 
times been deceived by fraud, the understanding of the 
readers has much more frequently been insulted by fiction. 
Every event, or appearance, or accident, which seems 
to deviate from the ordinary course of nature, has been 
rashly ascribed to the immediate action of the deity, and 
the astonished fancy of the multitude has sometimes 
given shape, colour, language, and motion to the fleet- 
ing but uncommon meteors of the air." 

The quicquid Graecia mendax audet in historia, ap 
plied by the Roman satirist to the Greek historians, par- 
takes more of insolence than justice ; perhaps it is not 
very extravagant to affirm, that there are more prodigies 
in Livy, than in all the Greek historians together.— T. 

5 One hundred youths.]— Sea Voyage du jeune Ana- 
charsis, vol. ii. 443. 



ERATO. 



289 



eight perished by some infectious disorder; two 
alone returned. Not long also before the great 
sea-fight, the roof of a building fell in upon 
some boys at school, so that of one hundred 
and twenty children, one only escaped : these 
warnings were sent them by the deity, for soon 
after happened the fight at sea, which brought 
their city to so low a condition. At this period 
Histiaeus appeared with the Lesbians, and 
easily vanquished a people already exhausted. 

XXVIII. Histiaeus proceeded from hence 
on an expedition against Thasus, e followed by 
a numerous body of Ionians and iEolians. 
Whilst he was before this place he learned that 
the Phenicians, leaving Miletus, were advanc- 
ing against the rest of Ionia. He without de- 
lay raised the siege of Thasus, and with his 
whole army passed over to Lesbos; from 
hence, alarmed by the want of necessaries, he 
crossed to the opposite continent, intending to 
possess himself of the corn which grew in 
Atarneum, 7 and in the province of Caicus, be- 
longing to the Mysians. Harpagus, a Persian, 
was accidentally on this station, at the head of 
a powerful army : a battle ensued by land, in 
which Histiaeus himself was taken prisoner, 
and the greater part of his forces slain. 

XXIX. The capture of Histiaeus was thus 
effected : — the engagement took place at Male- 
na, in the district of Atarnis, and the Greeks 
made an obstinate stand against the Persians, 
till the cavalry pouring in among them, they 
were unable to resist the impression. His- 
tiaeus had conceived the idea that the king 
would pardon his revolt ; and the desire of life 
so far prevailed, that during the pursuit, when a 
Persian soldier overtook and had raised his sword 
to kill him, he exclaimed aloud in the Persian 
tongue, that he was Histiaeus the Milesian. 

XXX. lam inclined to believe 8 that if he 



6 Thasics.]— This was a little island in the iEgean, 
on the Thracian coast, so called from Thasos, son of 
Agenor; it was anciently famous for its wine. — See 
Virgil, Georg. ii. 91 

Sunt Thasise vites, &c — T. 

7 Atarneum] — was very fertile in corn, and peopled 
from the isle of Chios, near which it was. 

8 / am inclined to believe.] — Valcnaer remarks on this 
passage, that humanity was one of the most conspicuous 
qualities of Darius. The instances of his forgiving va- 
rious individuals and nations, against whom he had the 
justest reason to be incensed, are almost without mimber. 
In the case of Histiaeus, it should however be remember- 
ed, that his interposition in preserving the bridge of boats 
over the. Danube, preserved the person and army of Da- 
rius. But, perhaps, a perfectly absolute monarch is never 
implicitly to be trusted, but, like a wild beast, is liable, 



had been carried alive to the presence of Darius, 
his life would have been spared and his faults 
forgiven. To prevent this, as well as all pos- 
sibility of his obtaining a second time any in- 
fluence over the king, Artaphernes the governor 
of Sardis, and Harpagus, who had taken him, 
crucified 9 their prisoner on their return to Sar- 
dis. The head they put in salt, and sent to 
Darius at Susa : Darius, on hearing this, re- 
buked them for what they had done, and for not 
conducting their prisoner alive to his presence. 
He directed the head to be washed, and hon- 
ourably interred, as belonging to a man who, had 
deserved well of him and of Persia. Such was 
the fate of Histiaeus. 

XXXI. The Persian forces wintered near 
Miletus, with the view of renewing hostilities 
early in the spring ; they accordingly, and with- 
out difliculty, took Chios, Lesbos, and Tene- 
dos, contiguous to the continent. At each of 
these islands, as they fell into their hands, they 
in this manner inclosed the inhabitants, as it 
were in a net : — taking each other by the hand, 
they advanced from the sea on the north, and 
thus chasing the inhabitants, swept the whole 
island to the south. They also made them- 
selves masters of the Ionian cities on the con- 
tinent, but they did not sweep them in the same 
manner, which indeed was not practicable. 

XXXII. The threats of the Persian gen- 
erals, when first opposed to the Ionians, were 
fully put in execution : as soon as they possess- 
ed their cities, they made eunuchs of their most 
beautiful youths, who were selected for this 
purpose. The loveliest of their maidens they 
sent to the king ; and they burned the cities 
with their temples. The Ionians were thus a 
third time reduced to servitude, once by the 
Lydians and twice by the Persians. 

XXXIII. From Ionia the fleet advanced 
and regularly subdued all the places to the left 
of the Hellespont ; those on the right had al- 
ready been reduced by the Persian forces on 

however tamed and tractable in general,to sudden fits of 
destructive fury. Of this nature is the detestable fact re- 
lated of Darius himself, in the 84th chap, of book the 
4th ; a piece of cruelty aggravated by a cool and deep 
dissimulation beforehand, which raised false hopes, and 
renders the comparison still more closely applicable. — T. 
9 Crucified.] — The moderns are by no means agreed 
about the particular manner in which the punishment of 
the cross was inflicted. With respect to our Saviour the 
Gospel informs us, that he was nailed to the cross through 
the hands and feet. This mode of punishment was cer- 
tainly abolished by Constantine, but prevailed to liia 
time amongst the Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, and 
Greeks.— T. 

2 O 



290 



HERODOTUS. 



the continent. The European side of the 
Hellespont contains the Chersonese (in which 
are a number of cities,) Perinthus, many 
Thracian forts, Selybria, and Byzantium. The 
Byzantians and the Chalcedonians, on the re- 
mote parts of the coast, did not wait for the 
coming of the Phenician fleet, but forsaking 
their country, retired to the interior parts of 
the Euxine, where they built the city Mesam- 
bria. The cities thus forsaken were burnt 
by the Phenicians, who afterwards advanced 
against Prceconnesus and Artace ; to these also 
they set fire, and returned to the Chersonese, 
to destroy those places from which in their for- 
mer progress tbey had turned aside. They left 
Cyzicus unmolested, the inhabitants of which, 
previous to the arrival of the Phenician fleet, 
had submitted to the king, through the media- 
tion of (Ebarus, governor of Dascylium, and 
son of Megabyzus ; but, except Cardia, the 
Phenicians reduced all the other parts of the 
Chersonese. 

XXXIV. Before this period, all these 
places were in subjection to Miltiades, son of 
Cimon, and grandson of Stesagoras. This so- 
vereignty had originated with Miltiades the son 
of Cypselus, in this manner: — This part of 
the Chersonese was possessed by the Thracian 
Dolonci, 1 who being involved in a troublesome 
contest with the Absinthians, sent their lead- 
ers to Delphi, to inquire concerning the event 
of the war. The Pythian in her answer re- 
commended them to encourage that man to 
found a colony amongst them, who, on theii 
leaving the temples, should first of all offer 
them the rites of hospitality. The Dolonci re- 
turning by the Sacred Way, 2 passed through 
Phocis and Boeotia ; not being invited by 
either of these people, they turned aside to 
Athens. 

XXXV. At this period the supreme autho- 



1 Dolonci.~\ — So called from Doloncus, a son of Saturn. 

2 Sacred Way.~\— There was a very celebrated " Sacred 
Way," which led from Athens to Eleusis, but this could 
not be the one intended in this place j it was probably 
that by which the Athenians accompanied the sacred 
pomp to Delphi. — Wesseling. 

The deputations which were repeatedly sent from the 
different states and cities of Greece to the oracle at Del- 
phi, bore in many instances a strong resemblance to the 
modern pilgrimages of the Mahometans, to the tomb of 
their prophet at Mecca. 

There was a " Via Sacra" leading from Rome, which 
took its name from the solemn union which with the 
attendant ceremonies here took place betwixt Romulus 
and Tatius, prince of the Sabines.— T. 



rity of Athens was in the hands of Pisistratus ; s 
but an important influence was also possessed by 
Miltiades. He was of a family which main- 
tained four horses 4 for the Olympic games, and 
was descended from iEacus and iEgina. In 
more modern times it became Athenian, being 
first established at Athens by Philseus the son 
of Ajax. This Miltiades, as he sat before 
the door of his house, 5 perceived the Dolonci 
passing by ; and as by their dress and spears 
they appeared to be foreigners, he called to 
them ; on their approach he offered them the 
use of his house, and the rites of hospitality. 
They accepted his kindness, and being hospi- 
tably treated by him, they revealed to him all 
the will of the oracle, with which they entreat- 
ed his compliance. Miltiades was much dis- 
posed to listen to them, being weary of the 
tyranny of Pisistratus, and desirous to change 



3 Pisistratus.]— I have made several remarks on Pi- 
sistratus, in a preceding part of this work ; but I ne- 
glected to mention that Athenaeus ranks him amongst 
those ancients who were celebrated for collecting valua- 
ble libraries. "Larensius," says Athenaeus, "had more 
books than any of those ancients who were celebrated 
for their libraries ; such as Polycrates of Samos, Pisis- 
tratus the tyrant of Athens, Euclid the Athenian, Ni- 
cocrates of Cyprus, the kings of Pergamus, Euripides 
the poet, Aristotle the philosopher, Theophrastus, Ne- 
leus, who possessed the libraries of the two last-named, 
and whose descendants sold them to Ptolemy Philadel- 
phus." 

The curious intelligence which this citation communi- 
cates, affords an excellent specimen of the amusement 
and information to be gained by the perusal of Athe- 
naeus. — T. 

4 Four horses.2 — The first person, according to Virgil, 
who drove with four horses, was Ericthonius : 

Primus Ericthonius currus et quatuor ausus 
Jungere equos, rapidisque rotis insistere victor. 

Georg. iii. 

Of the passage " He maintained four horses," M. Lar- 
cher remarks, " that it is as much as to say he was very 
rich, for Attica being a barren soil, and little adapted to 
pasturage, the keeping of horses was necessarily expen- 
sive." 

In this kind of chariot-race the four horses were 
ranged abreast ; the two in the middle were harnassed 
to the yoke, the two side horses were fastened by their 
traces to the yoke, or to some other part of the cha- 
riot—See West's Dissertation on the Olympic Games. 
—T. 

5 Before the door of his house. ]— Abraham and Lot 
were sitting before the doors of their houses, when they 
were accosted by the angels of God. Modern travellers 
to the east remark, that all the better houses have por 
ches or gate-ways, where the master of the family re- 
ceives visits, and sits to transact business. There is a 
passage to the present purpose in Chandler's Travels in 
Asia- Minor ;— " At ten minutes after ten in the morning, 
we had in view several fine bays, and a plain full of 
booths, with the Turcomans sitting by the doors, under 
sheds resembling porticoes, or by shady trees," &c— T. 



ERATO. 



291 



his situation : he immediately went to Delphi, 
to consult the oracle whether he should do what 
the Dolonci required. 

XXXVI. Thus, having received the sanc- 
tion of the oracle, Miltiades, son of Cypselus, 
who had formerly at the Olympic games been 
victorious in the contest of the chariots drawn 
by four horses, accompanied the Dolonci : he 
took such of the Athenians as were willing to 
go with him, and arriving on the spot, was by 
those who had invited him, elected their prince. 
His first care was to fortify the isthmus of the 
Chersonese, from the city Cardia" as far as 
Pactya, to prevent any hostile incursions on 
the part of the Absinthians. At this point the 
length of the isthmus is thirty-six furlongs : 
the extreme length of the Chersonese, including 
the isthmus, is four hundred and twenty fur- 
longs. 

XXXVIL Miltiades blockading the en- 
trance of the Chersonese, and thus keeping out 
the Absinthians, commenced hostilities with 
the people of Lampsacus ; but they by an am- 
buscade made him their prisoner. Intelligence 
of this event being communicated to Croesus 
the Lydian, who held Miltiades in great esteem, 
he sent to the Lampsacenes, requiring them to 
set him at liberty ; threatening on their refusal 
to destroy them like pines. 7 They deliberated 
among themselves concerning the meaning of 
this menace from Croesus, 8 which greatly per- 
plexed them : at length one of their elders ex- 
plained it, by informing them, that of all the 
trees the pine was the only one which, once 
being cut down, shot out no more off-sets, but 
totally perished. Intimidated by this threat of 
Croesus, the Lampsacenes dismissed Miltiades. 



6 Car dia.'] — This place was so named from its resem- 
blance to a heart.— T. . 

7 Like pines.] — From the time of Herodotus this ex- 
pression passed into a proverb, denoting a final destruc- 
tion, without any possibility of flourishing- again. 

In nothing was the acuteness and learning of our 
Bentley more apparent, than in his argument against the 
genuineness of the epistles ascribed to Phalaris, drawn 
from this expression of Herodotus See his Disserta- 
tion, last edit. 122. " A strange piece of stupidity in our 
letter-monger (I cite Bentley's words) or else contempt 
of his readers, to pretend to assume the garb and person 
of Phalaris, and yet knowingly to put words into his 
mouth, not heard of till a whole century after him. What 
is here individually ascribed to the pine-tree, is applicable 
to other trees ; such as the fir, the palm, the cedar, the 
cypress, &c. which all perish by lopping." — T. 

8 Croesus."] — By this menace of Croesus, we may rea- 
sonably infer, that he was advanced from his captive and 
dependant state to some office of trust and authority. 
His name occurs no more in the history of Herodotus. 



XXXVIII. Militades thus escaped through 
the interposition of Croesus ; but dying after- 
wards without issue, he left his authority and 
wealth to Stesagoras, son of Cimon, his uterine 
brother. Upon his death he was honoured by 
the inhabitants of the Chersonese with the 
marks of esteem usually paid to the founder of 
a place; equestrian and gymnastic exercises 
were periodically observed in his honour, in 
which none of the Lampsacenes are permitted 
to contend. It afterwards happened, that 
during a war with the people of Lampsacus, 
Stesagoras also died, and without children : he 
was wounded in the head, whilst in the Pry- 
taneum, with a blow from an axe. The per- 
son who inflicted the wound pretended to be a 
deserter, but proved in effect a most determined 
enemy. 9 

XXXIX. After the death of Stesagoras, as 
above described, the Pisistratidse despatched in 
a trireme, Miltiades, another son of Cimon, 
and brother of the deceased Stesagoras, to take 
the government of the Chersonese. Whilst he 
was at Athens they had treated him with much 
kindness, as if ignorant of the death of his fa- 
ther Cimon ; the particulars of which I shall 
relate in another place. Miltiades, as soon as 
he landed in the Chersonese, kept himself at 
home, as if in sorrow 10 for his brother : which 

9 Determined enemy.] — I cannot better introduce, 
than in the midsr of a digression like the present, the 
opinion which Swift entertained of Herodotus. It may 
justly be regarded as a great curiosity, it proves that 
Swift had perused the Greek historian with particular 
attention, it exhibits no mean example of his critical 
Sagacity, and is perhaps the only specimen in being of 
his skill in Latinity. — It is preserved in Winchester col- 
lege, in the first leaf of Stevens's edition of Herodotus ; 
and to add to its value, is in Swift's own hand- writing. 

Judicium de Herodoto post longitm tcmpus n/eclo. 
" Ctesias mendacissimus Herodotum mendaciorum ar- 
guit ; exceptis paucissimis (ut mea fert sententia) omni 
modo excusandum ; caeterum diverticulis abundans hie 
pater historicorum filum narrationis adtaedium abrumpit, 
unde oritur, ut par est legentibus, confusio et exinde 
oblivio. — Quin et forsan ipsae narrationes circumstantiis 
nimium pro re scatent. — Quod ad caetera nunc scrip- 
torem inter apprime laudandos censeo neque Grsecis 
neque Barbaris plus aequo faventem aut iniquum — in 
orationibus fere brevem, 6implicem, nee nimis frequen- 
tem. — Neque absunt dogmata e quibus eruditus lector 
prudentiam tam moralem quam civilem haurire potuerit.' 
— T. 

In opposition to what I have here intimated concern- 
ing the learning of Swift, I find, in a posthumous work 
of Dr Jortin, these stroug expressions. — As to the know- 
ledge which Swift is said to have acquired of the learned 
languages — Cras credo, hodie nihil." — To such respect- 
able and high authority I willingly sacrifice my mvn 
opinion. 
\OAs if in sorrow.]— This passage has greatly perptcx. d 



292 



HERODOTUS. 



being known, all the principal persons of the 
Chersonese assembled from the different cities, 
and coming in one common public procession, 
as if to condole with him, he put them in 
chains ; after which he secured the possession 
of the Chersonese, maintaining a body of five 

hundred guards He then married Hegesipyle, 

daughter of Olorus king of Thrace. 

XL. The son of Cimon had not been long 
in the Chersonese, before he was involved in 
difficulties far heavier than he had yet experi- 
enced ; for in the third year of his authority he 
was compelled to fly from the power of the 
Scythians. The Scythian Nomades being in- 
censed against Darius, assembled their forces, 
and advanced to the Chersonese. Miltiades, 
not venturing to make a stand against them, 
fled at their approach ; when they retired, the 
Dolonci, after an interval of three years, re- 
stored him. 

XL I. The same Miltiades, on being inform- 
ed that the Phenicians were arrived off Tene- 
dos, loaded five triremes with his property, and 
sailed for Athens. He went on board at Car- 
dia, crossed the gulf of Melas, and passing 
the Chersonese, he himself, with four of his 
vessels, eluded the Phenician fleet, and escaped 
to Imbros ; l the fifth was pursued and taken by 
the enemy, it was commanded by Metiochus^ 
the eldest son of Miltiades, not by the daugh- 
ter of Olorus, but by some other female. The 
Phenicians, on learning that he was the son of 
Miltiades, conducted him to the king, expect- 
ing some considerable mark of' favour ; for his 
father Miltiades had formerly endeavoured to 
prevail on the Ionians to accede to the advice 
of the Scythians, who wished them to break 
down their bridge of boats, and return home. 
Darius, however, so far from treating Metio- 
chus with severity, showed him the greatest 
kindness ; he gave him a house, with some pro- 



all the commentators. It is certain that the word 
ixiTipiw, as it now stands in the text, is wrong, but it 
is by no means clear what it ought to be ; Valcnaer 
wishes to read in vivdtw, which seems very satisfactory 
in itself, and best agrees with the context, where it is 
said the great men went to condole with hiin (o-vXXvw 
tivo-opiyoi. ) Wesseling is inclined to read ttriTvpfrov, 
as if to bury him : Larcher, differing from all these read- 
ings, renders it " under pretence of doing honour to his 
memory j" which seems of all others the most difficult to 
Mistify, and to rest only on the far-fetched idea, that 
daring the time of mourning people confined themselves 
to their apartments. — T. 

1 Imbros.'}— This was an island of the JEgean, betwixt 
Lemnos and the Thracian Chersonese, it was anciently 
famous for producing a prodigious number of hares.— J 1 . 



perty, and married him to a woman of Persia ; 
their offspring are considered as Persians. 

XL II. Miltiades leaving Imbros, proceeded 
to Athens : the Persians executed this year no 
farther hostilities against the Ionians, but con- 
trived for them many useful regulations. Ar- 
taphernes, governor of Sardis, assembled the 
deputies of the different cities, requiring them 
to enter into treaty for the mutual observance 
of justice with respect to each other, and for 
the prevention of reciprocal depredation and 
violence. His next step was to divide all the 
Ionian districts into parasangs (the Persian 
name for a measure of thirty furlongs) by which 
he ascertained the tributes they were severally 
to pay. This distribution of Artaphernes has 
continued, with very little variation, to the pre- 
sent period, and was certainly an ordinance 
which tended to establish the general tranquil- 
lity. 

XLIII. At the commencement of the 
spring, the king sent Mardonius to supersede 
the other commanders : he was the son of Go- 
bryas, a very young man, and had recently mar- 
ried Artozostra, a daughter of Darius. He ac- 
cordingly appeared on the coast ready to em- 
bark, with a considerable body of land and sea 
forces : arriving at Cilicia, he went himself on 
board, taking under his command the rest of 
the fleet : the land army he sent forward to 
the Hellespont, under the direction of their 
different officers. Mardonius passed by Asia, 
and came to Ionia, where an incident happened 
which will hardly obtain credit with those 
Greeks who are unwilling to believe that Ota- 
nes, in the assembly of the seven conspirators, 
gave it as his opinion that a popular govern- 
ment would be most for the advantage of Per- 
sia : — for Mardonius, removing the Ionian 
princes from their station, every where estab- 
lished a democracy. He then proceeded to- 
wards the Hellespont, where collecting a num- 
erous fleet and a powerful army, he passed 
them over the Hellespont in ships, and pro- 
ceeded through Europe, towards Eretria and 
Athens. 

XLIV. These two cities were the avowed 
object of his expedition, but he really intend- 
ed to reduce as many of the Greek cities as he 
possibly could. By sea he subdued the Tha- 
sians, who attempted no resistance ; by land 
his army reduced all those Macedonians who 
were more remote : the Macedonians on this 
side had been reduced before. Leaving Tha- 
sos, he coasted by the opposite continent as far 



ERATO. 



293 



as Acanthus ; from Acanthus, passing onwards, 
he endeavoured to double mount Athos ; but 
at this juncture a tempestuous wind arose from 
the north, which pressing hard upon the fleet, 
drove a great number of ships against mount 
Athos. He is said on this occasion to have 
lost three hundred vessels, and more than 
twenty thousand men : of these numbers were 
destroyed by the sea-monsters, which abound 
off the coast near Athos, othes were dashed on 
the rocks, some lost their lives from their ina- 
bility to swim, and many perished by the cold. 

XLV. Whilst Mardonius with his land 
forces was encamped in Macedonia, he was 
attacked in the night by the Brygi 2 of Thrace, 
who killed many of his men, and wounded 
Mardonius himself. They did not, however, 
finally elude the power of the Persians, for 
Mardonius would not leave that region till he 
had effectually reduced them under his power. 
After this event he led back his army, which 
had suffered much from the Brygi, but still 
more by the tempest off Athos ; 3 his return, 
therefore, to Asia, was far from being glo- 
rious. 

XL VI. In the following year Darius, hav- 
ing received intelligence from their neighbours, 



2 Brygi. 1— See book vii. chap. 73, by which it appears, 
that these Brygi were the Phrygians.— See also Valc- 
naer's note on this word. — T. 

3 Athos.] — " We embarked at Lemnos, and landed at 
Monte Santo, as it is called by the Europeans ; it is the 
ancient Mount Athos in Macedonia, now called both by 
Greeks and Turk3 Hagion Oros, the Holy Mountain, by 
reason that there are so many convents on it, to which 
the whole mountain belongs. It is a promontory which 
extends almost directly from north to south, being join- 
ed to the continent by a neck of land about a mile wide, 
through which some historians says that Xerxes cut a 
channel, in order to carry his army a shorter way by 
water from one bay to the other, which seems very im- 
probable, nor did I see any sign of such a work. The 
bay of Contessa, to the north of tins neck of land, was 
called by the ancients Strymonicus, to the south of the 
bay of Monte Santo, anciently called Singiticus, and by 
the Greeks at this day Amouline, from an island of that 
name at the bottom of it, between which and the gulf 
of Salonica is the bay of Haia Mamma, called by the 
ancients Toronaeus. The northern cape of this promon- 
tory is called Cape Laura, and is the promontory Nym- 
phamm of the ancients ; and the cape of Monte Santo 
seems to be the promontory Acrathos ; over the former 
is the highest summit of mount Athos, all the other 
parts of it, though hilly, being low in comparison of it : 
it is a very steep rocky height, covered with pine-trees. 
— If we suppose the perpendicular height of it to be four 
miles from the sea, though I think it cannot be so much, 
it may easily be computed if its shadow could reach to 
Lemnos, which they say is eighty miles distant, though 
I believe it is not above twenty leagues.'*— Pococke, vol. 
ii. 115. 



that the Thasians meditated a revolt, sent 
them orders to pull down their walls, and re- 
move their ships to Abdera. The Thasians had 
formerly been besieged by Histiaeus of Miletus ; 
as therefore they were possessed of considerable 
wealth, they applied it to the purpose of build- 
ing vessels of war, and of constructing a stronger 
wall : their wealth was collected partly from 
the continent, and partly from their mines. 
From their gold mines at Scaptesyla 4 they ob- 
tained upon an average eighty talents ; Thasus 
itself did not produce so much, but they were 
on the whole so affluent, that being generally 
exempt from taxes, the whole of their annual 
revenue was two hundred, and in the times of 
greatest abundance, three hundred talents. 

XL VII. These mines I have myself seen ; 
the most valuable are those discovered by the 
Phenicians, who, under the conduct of Thasus, 
first made a settlement in this island, and 
named it from their leader. The mines so 
discovered are betwixt a place called iEnyra 
and Coenyra. Opposite to Samothracia was a 
large mountain, which, by the search after 
mines, has been effectually levelled. 

XL VII I. The Thasians, in obedience to 
the will of Darius, destroyed their walls, and 
sent their ships to Abdera. To make experi- 
ment of the real intentions of the Greeks, and 
to ascertain whether they were inclined to sub- 
mit to, or resist his power, Darius sent emissa- 
ries to different parts of Greece to demand 
earth and water. 5 The cities on the coast who 
paid him tribute, he ordered to construct ves- 
sels of war, and transports for cavalry. 

XL IX. At the time these latter were pre- 
paring, the king's envoys arrived in Greece : 
most of the people on the continent complied 
with what was required of them, as did all the 
islanders whom the messengers visited, and 
amongst others the iEginetae. This conduct 
gave great offence to the Athenians, who con- 
cluded that the iEginetse had hostile intentions 
towards them, which in conjunction with the 
Persians they were resolved to execute. They 
eagerly therefore embraced this pretext, and 
accused them at Sparta of betraying the liber- 
ties of Greece. 



4 Scaptesyla.] — In the Greek it is in two words, 
2zcurry iiXYi, the wood of Scaptae. Thus in ;i former 
chapter, the beautiful coast, K«x»j «*tjj, or Calacte.— 
See also Virgil, jEneid vii. 208. 

Threiciamque Samon quae nunc Samothracia fertur — T. 

5 Earth and water.] — See in what manner the people 
of Athens and Lacedaemon treated these messengers, in 
book the seventh. 



294 



HERODOTUS. 



L. Instigated by their report, Cleomenes son 
of Anaxandrides, and prince of Sparta, went 
over to iEgina, determining fully to investigate 
the matter. He endeavoured to seize the per- 
sons of the accused, but was opposed by many 
of the iEginetae, and in particular by Crius son 
of Polycritus, who threatened to make him re- 
pent any violent attempts Upon his country- 
men. He told them that his conduct was the 
consequence, not of the joint deliberations of 
the Spartans, but of his being corrupted by 
the Athenians, otherwise the other king also 
would have accompanied and assisted him. He 
said this in consequence of a letter received 
from Demaratus. Cleomenes, thus repulsed 
from iEgina, asked Crius his name ; Upon being 
told, " Well then," returned Cleomenes, " you 
had better tip your horns with brass, 1 and pre- 
pare to resist some calamity." 

LI. Demaratus, who circulated this report at 
Sparta to the prejudice of Cleomenes, was the 
son of Ariston, and himself also a prince of 
Sparta, though of an inferior branch : both had 
the same origin, but the family of Eurysthenes, 
as being the eldest, was most esteemed. 

LI I. The Lacedaemonians, in opposition to 
what is asserted by all the poets, affirm that 
they were first introduced into the region which 
they now inhabit, not by tfrfe sons of Aristode- 
mus, but by Aristodemus himself. He at that 
time reigned, and was son of Aristomachus, 
grandson of Cleodaeus, and great-grandson of 
Hyllus. His wife Argia was the daughter of 
Autesion, grand-daughter of Tisamenus, great- 
grand-daughter of Thersander, and in the fourth 
descent from Polynices. Her husband, to 
whom she brought twins, died by some disease 
almost as soon as he had seen them. The La- 
cedaemonians of that day, after consulting to- 
gether, elected for their prince the eldest of 
these children, as their law required. They 
were still at a loss, as the infants so much re- 
sembled each other. 2 In this perplexity, they 



1 Your horns with brass."} — In allusion to his name 
K^ioi, which signifies a ram.— See a remarkable yerse in 
the first book of kings, chap. xxii. ver. 11. 

" And Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah made him 
horns of iron : and he said, Thus saith the Lord, with 
these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have con- 
sumed them." — T. 

2 Resembled each other. ~\ — Upon the perplexities aris- 
ing from this resemblance of twins to each other, the 
whole plot of the Mensechmi of Plautus, and the Comedy 
of Errors of Shakspeare are made to depend : 

Mercator quidam fuit Syracusis senex, 
Ei sunt nati filii gemini duo. 



applied to the mother, she also professed her- 
self unable to decide : her ignorance however 
was only pretended, and arose from her wish 
to make both her children kings. The diffi- 
culty thus remaining, they sent to Delphi for 
advice. The Pythian commanded them to ac- 
knowledge both the children as their kings, but 
to honour the first-born the most. Receiving 
this answer from the Pythian, the Lacedaemo- 
nians were still unable to discover the first- 
born child, till a Messenian, whose name was 
Panites, advised them to take notice which 
child the mother washed and fed first : if she 
was constant in making a distinction, they might 
reasonably conclude they had discovered what 
they wished ; if she made no regular preference 
in this respect of one child to the other, her ig- 
norance of the matter in question was probably 
unaffected, and they must have recourse to 
other measures. The Spartans followed the 
advice of the Messenian, and carefully watched 
the mother of the children of Aristodemus. 
Perceiving her, who was totally unconscious of 
their design, regularly preferring her first-born, 
both in washing and feeding it, they respected 
this silent testimony of the mother. The child 
thus preferred by its parent they treated as the 
eldest, and educated at the public expense, call- 
ing him Eurysthenes, and his brother Procles. 
The brothers, when they grew up, were 
through life at variance with each other, and 
their enmity was perpetuated by their posterity. 
LIIL The above is related on the authority 
of the Lacedaemonians alone ; but I shall now 
give the matter as it is generally received in 
Greece. — The Greeks enumerate these Dorian 
princes in regular succession to Perseus, the 
son of Danae, passing over the story of the 
deity; from which account it plainly appears 
that they were Greeks, and were always so es- 
teemed. These Dorian princes, as I have ob- 
served, go no higher than Perseus, for Perseus 
had no mortal father from whom his surname 
could be derived, being circumstanced as Her- 
cules was with respect to Amphitryon. I am 

Ita forma simili pueri, uti mater sua 

Non internosse posset quae mammam dabat, &c. 

Prologus ad Menach. 
There she had not been long, but she became 
A joyful mother of two goodly sons : 
And, which was strange, the one so like the other 
As could not be distinguished, &c. 

Comedy of Errors. 

It seems unnecessary to add, that this latter play is a 
very minute copy of the former, of which in Shakspeare \s 
time translations in the different languages of Europe 
were easily to be obtained. — T. 



ERATO. 



295 



therefore justified in stopping at Perseus. If 
we ascend from Danae, the daughter of 
Acrisius, we shall find that the ancestors of the 
Dorian princes were of Egyptian origin. 3 — 
Such is the Grecian account of their descent. 

LIV. The Persians affirm that Perseus was 
an Assyrian by birth, becoming afterwards a 
Greek, although none of his ancestors were of 
that nation. The ancestors of Acrisius claim 
no consanguinity with Perseus, 4 being Egyp- 
tians ; which account is confirmed by the Greeks. 

LV. In what manner, in being Egyptians, 
they became the princes of the Dorians, having 
been mentioned by others, I need not relate ; 
but I shall explain what they have omitted. 

LVI. The Spartans distinguished their 
princes by many honourable privileges. The 
priesthoods of the Lacedaemonian 5 and of the 
Celestial Jupiter 6 were appropriated to them : 
they had the power also of making hostile ex- 
peditions wherever they pleased, nor might any 
Spartan obstruct them without incurring the 
curses of their religion. In field of battle their 
post is in the front : when they retire, in the 



3 Egyptian origin.]— According to Herodotus, all the 
principal persons of the Dorian family, upwards, were in 
a direct line from Egypt. The same author says, that 
Perseus was originally from Assyria, according to the 
traditions of the Persians- The like is said, and with 
great truth, of the Heraclidae, who are represented by 
Plato as of the same race as the Achaemenidse of Persia. 
The Persians therefore, and the Grecians, were in great 
measure of the same family, being equally Cuthites from 
Chaldea ; but the latter came last from Egypt. Bryant, 
vol. iii. 388. 

4 No consanguinity with Perseus.~\— Herodotus more 
truly represents Perseus as an Assyrian, by which is 
meant a Babylonian, and agreeably to this he is said to 
have married Asterie, the daughter of Belus, the same as 
Astaroth and Astarte of Canaan, by whom he had a 
daughter, Hecate. This, though taken from an idle 
system of theology, yet plainly shows that the history of 
Perseus had been greatly misapplied and lowered by 
being inserted among the fables of Greece, &c. Bryant, 
vol. ii. 64. 

5 Lacedcetnonian.] — Larcher remarks on this expres- 
sion, that Herodotus is the only writer who distinguishes 
Jupiter by this appellation. I have before observed, that 
the office of priesthood and king was anciently united in 
the same person. — T. 

6 Celestial Jupiter. ]— This epithet was, I suppose, 
given to Jupiter, because the sky was considered as his 
particular department — See the answer of Neptune to 
Iri3, in the fifteenth book of the Iliad : 

Three brother deities from Saturn came, 

And ancient Rhea, Earth's immortal dame : 

Assigned by lot, our triple rule we know ; 

Infernal IMuto sways the shades below : 

O'er the wide clouds, and o'er the starry plain, 

Ethereal Jove extends his wide domain : 

My court beneath the hoary waves I keep, 

And hush ths roarings of the sacred deep. T. 



rear. They have a hundred chosen men 7 as a 
guard for their person : when upon their march 
they may take for their use as many sheep as 
they think proper, and they have the back 8 and 
the skin 9 of all that are sacrificed. Such are 
their privileges in war. 

LVI I. In peace also they have many dis- 
tinctions. In the solemnity of any public 
sacrifice, the first place is always reserved for 
the kings, to whom not only the choicest things 
are presented, but twice as much as to any 
other person. 10 They have moreover the first 
of every libation, 11 and the skins of the sacrificed 

7 Hundred chosen men.'] — In times of peace, the Lace- 
daemonian princes were not attended by guards : Thucy- 
dides says, that in war they had three hundred. — T. 

8 The back.] — By the back we must understand the 
chine ; and we learn as well from Homer, as other an- 
cient writers, that it was always considered as the hon- 
ourable portion. See Odyssey, book iv. where Tele- 
machus visits Menelaus at Sparta: 

Ceasing benevolent, he strait assigns 
The royal portion of the choicest chines 
To each accepted friend. 

See also the Iliad, book vii. 

The king himself, an honorary sign, 

Before great Ajax placed the mighty chine. T. 

9 The skin.] — These skins we find were allotted to the 
princes during the time of actual service, when, as their 
residence was in tents, they must have been of the great- 
est service both as seats and as beds. See Leviticus, vii 
8. where it appears that the priest had the skin. 

"And the priest that offereth any man's burnt-of- 
fering, even the priest shall have to himself the skin of 
the burnt-ottering which he hath offered." 

They were serviceable also in another respect, as they 
were made into bottles to preserve wine, and to carry 
liquids of different kinds. Of skins also the first clothes 
were made. — T. 

10 Twice as much as to any other person.] — Instances 
of this mode of showing reverence and distinction occur 
repeatedly in Homer. Diomed, as a mark of honour, 
had more meat and wine than any other person. Aga- 
memnon also, and Idomeneus, have more wine than the 
rest. Benjamin's mess was five times as large as that of 
his brethren. Xenophon observes, that Lycurgus did 
not assign a double portion to the kings, because they 
were to eat twice as much as any body else, but that 
they might give it to whom they pleased. We find from 
Homer, that this also was a common practice during the 
repast, to give of their own portion to some friend or 
favourite. Accordingly in the Odyssey, we find in some 
very beautiful lines, that Ulysses gave a portion of the 
chine reserved for himself to Demodocus, " The Bard of 
Fame." 

The bard a herald guides : the gazing throng 

Pay low obeisance as he moves along : 

Beneath a sculptured arch he sits enthroned. 

The peers encircling, form an awful round : 

Then from the chine Ulysses carves with art, 

Delicious food, an honorary part. 

" This let the master of the lyre receive, 

A pledge of love, 'tis all a wretch can give: 

Lives there a man beneath the spacious skies 

Who sacred honours to the Bard denies ?" &c. T. 

11 Libation.]— The ceremony of offering a libation was 



296 



HERODOTUS. 



victims. On the first and seventh of every 
month, they give to each of them a perfect ani- 
mal, which is sacrificed in the temple of Apollo. 
To this is added a medimnus of meal, and a 
Lacedaemonian quart of wine. ' In the public 
games, they sit in the most distinguished place ; 2 
they appoint whomsoever they please to the 
dignity of Proxeni, 3 and each of them chooses 
two Pythii. The Pythii are those who are 
sent to consult the oracle at Delphi, and are 
maintained at the public expense as well as the 
kings. If the kings do not think proper to 
take their repast in public, two choenices of 
meal with a cotyla of wine are sent to their 
respective houses ; but if they are present, they 
receive a double portion. If any private per- 
son invite them to an entertainment, a similar 
respect is shown them. The oracular declara- 
tions are preserved by them, though the Pythii 
also must know them. The kings alone have 
the power of deciding in the following matters, 
and they decide these only : they choose a 
husband for an heiress, if her father had not 
previously betrothed her : they have the care of 
the public ways ; whoever chooses to adopt a 
child, 4 must do it in the presence of the kings. 
They assist at the deliberations of the senate, 

this : When, previous to sacrifice, the sacred meal mixed 
with salt was placed upon the head of the victim, the 
priest took the vessel which held the wine, and just 
tasting it himself, gave it to those near him to taste also : 
it was then poured upon the head of the beast betwixt 
the horns. The burnt-offerings enjoined by the Mosaic 
law were in like manner accompanied by libations. — See 
Exodus, xxix. 40. — T. 

1 Medimnus of meal— quart of wine.] — "Then shall 
he that offereth an offering unto the Lord bring a meat- 
offering of a tenth deal of flour, mingled with the fourth 
part of an hin of oil. 

" And the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink of 
fering shalt thou prepare, with the burnt-offering, oi 
sacrifice." — Numbers xv. 4, 5. 

2 Most distinguished place.'] — We learn from Xeno- 
phon, that wherever the kings appeared every body rose, 
out of reverence to their persons, except the Ephori. 
Of these magistrates Larcher remarks, that they were 
in some respect superiorln dignity to the kings, to limit 
whose authority they were first instituted. — T. 

3 Proxeni.'}— It was the business of the Proxeni to 
entertain the ambassadors from foreign states, and intro- 
duce them at the public assemblies. 

4 Adopt a child.] — The custom of adoption amongst 
the Romans was much more frequent than amongst the 
Greeks, though borrowed from the latter by the former. 
In Greece, an eunuch could not adopt a child, and it was 
necessary that the person adopted should be eighteen 
years younger than the person who adopted him. In 
Rome, the ceremony of adoption was performed before 
the praetor, or before an assembly of the people. In the 
times of the emperors, the permission of the prince was 
sufficient.— T. 



which is composed of twenty-eight persons. In 
case of their not appearing, those senators who 
are the nearest relations to the kings, take their 
places and privilege, having two voices inde- 
pendent of their own. 

LVIII. Such are the honours paid by the 
Spartans to their princes whilst alive ; they 
have others after their decease. Messengers 
are sent to every part of Sparta to relate the 
event, whilst through the city the women beat 
on a caldron. 5 At this signal, one free-born 
person of each sex is compelled under very 
heavy penalties to disfigure themselves. The 
same ceremonies which the Lacedaemonians 
observe on the death of their kings, are prac- 
tised also by the Barbarians of Asia ; the great- 
er part of whom on a similar occasion use 
these rites. When a king of Lacedaemon dies, 
a certain number of Lacedaemonians, indepen- 
dent of the Spartans, are obliged from all parts 
of Lacedaemon to attend his funeral. When 
these, together with the Helots 6 and Spartans, 
to the amount of several thousands, are as- 
sembled in one place, they begin, men and wo- 
men, to beat their breasts, to make loud and 
dismal lamentations, 7 always exclaiming of their 



5 The women beat on a caldron.]— A very curious in- 
cident relative to this circumstance is given us by JElian, 
in his Various History. The Lacedaemonians having 
subdued the Messenians, took to themselves the half of 
all their property, and compelled their free-born women 
us ra. xtvQr> fiad&av, to walk in the funeral processions, 
and to lament at the deaths of those with whom they 
were not at all connected. 

Women who were free-born never appeared at funer- 
als, except at those of their relations, much less did they 
lament like the women hired for this purpose, which we 
find from the above passage the Lacedaemonians com- 
pelled the Messenian women to do. It is to be observed, 
that the women were much more rigorously secluded in 
Greece than in Rome. — T. 

6 Helots-] — The Helots were a kind of public slaves to 
the Spartans, and rendered so by the right of conquest. 
They took their name from Helos, a Lacedaemonian 
town ; their slavery was rigorous in the extreme, but 
they might on certain terms obtain their freedom. Upon 
them the business of agriculture and commerce entirely 
depended, whilst their haughty masters were employed 
in gymnastic exercises, or in feasting. For a more par . 
ticular account of them, consult Cragius de Republica 
Lacedaemon, and Archbishop Potter. — T. 

7 Lamentations.] — This custom still prevails in Egypt, 
and in various parts of the east. " When the corpse," 
says Dr Russel, " is carried out, a number of shieks with 
their tattered banners walk first, next come the male 
friends, and after them the corpse, carried with the head 
foremost upon men's shoulders. The nearest male re- 
lations immediately follow, and the women close the 
procession with dreadful shrieks." 

See also what Mascrier tells us from M. Maillet, that 
not only the relations and female friends in Egypt, sur- 



ERATO. 



297 



last prince that he was of all preceding ones 
the best. If one of their kings die in battle, 
they make a representation of his person, and 
carry it to the place of interment upon a bier 
richly adorned. When it is buried, there is an 
interval of ten days from all business and 
amusement, with every public testimony of 
sorrow. 

LIX. They have also another custom in 
common with the Persians. When a prince 
dies, his successor remits every debt due either 
to the prince or the public. In Persia also, he 
who is chosen king remits to every city what- 
ever tributes happen to be due. 

LX. In one instance, the Lacedaemonians 
observe the usage of Egypt. Their heralds, 
musicians, and cooks, follow the profession of 
their fathers. The son of a herald is of course 
a herald, and the same of the other two pro- 
fessions. If any man has a louder voice than 
the son of a herald, it signifies nothing. 

LXL Whilst Cleomenes was at iEgina, 
consulting for the common interest of Greece, 
he was persecuted by Demaratus, who was in- 
fluenced not by any desire of serving the people 
of JEgina, but by jealousy and malice. Cleo- 
menes on his return endeavoured to degrade his 
rival from his station, for which he had the fol- 
lowing pretence : Ariston succeeding to the 
throne of Sparta, married two wives, but had 
children by neither ; not willing to believe that 
any defect existed on his part, he married a 
third time. He had a friend, a native of Spar- 
ta, to whom on all occasions he showed a par- 
ticular preference. This friend had a wife, who 
from being remarkable for her ugliness, 8 be- 
came exceedingly beautiful. When an infant 
her features were very plain and disagreeable, 
which was a source of much affliction to her 
parents, who were people of great affluence. 9 
Her nurse seeing this, recommended that she 



round the corpse while it remains unburied, with the 
most bitter cries, scratching and beating their faces so 
violently as to make them bloody, and black and blue. 
Those of the lower kind also are apt to call in certain 
women who play on tabors, &c. The reader will find 
many similar examples collected in " Observations on 
Scripture," vol. iii. 408, 9.— T. 

8 Remarkable for her ugliness.'} — Pausanias says, that 
from being remarkable for her ugliness, she became the 
most beautiful woman in Greece, vvo 'EAtr/i? next to 
Helen.— T. 

9 Great affluence.}— How was it possible, asks M. 
Larcher in this place, to have great riches in Sparta ? 
All the lands of Lacedaemon were divided in equal por- 
tions amongst the citizens, and gold and silver were pro- 
hibited under penalty of death. 



should every day be carried to the temple of 
Helen, situate in a place called Therapne, near 
the temple of Apollo. Here the nurse regu- 
larly presented herself with the child, and 
standing near the shrine implored the goddess 
to remove the child's deformity. As she was 
one day departing from the temple, a woman is 
said to have appeared to her, inquiring what 
she carried in her arms : the nurse replied, it 
was a child. She desired to see it ; this the 
nurse, having had orders to that effect from the 
parents, at first refused, but seeing that the 
woman persevered in her wishes, she at length 
complied. The stranger, taking the infant in 
her arms, stroked it on the face, saying, that 
hereafter she should become the loveliest wo- 
man in Sparta; and from that hour her fea- 
tures began to improve. On her arriving at a 
proper age, Agetus son of Alcides, and the 
friend of Ariston, made her his wife. 

LXII. Ariston, inflamed with a passion for 
this woman, took the following means to ob- 
tain his wishes ; he engaged to make her hus- 
band a present of whatever he would select 
from his effects, on condition of receiving a 
similar favour in return. Agetus having no 
suspicion with respect to his wife, as Ariston 
also was married, agreed to the proposal, and it 
was confirmed by an oath. Ariston according- 
ly gave his friend whatever it was that he 
chose, whilst he in return, having previously 
determined the matter, demanded the wife of 
Agetus. Agetus said, that he certainly did 
not mean to comprehend her in the agreement; 
but, influenced by his oath, the artifice of the 
other finally prevailed, and he resigned her to 
him. 

LXIII. In this manner Ariston, having re- 
pudiated his second wife, married a third, who 
in a very short time, and within a less period 
than ten months, 10 brought him this Demaratus. 



10 Within a less period thati ten months.} — This, it 
seems, was thought sufficient cause to suspect the legiti- 
macy of a child. It is remarkable, that ten months is 
the period of gestation, generally spoken of by the an- 
cients.— See Plutarch in the life of Alcibiades ; and Vir- 
gil, Eel. iv. 

Matri longa decern tuleiunt fastidia i 



A. Gellius, who gives a curious dissertation on the 
subject, L iii. cap. 16, seems to pronounce very positive- 
ly, that it was ten mouths fully completed ; decern 
menses non inceptos sed exactos ; but we should take 
the whole sentence together — eumque esse hominern gig- 
nendi summum Jinem, decern menses non inceptos sed 
exactos. This I understand as if he had written, " but 
that the utmost period (not the usual) is when the tenth 

2 P 



298 



HERODOTUS. 



Whilst the father was sitting at his tribunal, 
attended by the Ephori, he was informed by 
one of his domestics of the delivery of his wife : 
reflecting on the interval of time which had 
elapsed since his marriage, he reckoned the 
number of' months upon his fingers, and said 
with an oath, " This child is not mine." The 
Ephori, who heard him, did not at the moment 
esteem what he said of any importance ;' after- 
wards, when the child grew up, Ariston chang- 
ed his sentiments concerning the legitimacy of 
his son, and repented of the words which had 
escaped him. Demaratus owed his name 8 to 
the following circumstance : before he was born 
the people had unanimously made a public sup- 
plication that Ariston, the best of their kings, 
might have a son. 

L XIV. Ariston died, and Demaratus suc- 
ceeded to his authority. But it seemed des- 
tined that the above expression should lose him 
his crown. He was in a particular manner 
odious to Cleomenes, both when he withdrew 
his army from Eleusis, and when Cleomenes 
passed over to iEgina, on account of the favour 
which the people of that place showed to the 
Medes. 

LXV. Cleomenes being determined to ex- 
ecute vengeance on his rival, formed a connec- 
tion with Leutychides, who was of the family 
of Demaratus, being the son of Menaris, and 



month is not only begun, but completed;" namely, when 
tbe child is born in the beginning of the eleventh month. 
To this effect he mentions afterwards a decision of the 
decemviri under Hadrian, that infants were born regu- 
larly in ten months, not in the eleventh : this however 
the emperor set aside, as not being an infallible rule. It 
appears then, that the ancients, when they spoke of ten 
months, meant that the tenth month was the time for 
the birth ; and if they express themselves so as to make 
it appear that they meant ten months complete, it is be- 
cause they usually reckoned inclusively. The difference 
between solar and lunar months, to which some have had 
recourse, does not remove any of the difficulty. Hippo- 
crates speaks variously of the period of gestation, but 
seems to reckon the longest 280 days, or nine months 
and ten days. We are told that the ancient Persians, in 
the time of Zoroaster, counted into the age of a man the 
nine months of his conception.— Sadder, cited by M. de 
Pastoret, in a treatise on Zoroaster, Confucius, and Ma- 
homet— T. 

1 Of any importance. 1— -The inattention or indifference 
of the Ephori in this instance must appear not a little 
remarkable, when it is considered that it was one part 
of their appropriate duty to watch over the conduct of 
their queens, in order to prevent the possibility of any 
children succeeding to the throne who were not of the 
family of Hercules. — T. 

2 Owed his name ;] — Which means prayed for by the 
people, being compounded of demos the people, and are- 
tos prayed for. — T. 



grandson of Agis : the conditions were, that 
Leutychides should succeed to the dignity of 
Demaratus, and should in return assist Cleo- 
menes in his designs upon iEgina. Leutychi- 
des entertained an implacable animosity against 
Demaratus. He had been engaged to marry 
Percalos, the daughter of Chilon, grand- 
daughter of Demarmenes, but Demaratus insi- 
diously prevented him, and by a mixture of 
violence and artifice married Percalos himself. 
He was therefore not at all reluctant to accede 
to the proposals of Cleomenes, and to assist 
him against Demaratus. He asserted, there- 
fore, that Demaratus did not lawfully possess 
the throne of Sparta, not being the son of 
Ariston. He was, consequently, careful to re- 
member and repeat the expression which had 
fallen from Ariston, when his servant first 
brought him intelligence of the birth of a son ; 
for, after computing the time, he had positive- 
ly denied that he was his. Upon this incident 
Leutychides strongly insisted, and made no 
scruple of declaring openly, that Demaratus was 
not the son of Ariston, and that his authority 
was illegal ; 3 to confirm this he adduced the 
testimony of those Ephori who were present 
when Ariston so expressed himself. 

LXVI. As the matter began to be a subject 
of general dispute, the Spartans thought proper 
to consult the oracle of Delphi, whether Dema- 
ratus was the son of Ariston or not. Cleome- 
nes was not at all suspected of taking any care 
to influence the Pythian ; but it is certain that 
he induced Cobon,son of Aristophantes, a 
man of very great authority at Delphi, to pre- 
vail on the priestess to say what Cleomenes 
desired. 4 The name of this woman was Pe- 

3 Was illegal] — This story is related with equal mi- 
nuteness by Pausanias, book iii. c. 4 ; from whence -we 
may conclude, that when there was even any suspicion 
of the infidelity of the queens, their children were inca- 
pacitated from succeedingto the throne. — See Pausanias 
also on a similar subject, book iii chap. 8. — T. 

4 To say what Cleomenes desired.] — It is impossible 
sufficiently to lament the ignorance and delusion of those 
times, when an insidious expression, corruptly obtained 
from the Pythian, was sufficient to involve a whole 
kingdom in misery and blood : of this the fate of Croesus, 
as recorded in the first book of Herodotus, is a memora- 
ble instance : but I have before me an example, in the 
Stratagemata of Polysenus, where this artifice and se- 
duction of the Pythian had a contrary effect. It was by 
bribing the priestess of Delphi that Lycurgus obtained 
from the Lacedaemonians an obedience, which rendered 
their nation great and powerful, and their legislator im- 
mortal. Demosthenes also, in one of his orations against 
Philip, accuses that monarch of seducing by bribes the 
oracle to his purposes. However the truth of this may 
be established from many well-authenticated facts, the 



ERATO. 



299 



rilla, who, to those sent on this occasion, de- 
nied that Demaratus was the son of Ariston. 
This collusion being afterwards discovered. 
Cobon was compelled to fly from Delphi, and 
Perilla was degraded from her office. 

LXVIL Such were the measures taken to 
deprive Demaratus of his dignity : an affront 
which was afterwards shown him, induced him 
to take refuge amongst the Medes. After the 
loss of his throne, he was elected to preside in 
some inferior office, and happened to be present 
at the Gymnopaedia. 5 Leutychides, who had 
been elected king in the room of Demaratus, 
meaning to ridicule and insult him, sent a ser- 
vant to ask him what he thought of his pre- 
sent, compared with his former office. Dema- 
ratus, incensed by the question, replied, that he 
himself had experienced both, which the person 
who had asked him had not ; he added, that 
this question should prove the commencement 
of much calamity or happiness to Sparta. Say- 
ing this, with his head veiled, 6 he retired from 
the theatre to his own house ; where, having 
sacrificed an ox to Jupiter, he sent for his 
mother. 



following picture from Lucan, of the priestess of Delphi, 
under the supposed influence of the god, can never fail of 
claiming our applause and admiration, though we pity 
the credulity which regarded, and the spirit which 
prompted such impostures : 

Tandem conterrita virgo 
Confugit ad tripodas, vastisque abducta cavernis 
Heesit, et insueto concepit pectore numen, 
Quod non exhaustoe per tot jam saecula rupia 
Spiritus ingessit vati : tandemque potitus 
Pectore Cirrhaeo, non unquam plenior artus 
Phcebados irrupit Paean, mentemque priorem 
Expulit, atque hominem toto sibi cedere jussit 
Pectore. Bacchatur demens aliena per antrum 
Colla ferens, vittasque dei, Phoebeaque serta 
Erectis discussa comis, per inania templi 
Ancipili cervice rotat, spargitque vaganti 
Obstantes tripodas, magnoque exaestuat igne. T. 

5 Gymnopardia.] — This word is derived from yvpvo;, 
naked, and tki;, a child ; at this feast naked children sung 
hymns in honour of Apollo, and of the three hundred 
who died at Thermopylae. Athenaeus describes it as a 
kind of Pyrrhic dance, in which the young men accom. 
panied the motion of their feet with certain corresponding 
and graceful ones of their arms ; the whole represented 
the real exercise of wrestling. — T. 

6 His head veiled.']— We may infer from hence, that 
he devoted himself to the accomplishment of some deter- 
mined purpose. The veiling of the head constituted part 
of the awful ceremony of devotion among the Romans. 
See the form minutely and admirably described in Livy, 
book viii. where Decius Mus devotes himself for the 
preservation of the Roman army. After calling to the 
Pontifex to perforin the accustomed ceremonies, he was 
ordered, togam praetextam sumere, et velato capitc manu 
subter togam ad mentum exerta, super telum subjectum 
pedibus stantem, sic dicere. 



LXVIII. On her appearance, he placed in 
her hands the entrails of the victim, and so- 
lemnly addressed her in these words : — " I call 
upon you, mother, in the name of all the gods, 
and in particular by Jupiter Hercteus,' in whose 
immediate presence we are, to tell me, without 
disguise, who my father was. Leutychides, in 
the spirit of hatred and jealousy, has objected 
to me, that when you married Ariston you 
were with child by your former husband : 
others more insolently have asserted, that one 
of your slaves, an ass -driver, enjoyed your fa- 
miliarity, and that I am his son -. I entreat you, 
therefore, by every thing sacred, to disclose the 
truth. If you really have done what is related 
of you, your conduct is not without example, 
and there are many in Sparta who believe that 
Ariston had not the power of becoming a father, 
otherwise, they say, he must have had children 
by his former wives." 

LXIX. His.mother thus replied : — " My son, 
as you have thus implored me to declare the 
truth, I will not deceive you. When Ariston 
had conducted me to his house, on the third 
night of our marriage, a personage appeared 8 to 
me resembling Ariston, who after enjoying my 
person crowned me with a garland a he had in 

7 Jupiter Hercceus.] — Jupiter was worshipped under 
this title, as the Deus Penetralis, the protector of the in- 
nermost recesses of the house : he was so called from 
E$«o£j which signifies the interior part of a house. — T. 

8 A personage appeared.] — This story in many res- 
pects bears a resemblance to what is related in Grecian 
history of the birth of Alexander the Great. The chas- 
tity of his mother Olympia being in a similar manner 
questioned, the fiction of his being the son of Jupiter, 
who conversed familiarly with his mother in the form of 
a serpent, at first found advocates with the ignorant aid 
superstitious, and was afterwards confirmed and estab- 
lished by his career of conquest and glory. Of this iable 
no happier use has ever been made, than by Dryden, in 
his Ode on St Cecilia's Day : 

The song began from Jove, 
Who left his blissful seats above ; 
Such is the power of mighty Love : 
A dragon's fiery form belied the god : 
Sublime on radiant spires he trod, 

When he to fair Olympia pressed ; 

And while he sought her snowy breast, 
Then round her slender waist he curl'd, 
And stamp'd an image of himself, a sovereign of the world. 

Plutarch, in his Life of Alexander, informs us that a 
dragon was once seen to lie close to Olympia whilst she 
slept, after which her husband Philip, either suspecting 
her to be an enchantress, or imagining some god to be 
his rival, could never be induced to regard her with af- 
fection. — T. 

9 Crowned me icitli a garland.]— We learn from a 
passage in Ovid, not only that it was customary to wear 
garlands in convivial meetings, which other authors tell 
us in a thousand places, but that in the festive gayetyof 



300 



HERODOTUS. 



his hand, and retired. Soon afterwards Aris- 
ton came to me, and seeing me with a garland, 
inquired who gave it me ; I said that he had, 
but this he seriously denied : I protested, how- 
ever, that he had ; and I added, it was not kind 
in him to deny it, who, after having enjoyed 
my person, placed the garland on my head. 
Ariston, seeing that I persevered in my story, 
was satisfied that there had been some divine 
interposition ;' and this opinion was afterwards 
confirmed, from its appearing that this garland 
had been taken from the shrine of the hero As- 
trobachus, which stands near the entrance of 
our house : and indeed a soothsayer declared, 
that the personage I speak of was that hero 
himself.— I have now, my son, told you all that 
you wished to know : you are either the son of 
Astrobachus or of Ariston, for that very night 
I conceived. Your enemies particularly object 
to you, that Ariston, when he first heard of 
your birth, declared, in the presence of many, 
that you could not possibly be his son, as the 
time of ten months was not yet completed ; but 
he said this from his ignorance of such matters. 
Some women are delivered at nine, others at 
seven months ; all do not go ten. I was de- 
livered of you at seven j and Ariston himself 
afterwards confessed that he had uttered those 
words foolishly. — With regard to all other cal- 
umnies, you may safely despise them, and rely 
upon what I have said. As to the story of the 
ass-driver, may the wives of Leutychides, and 
of those who say such things, produce their 
husbands children from ass-drivers." 

LXX. Demaratus having heard all that he 
wished, took some provisions, and departed for 
Elis ; he pretended, however, that he was gone 



the moment, it was not unusual for one friend to give 
them to another : 

Hnic si forte bibes, sortem concede priorero, 
Huic detur capiti dempta corona tuo. T. 

1 Divine interposition.] — Innumerable instances occur 
in ancient history, from which we may conclude, that the 
passions of intemperate but artful men did not fail to 
wvail themselves of the ignorance and superstitious cre- 
dulity, with which the heathen world was overspread, to 
accomplish their dishonest purposes. It were endless to 
specify examples in all respects resembling this before 
us ; but it may seem wonderful, that their occurring so 
very often did not tend to awaken suspicion, and inter, 
rupt their success. Some licentious minister of the 
divine personage in question might easily crown himself 
with a consecrated garland, avail himself of an imputed 
resemblance to the husband of the woman who had ex- 
cited his passion, and with no greater difficulty prevail 
on a brother priest to make a declaration ; which at the 
same time softened the crime of the woman, and grati- 
fied her vanity. —T. 



to consult the oracle at Delphi, The Lace- 
daemonians suspected and pursued him. De- 
maratus had already crossed from Elis to 
Zacynthus, where the Lacedaemonians still fol- 
lowing him, seized his person and his servants ; 
these they carried away, but the Zacynthiaus 
refusing to let them take Demaratus, he passed 
over into Asia, where he was honourably re- 
ceived by Darius, and presented with many lands 
and cities. — Such was the fortune of Demara- 
tus, a man distinguished amongst his country- 
men by many memorable deeds and sayings ; 
and who alone, of all the kings of Sparta, 2 ob- 
tained the prize in the Olympic games in the 
chariot-race of four horses. 

LXXI. Leutychides the son of Menaris, 
who succeeded Demaratus after he had been 
deposed, had a son named Zeuxidamus, called 
by some of the Spartans, Cyniscus, or the 
whelp. He never enjoyed the throne of Sparta, 
but dying before his father, left a son named 
Archidamus. Leutychides, on the loss of his 
son, took for his second wife Eurydame, sister 
of Menius, and daughter of Diactoris ; by her 
he had a daughter called Lampito, but no male 
offspring : she, by the consent of Leutychides, 
was married to Archidamus, son of Zeuxi- 
damus. 

LXX II. The latter days of Leutychides 
were not spent in Sparta: but the cause of 
Demaratus was avenged in this manner : — 
Leutychides commanded an army of his coun- 
trymen, in an expedition against Thessaly, and 
might have reduced the whole country j but 
suffering himself to be bribed by a large sum of 
money, he was detected in his own camp, sit- 
ting on a sack of money. 3 Being brought to a 
public trial, he was driven from Sparta, and 
his house razed. 4 He fled to Tegea, where he 

2 Alone, of all the kings of Sparta.] — At this passage 
Valcnaer remarks, that these Spartan princes were pro- 
bably of the opinion of Agesilaus, who, as is recorded in 
Plutarch, said, that the victories at these games were 
carried rather by riches than by merit. — T. 

3 Sack of money.] — " In the more ancient manu- 
scripts," says Wesseling, " these words were probably 
j oined together, whence copyists in aftertimes separating 
these two words have introduced a false reading." 
Various errors of a similar kind have crept into modern 
editions of ancient books. 

4 His house razed.] — This still constitutes part of the 
punishment annexed to the crime of high treason in 
France, and to great state crimes in many places. In 
the moment of popular fury, when violent resentment 
will not wait the slow determinations of the law to be 
appeased, it may admit of some extenuation ; but that in 
a civilized people it should be part of any legal decision, 
seems preposterous and unmeaning— T. 



ERATO. 



301 



died ; but the above events happened some 
time afterwards. 

LXXIII. Cleomenes, having succeeded in 
his designs upon Demaratus, took with him 
Leutychides, and proceeded against iEgina, 
with which he was exceedingly exasperated, on 
account of the insult he had received. The 
people of -3Cgina, on seeing themselves assailed 
by the two kings, did not meditate a long resis- 
tance ; ten of the most illustrious and affluent 
were selected as hostages : among these were 
Crios, son of Polycritus, and Casambris, son 
of Aristocrates, men of considerable authority. 
Being carried to Attica, they there remained 
among their most inveterate enemies. 

LXXIV. Cleomenes afterwards fled to 
Thessaly ; for his treachery against Demaratus 
becoming manifest, he feared the resentment of 
the Spartans : from thence he went to Arcadia, 
where he endeavoured to raise a commotion, 
by stirring up the Arcadians against Sparta. 
Amongst other oaths, he exacted of them an 
engagement to follow him wherever he should 
think proper to conduct them. He particular- 
ly wished to carry the principal men to the city 
of Nonacris, there to make them swear by the 
waters of Styx. 5 These waters are said to be 
found in this part of Arcadia : there is but lit- 
tle water, and it falls drop by drop from a rock 
into a valley, which is inclosed by a circular 



' 5 Waters of Styx.J— It appears by this passage that 
the Greeks assembled at Nonacris to swear by the wa- 
ters of Styx ; when their oaths were to be considered as 
inviolable : the gods also swore by Styx, and it was the 
greatest oath they could use. " This water," observes 
Pausanias, "is mortal to men and animals;" it was, 
doubtless, for this reason that it was said to be a foun- 
tain of the infernal regions. This water could not be 
preserved, but in a vessel made of the horn of a mule's 
hoof. See Pliny, N. H. L xxx. c. 16.—" UngiUas tantum 
mularum repertas, neque aliam ullam materiam quae non 
perroderetur a veneno Stygis aquae." Pausanias gives 
the same efficacy to the horn of a horse's hoof; and Plu- 
tarch to that of an ass. — Larcher. 

A few particulars on this subject, omitted by Larcher, 
and less familiar perhaps to an English reader, I shall 
add to the above. Pliny says, it was remarkable for 
producing a fish, the taste of which was fatal. The so- 
lemnity with which the gods regarded the swearing by 
Styx, is mentioned by Virgil : 

Stygiamque paludera 

Dii cujus jurare timent et fallere numen. 

The sacred streams which heaven's imperial state 

Attests in oaths, and fears to violate. 

The circumstance of this oath being regarded by the 
gods as inviolable, is mentioned by Homer, Hesiod, and 
all the more ancient writers. The punishment supposed 
to be annexed to the perjury of gods in this instance, 
was that of being tortured 9,000 years in Tartarus.— See 
Servius on the 6th book of the JEneid.—T. 



wall. — Nonacris is an Arcadian city, near 
Phereos. 

LXXV. When the Lacedaemonians heard 
what Cleomenes was doing, through fear of 
the consequences, they invited him back to 
Sparta, offering him his former dignity and sta- 
tion. Immediately on his return he was seized 
with madness, of which he had before discover- 
ed very strong symptoms : for whatever citizen 
he happened to meet, he scrupled not to strike 
him on the face with his sceptre. 6 This ex- 
travagant behaviour induced his friends to con- 
fine him in a pair of stocks ; seeing himself, on 
some occasion, left with only one person to 
guard him, he demanded a sword ; the man at 
first refused to obey him, but finding him per- 
sist in his request, he at length, being an Helot, 
and afraid of what he threatened, gave him one. 
Cleomenes, as soon as he received the sword, 
began to cut the flesh off his legs ; 7 and from 
his legs he ascended to his thighs, and from 
his thighs to his loins, till at length, making 
gashes in his belly, he died. The Greeks in 
general consider his death as occasioned by his 
having bribed the Pythian s to give an answer 
against Demaratus. The Athenians alone as- 
sert, that he was thus punished for having 
plundered the temple of the goddesses at Eleu- 



6 With his sceptre.} — That princes and individuals of 
high rank carried their sceptres, or insignia of their 
dignity, frequently in their hands, may be concluded from 
various passages of ancient writers : many examples of 
this occur in Homer. When Thersites clamorously en- 
deavoured to excite the Greeks to murmurs and sedi- 
tion, Ulysses is described as striking him with the scep- 
tre he had in his hand : 

He said, and cowering as the dastard bends, 
The weighty sceptre on his back descends: 
On the round bunch the bloody tumours rise ; 
The tears spring starting from his haggard eyes. 

The most ancient sceptre was probably a staff' to rest 
upon, for Ovid describes Jupiter as resting upon his ; it 
was a more ancient emblem of royalty than the crown ; 
the first Roman who assumed the sceptre was Tarquin 
the Proud.— T. 

1 Cut the flesh off his legs.} — Longinus instances this 
and a similar passage in Herodotus, to show how a mean 
action may be expressed in bold and lofty words ; see 
section xxxi. — the word here used by Herodotus is 
xonaxo^ivaiv. The other passage of Herodotus, alluded 
to by Longinus, is in book vii. c. 181. where three Gre- 
cian ships are described as resisting ten Persian vessels : 
speaking of Pythes, who commanded one of the former, 
he says, " that after his ship was taken, he persevered in 
fighting," t; 6 xxTix^iovoyvfi^ au-a;, or, as we should say 
in English, " till he was quite cut in pieces. " — T. 

8 Having bribed the Pythian.'} — The disease of mad- 
ness was frequently considered by the ancients as an- 
nexed by the gods to more atrocious acts of impiety and 
wickedness. — Orestes was struck with madness for kill- 
ing his mother; OZdipus, for a similar crime; Ajax 
Oileus for violating the sanctity of a temple, &c— T. 



302 



HERODOTUS. 



sis. 1 The Argives say, that it was because he 
had forced many of their countrymen from the 
refuge they had taken in the temple of Argos, 2 
and had not only put them to the sword, but 
had impiously set fire to the sacred wood. 

LXXVI. Cleomenes, upon consulting the 
Delphic oracle, had been told that he should cer- 
tainly become master of Argos : he accordingly 
led a body of Spartans to the river Erasinus, 3 
which is said to flow from the Stymphalian lake. 
This lake is believed to show itself a second time 
in the territories of Argos, after disappearing for 
some time in an immense gulf; it is then 
called by the Argives, Erasinus. Arriving at 
this river, Cleomenes offered sacrifices to it : 
the entrails of the victim gave him no encour- 
agement to pass the stream, 4 from which inci- 
dent he affected to praise the river god for his 
attachment to his countrymen ; but, neverthe- 
less, vowed that the Argives should have no 
occasion to rejoice. From hence he advanced 
to Thyrea, where he sacrificed a bull to the 
Ocean, 5 and embarking his forces, proceeded to 
Tirynthia and Nauplia. 



1 Goddesses at Eleusis.]— Ceres and Proserpine. 
"We turned to the south, into the plain Eleusis, 

which extends about a league every way ; it is probably 
the plain called Rarion, where they say the corn was 
sowed; there is a long hill, which divides the plain, ex- 
tending to the cast within a mile of the sea, and on the 
south side is not half a mile from it : at the east end of 
this hill the ancient Eleusis was situated. About a mile 
before we came to it, I saw the ruins of a small temple 
to the east, which might be that which was built at the 
thrashing-floor of Triptolemus, 

" In the plain, near the north foot of the lull, are many 
pieces of stones and pillars, which probably are the re- 
mains of the temple of Diana Propylaea, which was be- 
fore the gates of the city ; and at the north foot of the 
lull, on an advanced ground, there are many imperfect 
ruins, pieces of pillars, and entablatures, and doubtless it 
is the spot of the temple of Ceres and Proserpine." &c. — 
Poeocke,\\. 170. 

2 Temple of Argos.] — This Argos was the son of Jupi- 
ter and Niobe, daughter of Phorone ; he had given his 
name to Argos, and the territory he possessed. He had 
no temple, and perhaps not even a chapel ; Pausanias 
speaks only of his monument, which doubtless stood in 
the wood consecrated to him. 

This Argos was very different from him surnamed 
Panoptes, who had eyes in every part of his body : this 
was the son of Agenor, and great-grandson of Mm of 
whom we speak.— Larcher. 

3 Erasinus."} — According to Strabo there was another 
river of this name ; the one here mentioned is now called 
Rasino, and was called by Ovid "ingens Erasinus." 

Redditur Argolicis ingens Erasinus in agris. T. 

4 No encouragement to pass the stream.] — In Lucan, 
when Caesar arrived on the banks of the Rubicon, the 
genius of his country is represented as appearing to him, 
in order to dissuade him from his purpose. — The whole 
description is admirably beautiful. 

5 A bull to the Ocean.]— A bull was the usual victim 



LXXVIL. The Argives, hearing of this, 
advanced to the sea to repel him : as soon as 
they came to Tirynthe, 6 at a place called Sipia, 
they encamped in the Lacedaemonian territory, 
at no great distance from the enemy. They 
were not so much afraid of meeting their adver- 
saries openly in the field, as of falling into 
an ambuscade : of this indeed they had been 
forewarned by the Pythian, in the declaration 
made jointly to the Milesians and themselves : — 
When 7 female hands the strength of man shall tame, 
And among Argives gain a glorious name, 
Women of Argos shall much grief display, 
And thus shall one in future ages say : 
" A serpent huge, which wreathed its body round, 
From a keen sword received a mortal wound." 

These incidents filled the Argives with the 
greatest terror; they accordingly resolved to 
regulate their motions by the herald of the ad- 
verse army ; as often, therefore, as this officer 
communicated any public order to the Lace- 
daemonians, they did the same. 

L XXVIII. Cleomenes taking notice that 
the Argives observed what the herald of his 
army announced, directed that when the signal 
should be given for his soldiers to dine, they 
should immediately take their arms and attack 
the Argives. The Lacedaemonians upon this 
gave the signal for dinner, the Argives did the 
same ; but whilst they were engaged in eating, 
the enemy rushed upon them, slew a prodigious 



to the Dii Magni. Horace represents one as sacrificed 
to Pluto ; Virgil, to Neptune and Apollo ; Homer, to 
the sea, and to rivers. It was not frequently, if it was 
ever sacrificed to Jupiter. Bacchus was sometimes 
worshipped with the head of a bull ; and I have before 
observed, that the bull sacrificed to the Egyptian Typhon 
gave occasion to the golden calf of the Israelites. — T. 

6 Tirynthe.]— From this place Hercules was some- 
times called Tirynthius. 

7 When.] — The first part of this oracle is explained by 
what Pausanias and Plutarch, with little variation from 
each other, relate. The Argive women, taking arms 
under the conduct of Telesilla, repelled the attempts of 
Cleomenes on their city, with the loss of numbers of his 
men. — Plutarch, after relating the above, adds some cir- 
cumstances so very whimsical, that I may well be excused 
inserting them. " Some assert," says Plutarch, " that 
the above feat of the •women was performed on the 
fourth of the month called Hermneus, when to this day 
they celebrate the feast called Hybristica, when the wo- 
men are clothed in the coats and breeches of men, and 
the men in the veils and petticoats of women." He pro- 
ceeds to say, that the women, to repair the want of men, 
having many of them lost their husbands, did not marry 
their servants, but first admitted the best of their neigh- 
bours to the rights of citizens, and afterwards married 
them. But on their reproaching and insulting these hus- 
bands, a law passed that new-married women, when 
they lay for the first time with their husbands, should 
wear beards. — T. 



ERATO. 



303 



number, and surrounded many others, who 
escaping from the field, took refuge in the grove 
of Argos. 

LXXIX. Whilst they remained here, Cle- 
omenes determined on the following measure : 
— by means of some deserters, he learned the 
names of all those Argives who had escaped to 
this grove ; these he called out one by one, 
telling them that he had received their ransom : 
(his, in the Peloponnese, is a fixed sum, and 
is settled at two minse for each captive. The 
number of the Argives was fifty, who as they 
respectively came out, when called, Cleomenes 
put to death. This incident was unknown to 
those who remained in the asylum, the thick- 
ness of the wood not allowing them to see 
what, passed ; till at length one climbing a tree, 
saw the transaction, after which no one appear- 
ed when called. 

LXXX. Cleomenes then ordered his helots 
to encompass the wood with materials for the 
purpose, and they obeying him, it was set on 
fire. 8 Whilst it was burning, Cleomenes de- 
sired to know of one of the fugitives to what 
divinity the grove was sacred. He replied, to 
Argos. At this the Lacedaemonian, in great 
agitation, exclaimed — " O Apollo, thy predic- 
tion has misled me, promising me that I should 
be master of Argos. Thy oracle has, I fear, 
no other termination." 

LXXXI. Cleomenes afterwards permitted 
the greater part of his forces to return to Spar- 
ta ; and reserving only a select body of a thou- 
sand men, he went to offer sacrifice at the tem- 
ple of Juno. Wishing to perform the ceremo- 
nies himself on the altar; the priest forbade 
him, saying, it was a privilege granted to no 
foreigner. Upon this, he ordered the helots to 
drag the priest from the altar, 9 and beat him. 

8 Set on fire.]— Mt Mason, in his admirable tragedy of 
Caractacus, has made an excellent use of the supposed 
sanctity of the groves at Mona. The circumstance of 
Cleomenes setting fire to the sacred grove of Argos, 
bears in many instances a resemblance to the burning 
of the groves of the Druids, by Aulus Didius, the Roman 
leader. 

Caractacus.— Smile, my loved child, and imitate the sun, 
That rises ruddy from behind yon oaks, 
To hail your brother victor. 

Chorus. . That the sun ! 

O horror, horror ! Sacrileffious fires 
Devour our groves : they blaze, they blaze— Oh, sound 
The trump again, &c T. 

9 Drag the priest from the altar.] — A similar act of 
violence is recorded by Plutarch of Alexander the Great. 
Wishing to consult the Delphic oracle concerning the 
success of his designs against Persia, he happened to go 
there at a time which was deemed inauspicious, and the 



He then sacrificed, and afterwards returned to 
Sparta. 

L XX XII. On his return, he was accused 
before the Ephori 10 of bribery, and of neglect- 
ing the opportunity he had of taking Argos. 
Whether the reply which Cleomenes made was 
true or false, I am not able to determine : he 
observed, that having taken possession of the 
temple of Argos, the prediction of the oracle 
seemed to him finally completed. He con- 
cluded therefore, that he ought not to make any 
further attempts upon the city, till he should 
first be satisfied from his sacrifices, whether 
the deity would assist or oppose him. When 
he was performing the sacred rites auspiciously 
in the temple of Juno, a flame of fire 11 burst 
from the bosom of the sacred image, which 
entirely convinced him that he should not take 
Argos. If this flame had issued from the head, 
he should have taken the place by storm, but 
its coming from the breast decisively declared 
that all the purposes of the deity were accom- 
plished. His defence appeared plausible and 
satisfactory to his countrymen, and he was ac- 
quitted by a great majority. 

LXXXIII. Argos however was deprived 
of so many of its citizens, that the slaves 
usurped the management of affairs, and execut- 
ed the offices of government : but when the 
sons of those who had been slain, grew up, 
they obtained possession of the city, and after 
some contest expelled the slaves, who retired 
to Tyrinthe, which they seized. They for a 
time forbore to molest each other, till Cleander, 

Pythian refused to do her office. Alexander on this 
went to her himself, and by personal violence dragged 
her to the temple : fatigued with her exertions against 
him, she at length exclaimed, " My son, you are invin- 
cible.' - The Macedonian prince expressed himself per- 
fectly satisfied with her answer, and assured his soldiers 
that it was unnecessary to consult the deity any more. 
— T. 

10 Ephori.]— The reader will remember that it was 
the particular office of the Ephori to watch the conduct 
of the Spartan kings. — T. 

11 Flame of fire.]— The appearance of fire self-kindled 
was generally deemed among the ancients an auspicious 
omen ; but, like ail other prodigies and modes of divi- 
nation, they varied their conclusions concerning it ac- 
cording to the different circumstances and places in 
which it appeared. According to Pliny, Amphiaraus 
was the first inventor of the divination by fire. 

Aruspicium Delphus invenit, ignispicia Amphiaraus, 
auspicia avium Tiresias Thebanus, interpretationem os- 
tentorum et somniorum Araphictyon. 

Delphus was the inventor of divination by the entrails 
of beasts, Amphiaraus of that by fire, Tiresias the Thebau 
of that of birds, and Amphictyon of the interpretation of 
prodigies and dreams. — T. 



304 



HERODOTUS. 



a soothsayer and an Arcadian, of the district of 
Phigasis, coming among them, he persuaded 
the slaves to attack their masters. A tedious 
war followed, in which the Argives were finally, 
though with difficulty, victorious. 

LXXXIV. The Argives affirm, that on 
account of the things before mentioned, Cleo- 
menes lost his reason, and came to a miserable 
end. The Spartans, on the contrary, will not 
allow his madness to have been occasioned by 
any divine interposition ; they say, that com- 
municating with the Scythians, 1 he became a 
drinker of wine, and that this made him mad. 
The Scythian Nomades, after the invasion of 
their country by Darius, determined on revenge : 
with this view they sent ambassadors to form 
an alliance with the Spartans. It was accord- 
ingly agreed, that the Scythians should invade 
the country of the Medes, by the side of the 
Phasis : the Spartans, advancing 2 from Ephesus, 
were to do the same, till the two armies formed 
a junction. With the Scythians sent on this 
business, Cleomenes is said to have formed too 
great an intimacy, and thence to have contracted 

1 Communicating with the Scythians."} — See this story 
referred to in Athenseus, book x. c. 7 ; from whence we 
learn that tTiaxvOitroa, or to imitate the Scythians, became 
proverbial for intemperate drinking. — See also the Ada- 
gia of Erasmus, upon the word Episcythizare.— Hard 
drinking was in like manner characteristic of the Thra- 
cians. — See Horace : 

Natis in usum laetitiae scyphis 
Pugnare, Thracum est : tollite barbarum 
Morem, verecundumque Bacchum 

Sanguineis prohibete rixis. — L. i. 27. 

Again the same author, 

Non ego sanius 
Bacchabor Edonis.— L. ii. 7. 

Upon the word Scyphis, in the first quotation, it may 
not be improper to remark, that Athenseus doubts 
whether the word <r»u<?s«?, scyphus, a bowl, quasi irz-vOos, 
scythus, be not derived from Scythis. The effect of in- 
temperate drinking is well described in the Solomon of 
Prior: 

I drank, I liked it not — 'twas rage, 'twas noise, 
An airy scene of transitory joys : 
In vain I trusted that the flowing bowl 
Would banish sorrow and enlarge the soul. 
To the late revel and protracted feast 
Wild dreams succeeded and disorder'd rest. 

* * A * * 

Add yet unnumber'd ills that lie unseen 

In the pernicious draught ; the word obscene 

Or harsh, which, once elanced, must ever fly 

Irrevocable : the too prompt reply, 

Seed of severe distrust, and fierce debate, 

What we should shun, and what we ought to hate T. 

2 Advancing.']— The word in Greek" is a,va{3xiviiv ; and 
Larcher remarks, that this word is used in almost all 
the historians, for to advance from the sea, and that 
therefore the retreat of the ten thousand was called by 
Xenophon the «v«/3«<77? . The illustration is, however, 
rather unfortunate, as the return of Xenophon was not 
from the sea, but from Cunaxa, an inland place on the 
Euphrates, to the sea at Trapezus, &c— T. 



a habit of drinking, which injured the faculties 
of his mind. From which incident, whoever 
are desirous to drink in temperately, are said to 
exclaim Episcythison, " Let us drink like Scy- 
thians." — Such is the Spartan account of Cleo- 
menes. To me, however, he seems to have 
been an object of the divine vengeance, on ac- 
count of Demaratus. 

LXXX V. The people of iEgina no sooner 
received intelligence of his death, than they 
despatched emissaries to Sparta, to complain of 
Leutychides, for detaining their hostages at 
Athens. The Lacedaemonians, after a public 
consultation, were of opinion that Leutychides 
had greatly injured the inhabitants of iEgina ; 
and they determined that he should be given up 
to them, and be carried to iEgina, instead of 
such of their countrymen as were detained at 
Athens. They were about to lead him away, 
when Theasides, son of Leopropis, a Spartan 
of approved worth, thus addressed them : " Men 
of iEgina, what would you do ? would you 
take away a Spartan prince, whom his country- 
men have given up ? Although the Spartans 
have in anger come to this resolution, do ye not 
fear that they will one day, if you persist in your 
purpose, utterly destroy your country?" This 
expostulation induced the iEginetae to change 
their first intentions : they nevertheless insisted 
that Leutychides should accompany them to 
Athens, and set their countrymen at liberty. 

LXXX VI. When Leutychides arrived at 
Athens, and claimed the hostages, the Athe- 
nians, who were unwilling to give them up, de- 
murred — They said, that as the two kings had 
jointly confided these men to their care, it would 
be unfair to give them up to one of them. 
Upon their final refusal to surrender them, 
Leutychides thus addressed them, " In this 
business, Athenians, you will do what you 
please ; if you give up these men, you will act 
justly, if you do not, you will be dishonest. I 
am desirous however to relate to you what once 
happened in Sparta upon a similar occasion : 
We have a tradition amongst us, that about 
three ages ago there lived in Lacedaemon a man 
named Glaucus, the son of Epycides ; he was 
famous amongst his countrymen for many ex- 
cellent qualities, and in particular for his integ- 
rity. We are told, that in process of time a 
Milesian came to Sparta, purposely to solicit 
this man's advice. ' I am come,' said he, ad- 
dressing him, ' from Miletus, to be benefited 
by your justice, the reputation of which, circu- 
lating through Greece, has arrived at Ionia. 



ERATO. 



305 



I have compared the insecure condition of 
Ionia with the undisturbed tranquillity of the 
Peloponnese ; and observing that the wealth 
of my countrymen is constantly fluctuating, 
I have been induced to adopt this measure : 
I have converted half of my property into 
money, which, from the confidence of its being 
perfectly secure, I propose to deposit in your 
hands ; take it therefore, and with it these pri- 
vate marks ; to the person who shall convince 
you that he knows them you will return it' 
The Milesian here finished, and Glaucus ac- 
cepted his money upon these conditions. After 
a long interval of time, the sons of the above 
Milesian came to Sparta, and presenting them- 
selves before Glaucus produced the test agreed 
upon, and claimed the money. He however 
rejected the application with anger, and as- 
sured them that he remembered nothing of 
the matter. ' If,' says he, ' I should hereafter 
be able to recollect the circumstance you men- 
tion, I will certainly do you justice, and restore 
that which you say I have received. If, on the 
contrary, your claim has no foundation, I shall 
avail myself of the laws of Greece against you : 
I therefore invite you to return to me again, 
after a period of fourth months.' The Mile- 
sians accordingly departed in sorrow, consider- 
ing themselves cheated of their money : Glau- 
cus, on the other hand, went to consult the 
oracle at Delphi. On his inquiring whether he 
might absolve himself from returning the 
money by an oath, the priestess made him this 
reply : 

" Glaucus, 3 thus much by swearii g you may gain, 
Through life the gold you safely may retain : 



3 Glaucus, so?i of Epicydes] — The words of this oracle, 
as has been observed by many writers, and in particular 
by Grotius, may well be compared to a passage in 
Zechariah, v. 1 — 5. 

1 I looked, and behold a flying roll. — Then said he unto 
me, This is the curse that goeth over the face of the 
whole earth : — and it shall enter into the house of the 
thief, andlnto the house of him thatsweareth falsely by 
my name : and it shall remain in the midst of his house, 
and shall consume it, with the timber thereof, and the 
stones thereof." 

The story of Glaucus is also well introduced by Juve- 
nal, Sat. xiii. 

Spartano cuidam respondit Pythia vates, 
Haud impunitum quondam fore, quod dubitaret 
Depositum retinere et fraudem jure tueii 
Jurando. Quserebat enlm quae numinis csset 
Mens, et an hoc illi facinus suaderet Apollo. 
Reddidit ergo metu, non moribus, et tamen omnem 
Vocem adyti dignam templo, veramque probavit 
Kxtinctus tota pariter cum prole domoque ; 
Et quamvis longa deductis gente propinquis 
Has pelitur paenas peccandi sola voluntas. 



Swear then— remembering that the awful grave 
Confounds alike the honest man aud knave : 
But still an oath a nameless offspring bears, 
Which though no feet it has, no arm uprears, 
Swiftly the perjured villain will o'ertake, 
And of his race entire destruction make ; 
Whilst their descendants, who their oath regard, 
Fortune ne'er fails to favour and reward," 

" On this reply, Glaucus entreated the deity to 
forgive him ; but he was told by the priestess, 
that the intention and the action were alike 
criminal. Glaucus then sent for the Milesians, 
and restored the money. — My motive, O Athe- 
nians, for making you this relation, remains to 
be told. At the present day no descendant of 
Glaucus, nor any traces of his family, are to be 
found ; they are utterly extirpated from Sparta. 



A trusty Spartan was inclined to cheat, 
(The coin look'd lovely, and the bag was great ; 
Secret the trust—) and with an oath defend 
The prize, and baffle his deluded friend ; 
But weak in sin, and of the gods afraid, 
And not well versed in the forswearing trade, 
He goes to Delphos, humbly begs advice, 
And thus the priestess by command replies : 
Expect sure vengeance by the gods decreed, 
To punish thoughts not yet improved to deed 
At this he started, and forbore to swear. 
Not out of conscience of the sin, but fear ; 
Vet plagues ensued, and the contagious sin 
Destroy 'd himself and ruin'd all his kin. 
Thus suff'er'd he for the imperfect will 
To sin, and bare design of doing ill. 

See also Jortin's Discourses on the Christian Religion. 
" Josephus says, that Antiochus Epiphanes, as he was 
dying, confessed that he suffered for the injuries which 
he had done to the Jews. Then he adds, I wonder how 
Polybius could say that Antiochus perished because he 
had purposed to plunder the temple of Diana in Persia ; 
for to intend the thing only, and not perform it, is not 
worthy of punishment. To ya.% pwi-ri rotr,<rou to i^yov 
j3ouXfjtroi.fjt.iyov ovx io^ti Tiftcugtotz u^iov. 

How contrary to this sentiment of Josephus is the 
positive declaration of Jesus Christ ! 

" But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a 
woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with 
her already in his heart." 

I cannot properly omit relating in this place a story 
from Stoboeus, somewhat of a similiar nature with this 
before us. — Larcher has done the same. 

Archetimus of Erythrsea, in Ionia, deposited at Tene- 
dos, in the hands of his friend Cydias, a considerable 
sum of money. Having demanded it to be returned, the 
other denied that he had it ; and as the dispute grew 
warm, it was agreed that in three days he should purge 
himself by an oath. This time was employed by Cydias 
in making hollow a cane, in which he placed the gold of 
Archetimus ; and the better to conceal his fraud, he 
covered the handle of it with a thick bandage of linen. 
On the appointed day he left his house, resting on his 
cane, as if indisposed ; and arriving at the temple, he 
placed the cane in the hands of Archetimus, whilst lie 
elevated his own, and swore that he had returned to him 
the deposit confided to him. Archetimus in anger dashed 
the cane on the ground : it broke in pieces, the gold fell 
out and exposed to the eyes of the spectators the perfidy 
of Cydias, who died prematurely.— T. 
2Q 



306 



HERODOTUS. 



Wherever, therefore, a trust has been reposed, 
it is an act of wisdom to restore it when de- 
manded." — Leutychides, finding that what he 
said made no impression upon the Athenians, 
left the place. 

LXXXVII. Before the ^Eginetae had 
suffered for the insults formerly offered to the 
Athenians, with the intention of gratifying the 
Thebans, they had done the following act of 
violence: — Exasperated against the Athenians 
for some imagined injury, they prepared to 
revenge themselves. The Athenians had a 
quinquereme stationed at Sunium ; of this ves- 
sel, which was the Theoris, 1 and full of the 
most illustrious Athenians, they by some arti- 
fice obtained possession, and put all whom they 
found in her in irons. The Athenians instant- 
ly meditated the severest vengeance. 

LXXX VIII. There was at iEgina a man 
greatly esteemed, the son of Cncethus, his name 
Nicodromus. From some disgust against his 
countrymen, he had some time before left the 
island : hearing that the Athenians were de- 
termined on the ruin of iEgina, he agreed with 
them on certain conditions to deliver it into 
their hands. He appointed a particular day for 
the execution of his measures, when they also 
were to be>ready to assist him. He proceeded 
in his purpose, and made himself master of 
what is called the old city. 

LXXXIX. The Athenians were not punc- 
tual to their engagement ; they were not pre- 
pared with a fleet able to contend with that of 
^Egina : and in the interval of their applying 
to the Corinthians for a reinforcement of ships, 
the favourable opportunity was lost. The 
Corinthians, being at that time on very friendly 
terms with the Athenians, furnished them, at 

1 The Theoris.] — This was a vessel which was every 
year sent to Delos to offer sacrifice to Apollo, in conse- 
quence of a vow which Theseus had made at his depar- 
ture for Crete. As soon as the festival celebrated on 
this occasion was begun, they purified the place, and it 
was an inviolable law to put no person to death till this 
vessel should be returned ; and it was sometimes a great 
while on its passage, particularly when the wind was 
contrary. The festival called Theoria commences when 
the priest of Apollo has crowned the prow of the vessel. 
Theoros was the name of the person sent to offer sacri- 
fice to some god, or consult an oracle ; it was given to 
distinguish such persons from those charged with com- 
missions on civil affairs, who were called H^fiii;. 
— Larcher. 

See a very poetical description of the arrival of a The- 
oris at Delos, in the Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis, vi. 
417, 418. 

" On appercevoit dans I'eloignement la Theorie des 
Athcniens. Telles que les filles de Neree, Iorsqu'elles sui- 



their request, with twenty ships : 2 as their laws 
forbade them to give these ships, they sold them 
to their allies for five drachmae each. With 
these, which in addition to their own, made a 
fleet of seventy ships, the Athenians sailed to 
iEgina, where however they did not arrive till 
a day after the time appointed. 

XC. The Athenians not appearing as had 
been stipulated, Nicodromus, accompanied by 
many of the iEginetae, fled in a vessel from 
iEgina. The Atheniens assigned Sunium for 
their residence, from whence they occasionally 
issued to harass and plunder the people of 
iEgina ; but these things happened afterwards. 

XCI. The principal citizens of iEgina hav- 
ing overpowered such of the common people as 
had taken the part of Nicodromus against them, 
they proceeded to put their prisoners to death. 
On this occasion they committed an act of im- 
piety, to atone for which all their earnest en- 
deavours were unavailing ; and before they 
could conciliate the goddess they were driven 
from the island. As they were conducting to 
execution seven hundred of the common peo- 
ple, whom they had taken alive, one of them, 
escaping from his chains, fled to the vestibule 
of the temple of Ceres Thesmophoros, and 
seizing the hinges of the door, held them fast : 
unable to make him quit his hold, they cut off 
his hands, 3 and dragged him away. His hands 
remained adhering to the valves of the door. 

XCII. After the iEginetse had thus punish- 
ed their domestic enemies, the seventy vessels 
of the Athenians appeared, whom they en- 
gaged, and were conquered. In consequence 
of their defeat, they applied a second time to 
the Argives for assistance, which was refused, 
and for this reason : they complained that the 
ships of the iEginetae which Cleomenes had 
violently seized, had in conjunction with the 
Lacedaemonians, made a descent upon their 
coast : to which act of violence some Sycionian 
vessels had also contributed. For this the Ar- 
gives had demanded, by way of compensation, 
a thousand talents, of which each nation was to 
pay five hundred. The Sicyonians apologised 



vent sur les flots le char de la souveraine des mers, une 
foule de batimens legers se jouoient autour de la galere 
sacree. Leurs voiles, plus eclatantes que la neige, bril- 
loient comme les cygnes qui agitent leurs ailes sur les 
eaux du Caistre et du Meandre," &c. 

2 With twenty ships.]— The Corinthians reproached 
the Athenians with this act of kindness, when they 
afterwards discovered an inclination to assist the Corcy- 
reans.— See Thucydides, 1. i. c. 41.— Larcher. 

3 Cut off his 7iands.l—See Hume's Essays, vol. ii. 4G2. 



ERATO. 



307 



for their misconduct, and paying one hundred 
talents, were excused the rest. The iEginetae 
were too proud to make any concessions. The 
Argives therefore refused any public countenance 
to their application for assistance, but a body of 
about a thousand volunteers went over to them, 
under the conduct of Eurybates, a man very 
skilful in the contests of the Pentathlon. 4 The 
greater part of these returned no more, but 
were slain by the Athenians at iEgina. Eury- 
bates their leader, victorious in three different 
single combats, was killed in a fourth, by So- 
phanes, a Decelian. 

XCIII. The iEginetoe, taking advantage of 
some confusion on the part of the Athenians, 
attacked their fleet, and obtained a victory, 
taking four of their ships, with all their crews. 
XCIV. Whilst these two nations were thus 
engaged in hostilities, the domestic of the Per- 
sian monarch continued regularly to bid him 
u Remember the Athenians," 5 which incident 
was farther enforced by the unremitting endea- 
vours of the Pisistratidse, to criminate that 
people. The king himself was very glad of this 
pretext, effectually to reduce such of the Gre- 
cian states as had refused him " earth and 
water." He accordingly removed from his 
command Mardonius, who had been unsuccess- 
ful in his naval undertakings : he appointed 
two other officers to commence an expedition 
against Eretria and Athens ; these were Datis, B 

4 Pentathlon.] — On this subject I have somewhere 
spoken in a note, and enumerated the five exercises or 
contests which were on this occasion celebrated. I 
should have added, that learned men of modern times, 
and even the ancients themselves, do not appear unani- 
mous in their opinions what these exercises were. The 
verse of Simonides, preserved in the Anthologia, has ap- 
peared to many decisive on this subject : 

Akf/.a, To'buyMviv, .Sitrxov, cczovra,, trxXyv* 

5 Remember the Athenians.] — This incident will neces- 
sarily bring to the mind of the reader what is related of 
the Macedonian Philip ; who to prevent pride and inso- 
lence taking- too entire a possession of his heart, from 
his victories and great prosperity, enjoined a domestic 
every morning to exclaim to him, " Remember, Philip, 
thou art a man." The word " Remember" is memor- 
able in English history. It was the last word pronounced 
by Cliarles the First to Dr Juxon on the scaffold. Dr 
Juxon gave a plausible answer to the Ministers of Crom- 
well, who interrogated him on the subject; but many 
arc still of opinion, that it involved some mystery never 
known but by the individuals to whom it immediately 
related.— T. 

6 Datis.]— This officer, in the exultation which at- 
tended his first successes, made use of a term considered 
as a barbarism in the Grecian language, which kind of 
barbarisms were afterwards called Datisms. See the 
Peace of Aristophanes, verse 290 ; and the observation 
of the Scholiast on 288.— Lurcher 



I a native of Media, and Artaphernes, his nephew, 

j who were commanded totally to subdue both 
the above places, and to bring the inhabitants 
captive before him. 

XCV. These commanders, as soon as they 
had received their appointment, advanced to 
Aleium in Cilicia, with a large and well pro- 
vided body of infantry. Here, as soon as they 
encamped, they were joined by a numerous re- 
inforcement of marines, agreeably to the orders 
which had been given. Not long afterwards 
those vessels arrived to take the cavalry on 
board, which in the preceding year Darius had 
commanded his tributaries to supply. The 
horse and foot immediately embarked and pro- 
ceeded to Ionia, in a fleet of six hundred tri- 
remes. They did not, keeping along the coast, 

| advance in a right line to Thrace and the Hel- 

j lespont, but loosing from Samos, they passed 
through the midst of the islands, and the lea- 

I rian sea, 7 fearing as I should suppose, to double 
the promontory of Athos, by which they had 
in the former year severely suffered. They 
were farther induced to this course by the 
island of Naxos, which before they had omitted 
to take. 

XCVI. Proceeding therefore from the Ica- 
rian sea to this island, which was the first object 
of their enterprize, they met with no resistance. 
The Naxians, remembering their former cala- 
mities, fled in alarm to the mountains. Those 
taken captive were made slaves, the sacred 

j buildings and the city were burned. This done, 
the Persians sailed to the other islands* 

XCVII. At this juncture the inhabitants 
of Delos deserted their island and fled to Tenos. 
To Delos the Persian fleet was directing its 
course, when Datis, hastening to the van, obliged 
them to station themselves at Rhenea, which 
lies beyond it. As soon as he learned to what 

j place the Delians had retired, he sent a herald 
to them with this message : — " Why, O sacred 
people, do you fly, thinking so injuriously of 
me ? If I had not received particular directions 
from the king my master to this effect, I, of 
my own accord, would never have molested yon, 
nor offered violence 8 to a place in which two 

7 Icarian sea."] — The story of Daedalus and Icarus, 
and that the Icarian sea was so named from its being the 
supposed grave of Icarus, must be sufficiently notorious : 

Icarus Icariis nomina fecit aquis — Olid. T. 

8 Offered violence.]— On this subject, from the joint 
authorities of Herodotus, Pausanias, and Callimachus, 

. the Abbe Barthelemy expresses himself thus j 

" Los fureurs des barbares, Lea hainea des nations, les 
inimities particulieres torn bent a Inspect de cette terns 



308 



HERODOTUS.. 



deities' were born. Return therefore, and in- 
habit your island as before. " Having sent this 
message, he offered upon one of their altars in- 
cense to the amount of three hundred talents. 
XCVIII. After this measure, Datis led his 
whole army against Eretria, taking with him the 
Ionians and iEolians. The Delians say, that 
at the moment of his departure the island of 
Delos was affected by a tremulous motion, 2 a 
circumstance which, as the Delians affirm, never 
happened before or since. The deity, as it 
should seem by this prodigy, forewarned man- 
kind 3 of the evils which were about to happen. 
Greece certainly suffered more and greater 
calamities during the reigns of Darius son of 
Hystaspes, Xerxes son of Darius, and Arta- 
xerxes son of Xerxes, than in all the preceding 
twenty generations ; these calamities arose part- 
ly from the Persians, and partly from the con- 
tentions for power amongst its own great men. 
It was not therefore without reason that Delos, 



sacree. — Les coursiers de Mars ne la foulent jamais de 
leurs pieds ensanglantes. — Tout ce que presente l'image 
de la guerre en est severement banni : on n'y souffre pas 
meme l'animal le plus fidele a I'homme, parce qu'il y 
detruiroit des animaux plus foibles et plus timides ; enfin 
la paix a choisi Delos pour son sejour," &c. — Voyage du 
Jeune Anacharsis. According to Strabo, it was not per- 
mitted to have dogs at Delos, because they destroyed 
hares and rabbits. 

1 Two deities.] — Apollo and Diana. 

2 Tremulous motion.] — Thucydides relates that this 
island was affected by an earthquake at the commence- 
ment of the Peloponnesian war, but that in the memory 
of man this had never happened before. Larcher is of 
opinion that Herodotus and Thucydides may speak of 
the same fact. Wesseling thinks the same. — T. 

3 Foreioarned mankind.] — See the beautiful use which 
"Virgil in his first Georgic has made of the credulity of 
mankind with respect to prognostics ; and in particular 
his episode on those supposed to precede the death of 
Julius Caesar : 

Sol tibi signa dabit. Solera quis dicere falsum 
Audeat, &c. 464, &c. 

See also the prodigies described by Lucan, as preceding 
the battle of Pharsalia : 

Turn ne qua futuri 
Spes saltern trepidas mentes levet, addita fati 
Pejoris manifesta fides, superique minaces 
Prodigiis terras implerunt, eethera, pontum, &c. T. 

See the elegant Excursus of Heyne, at the end of the 
6th book of the iEneid, on futurarum rerum prcedictiones, 
in epico carmine. In this he enumerates the uses which 
poets of all ages have made of the credulity and weak- 
ness of human nature, with respect to their desire of 
knowing the future. The whole JEneis, says he, ex ora- 
culis, somniis et vaticiniis pendet. Among the ancients, 
they who most happily availed themselves of this natu- 
ral but preposterous curiosity, were Homer, iEschylus, 
Lycophron, Argonauticorum Scriptores, Virgil, Silius 
Italicus, Statius, and Lucan. Of the moderns, Spenser, 
Ariosto, Tasso, Milton, Camoens, &c. &c. 



immoveable before, should then be shaken, 
which event indeed had been predicted by the 
oracle : 

" Although Delos be immoveable, I will shake it." 
It is also worth observation, that, translated 
into the Greek tongue, 1 Darius signifies one 
who compels, Xerxes a warrior, Artaxerxes a 
great warrior ; and thus they would call them if 
they used the corresponding terms. 

XCIX. The barbarians, sailing from Delos 
to the other islands, took on board reinforce- 
ments from them all, together with the chil- 
dren of the inhabitants as hostages. Cruising 
round the different islands, they arrived off 
Carystos : 5 but the people of this place posi- 
tively refused either to give hostages, or to 
serve against their neighbours, Athens and 
Eretria. They were consequently besieged, 
and their lands wasted ; and they were finally 
compelled to surrender themselves to the 
Persians. 

C. The Eretrians, on the approach of the 
Persian army, applied to the Athenians for as- 
sistance j this the Athenians did not think 
proper to withhold; they accordingly sent 
them the four thousand men to whom those 
lands had been assigned which formerly be- 
longed to the Chalcidian cavalry ; but the 
Eretrians, notwithstanding their appplication to 
the Athenians, were far from being firm and 
determined. They were so divided in their 
resolutions, that whilst some of them advised 
the city to be deserted, and a retreat made to 
the rocks of Euboea, 6 others expecting a re- 



I 4 Into the Greek tongue.] — The original says, "these 
j names in the Greek tongue mean," &c. which seems to 
imply that the words are themselves significant in 
Greek, which is not the case, it should surely be " in the 
Persian tongue," kctk. Ui^trila. yXutro-oiv, otherwise the 
expression is incorrect, and the remainder of the sen- 
tence tautological, and indeed nonsensical. Hyde, Bo- 
chart, and others, have treated of these terms of the old 
Persic. 

5 Carystos.] — This place is now called Caristo, and is 
in one of the Cyclades. It was anciently famous for its 
variegated marble. — T. 

6 Rocks of Eubcea.] — These are what Virgil calls 

Euboicae cautes ultorque Caphareus. 

Heyne's observation on this passage of Virgil is suffi- 
ciently explicit and satisfactory. — " Promontorium 
Eubceae versus orientem O Koc^tv? propter latentia sub 
unda saxa et vortices marisque aestum, imprimis naufra- 
gia Graeeorum a Troja redeuntium infame." 

His explanation of the word ultor is not so. Ultor, 
says he, is only added as an ornament, to denote that the 
rock was destructive, tanquam calamitosum sax urn. 
Servius explains it by the story of Nauplius, who, in- 
censed at the Greeks for the loss of his son Palamedes 



ERATO. 



309 



ward from the Persians, prepared to betray 
their country. 7 ^Eschines the son of Nothon, 
an Eretrian of the highest rank, observing these 
different sentiments, informed the Athenians 
of the state of affairs, advising them to return 
home, lest they should be involved in the com- 
mon ruin. The Athenians attended to this 
advice of iEschines, and by passing over to 
Oropus escaped the impending danger. 

CI. The Persians arriving at Eretria, came 
near Temenos, 8 Chaereas, and iEgilia; making 
themselves masters of these places, they dis- 
embarked the horse, and prepared to attack the 
enemy. The Eretrians did not think proper 
to advance and engage them : the opinion for 
defending the city had prevailed, and their 
whole attention was occupied in preparing for a 
siege. The Persians endeavoured to storm the 
place, and a contest of six days was attended 
with very considerable loss on both sides. On 
the seventh the city was betrayed to the enemy, 
by two of the more eminent citizens, Euphor- 
bus, son of Alcimachus, and Philagrus, son of 
Cyneas. As soon as the Persians got posses- 
sion of the place, they pillaged and burned the 
temples, to avenge the burning of their temples 

(who was put to death by the stratagems of Ulysses), 
made this rock the instrument of his vengeance. He 
placed a light upon it, which in the evening deluded 
their fleet, and caused the shipwreck of numbers of their 
vossels.— See Propertius : 

Nauplius ultores sub noetem porrigit ignes 
Et natat exuviis Griecia pressa suis. 

This however is not quite right, for the context plain- 
ly shows that the revenge of Minerva against Ajax 
Oileus was present to the poet's mind when he wrote 
the epithet ultor j the remark of Heyne is therefore ab- 
Kurd. The following passage from Ovid is as complete a 
comment on tlus of Virgil, as if it had been written on 
purpose : 

Postquam alta cremata est 

Ilion ; et Danaas paverunt Pergama flammas; 
Naryciusque Heros, a virginc, virgine rapta, 
Quam meruit solus panam digessil in omnes : 
Spargimur, et ventis inimica per aequora rapli 
Fulmina, noetem, imbres, iram coelique marisque 
Perpetimur Danai, cumulumque Capharea cladis. 

Met. xiv. 466. 
If the inhabitants of Carystus had retired, says Larcher, 
to this place, they would have had little to apprehend 
from the Persians, whose fleet durst not have attacked 
them amongst rocks so very dangerous. — T. 

1 Betray their country.] — Gorgylus, the only Eretrian 
who had taken part with the Persians, as Xenophon 
affirms, had for his reward the cities of Gambrium, Pa- 
Ijegambrium, Myrina, and Grynia. Gorgyon and Gorgy- 
lus, his descendants, were in possession of them in the 
95th Olympiad, when Thymbron, a Lacedaemonian gene- 
ral, passed into Asia Minor to make war on Persia. — 
Larcher. 

8 Near Temenos."] — The Greek is x«t« Ttune; ; 
if this had signified a temple, it would have been xxra 



at Sardis. The people, according to the orders 
of Darius, were made slaves. 9 

CII. After this victory at Eretria, the Per- 
sians staid a few days, and then sailed to Atti- 
ca, driving all before them, and thinking to 
treat the Athenians as they had done the 
Eretrians. There was a place in Attica call- 
ed Marathon, not far from Eretria, well adapt- 
ed for the motions of cavalry •. to this place 
therefore they were conducted by Hippias, son 
of Pisistratus. 

CIIL As soon as the Athenians heard this, 
they advanced to the same spot, under the con- 
duct of ten leaders, with a view of repelling 
force by force. The last of these was Miltia- 
des. His father Cimon, son of Stesagoras, 
had been formerly driven from Athens by the 
influence of Pisistratus, 10 son of Hippocrates. 
During his exile, he had obtained the prize at 
the Olympic games, in the chariot race of four 
horses. This honour, however, he transferred 11 
to Miltiades his uterine brother. At the Olym- 
pic games which next followed, he was again 
victorious, and with the same mares. This 
honour he suffered to be assigned to Pisistra- 
tus, on condition of his being recalled ; a re- 



ro Ttutvos. See the notes of Wesseling and Valcnacr. 
— T. 

9 Were made slaves.] — The first slaves were doubtless 
those made captive in war. By the injunction of Darius, 
so often repeated in Herodotus, and, as we perceive, so 
strictly enforced, we may understand that the Greeks 
here taken captive were obliged in menial occupations, 
to wait on the persons of their conquerors. Darius in 
general treated his captives with extraordinary lenity ; 
it was only against the Greeks, who had in a particular 
manner provoked his indignation, that we find him thus 
particular in his severity to those taken prisoners. — T. 

10 Pisistratus.] — I have in different places related 
many anecdotes of this Pisistratus; I have one now be- 
fore me in iElian, which ought not to be omitted. If he 
met any person who seemed to be idle, he asked him 
why he was unemployed ? If, he would say, your oxen 
are dead, take mine, and go to your usual business in 
the field ; if you want seed, take some of mine. This he 
did, says iElian, lest the idleness of these people should 
prompt them to raise seditious plots against him. — T. 

11 He tra7isferred.] — This thing we find it was a fre 
quent practice to do. From Pausanias we learn a sin- 
gular fact : that they who obtained the prize at wrest- 
ling, being unable to substitute any person in their room 
were accustomed to take bribes to declare themselves 
natives of places to which they did not belong. The 
same author informs us, that Dionysius the tyrant fre- 
quently sent agents to Olympia, to bribe the conquerors 
to declare themselves natives of Syracuse. It is proper 
to add, that they who were moan enough thus to sa- 
crifice the glory of their country to their avarice, or per 
haps, as it might occasionally happen, their pride, wero 
subject to the punishment of exile from those cities to 
which they did really belong.— T. 



310 



HERODOTUS. 



conciliation ensued, and he was permitted to 
return. Being victorious a third time on the 
same occasion, and with the same mares, he 
was put to death by the sons of Pisistratus, 
Pisistratus himself being then dead. He was 
assassinated in the night, near Prytaneum, by 
some villains sent for the purpose ; he was 
buried in the approach to the city, near the 
hollow way ; and in the same spot were interred 
the mares 1 which had three times obtained the 
prize in the Olympic games. If we except the 
mares of Evagoras of Sparta, none other ever 
obtained a similar honour. At this period, 
Stesagoras, the eldest son of Cimon, resided in 
the Chersonese with his uncle Miltiades ; the 
youngest was brought up at Athens under Ci- 
mon himself, and named Miltiades, from the 
founder of the Chersonese. 

CIV- This Miltiades, the Athenian leader, 
in advancing from the Chersonese, escaped 
from two incidents which alike threatened his 
life : as far as Imbros he was pursued by the 
Phenicians, who were exceedingly desirous to 
take him alive, and present him to the king ; 
on his return home, where he thought himself 
secure, his enemies accused, and brought him 
to a public trial, under pretence of his aiming 
at the sovereignty of the Chersonese ; from 
this also he escaped, and was afterwards chosen 
a general of the Athenians, by the suffrages of 
the people. 

C V. The Athenian leaders, before they left 
the city, despatched Phidippides 2 to Sparta : he 
was an Athenian by birth, and his daily em- 
ployment was to deliver messages. To this Phi- 
dippides, as he himself affirmed, and related to 
the Athenians, the god Pan appeared on mount 
Parthenius, 3 which is beyond Tegea. 4 The 



1 Interred the mares.]— See this fact mentioned by 
JElian in his history of animals, 1. xii. c. 40 : where we 
are also told, that Evagoras, mentioned in the subse- 
quent paragraph, in like manner buried his victorious 
horses. — T. 

2 Phidippides.']— This name is differently written, 
Phidippides and Philippides. 

3 Mount Parthenius.] — This place was so named, quasi 
Virgineus, from the virgins who there offered sacrifice 
to Venus, or enjoyed the exercise of hunting. Pausa- 
nias, in his eighth book, speaks of a temple here erected 
to Pan, " in the very place," says he, " where the god 
appeared to Phidippides, and gave him some important 
advice." — T- 

4 Tegea.] — Tegeeeus was one of the epithets of Pan. 
Si3e Virg. Georg. i. 15. 

Ipse neirnis linquens patrium, sahusque Lycsei, 
Pan o-vium custos, tua si tibi Msenala curse 
Adsis, O Tegeaae favens. 



deity called him by his name, and commanded 
him to ask the Athenians" why they so entirely 
neglected him, 5 who not only wished them well, 
but who had frequently rendered them service, 
and would do so again. All this the Athe- 
nians believed, and as the state of their affairs 
permitted, they erected a temple to Pan near 
the citadel : ever since the above period, they 
venerate the god by annual sacrifices, and the 
race of torches. 7 



5 Neglected him.]— The note of Larcher on this pas- 
sage seems a little remarkable : I therefore give it at 
length : 

" Clemens of Alexandria says, that the Athenians did 
not even know Pan before Phidippides told them of his 
existence. With the respect due to a father of tho 
church, this reasoning does not to me seem just , because 
the Athenians had not yet instituted festivals in honour 
of Pan, it by no means follows that they knew nothing 
of him. The majority of feasts instituted in catholic 
countries, in honour of saints, are greatly posterior to 
the period of their deaths, and take their date, like those 
of Pan amongst the Athenians, from the time when their 
protection and its effects were for the first time expe-. 
rienced." 

If this be not a sneer at the Romish saints, it is cer- 
tainly very like one.— T. 

6 To Para.]— This sacred building to Pan is mentioned 
by Pausanias, 1. i. c. 28. After the battle of Marathon, 
they sung in honour of this deity a hymn, which is given 
by Athenaeus, Deipnosoph. 1. xv. c. 14. But more cor- 
rectly by Brunck, in his Analecta. Brunck, however, 
and Wyttenbach, are both of opinion that this hymn 
alluded to a victory obtained by some poet at the Pana- 
thensea.— See the remainder of Larcher's note on this 
passage. 

7 Race of torches.] — The manner of this race was as 
follows :— A man with a torch in his hand ran from the 
altar of the god, in whose honour the race was cele- 
brated, to some certain spot, without extinguishing, his 
torch ; if the torch went out he gave it to a second, and 
he to a third, if he met with the same accident ; if tho 
third was also unfortunate, the victory was adjudged to 
no one. 

This feast was celebrated in honour of various deities, 
as of Minerva, Vulcan, Prometheus, Pan, .ffisculapius, 
&c. In the Panathensea, or feasts of Minerva, the Lam- 
padophori ran from the Pirseeus; from the Ceramicus 
or academy, in those of Vulcan or Prometheus. There 
was in the academy a statue of Cupid, consecrated by 
Pisistratus, where they lighted the sacred torches in the 
courses instituted in honour of these gods. The same 
honour was rendered to Pan, as we learn from this pas- 
sage in Herodotus, and in the manuscript lexicon of 
Photius. 

To this custom various authors allude, and amongst 
others Lucretius : 

Augescunt alioe gentes, alia? minuuntur, 
Inque brevi spatio mutantur secla animantum, 
Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt. 

I am of opinion that there is an allusion to this custom 

also in an epigram of Alcseus of Messina, preserved in 

Brunck : 

Beauty having a torch in his hand runs swiftly. 

'H hi li^vt \ct^a.V ix ovtrct T § 6 /t e# ' 

Larcher. 



ERATO. 



311 



CVI. Phidippides, who was sent by the | 
Athenian generals, and who related his having 
met with Pan, arrived at Sparta on the second 
day 8 of his departure from Athens. He went 
immediately to the magistrates, and thus ad- 
dressed them : " Men of Lacedaemon, the 
Athenians supplicate your assistance, and en- 
treat you not to suffer the most ancient city of 
Greece to fall into the hands of the Barbarians : 
Eretria is already subdued, and Greece weak- 
ened by the loss of that illustrious place. " After 
the above speech of Phidippides, the Lacedae- 
monians resolved to assist the Athenians; but 
they were prevented from doing this imme- 
diately by the prejudice of an inveterate custom. 
This was the ninth day of the month, and it 
was a practice with them to undertake no enter- 
prise before the moon was at the full ; 9 for this, 
therefore, they waited. 



8 On the second day.]— Larcher, in his observation on 
this passage, corrects a mistake of Pliny the naturalist. 
" It was thought," says Pliny, " a great thing that 
Phidippides ran in two days 1140 stadia, that is to say, 
the distance betwixt Athens and Lacedaemon, till Lanisis 
(Larcher says, I know not on what authority, Anistis) 
and Philonides, who was a courier of Alexander the 
great, ran in one day 1200 stadia, or the distance betwixt 
Sicyon and Elis." " Allowing," says Larcher, " for the 
windings of the road betwixt Sicyon and Elis, the dis- 
tance is no more than 600 stadia of those which are eight 
to a mile, of which stadia there are 1140 betwixt Athens 
and Sparta. If Pliny in this place meant to speak of the 
smaller stadium, he ought to have said so, because just 
above he spoke of the greater stadium, as the passage 
itself proves." 

I may be allowed in this place to correct an error of 
Larcher, who misquotes the above passage from Pliny ; 
he calls Anistis and Philonides couriers d' Alexandre, 
whereas the words of Pliny are " donee Anistis cursor 
Lacedaemonius et Plulonides Alexandri Magni," that is, 
till Anistis a Lacedaemonian courier, and Philonides a 
courier of Alexander, &c. Pliny, it may be added, in the 
same chapter (book vii c. 20.) speaks of people who in 
the circus could run 160 miles a day, and of a boy who 
betwixt noon and evening ran 75 miles. 

9 Moon was at the full.]— I will first give the reader 
what Plutarch, in his Essay on the Malignity of Hero- 
dotus, remarks on this passage, and afterwards the obser- 
vation of Larcher, which seems to me at least a sufficient 
and satisfactory answer to the censure of Plutarch. 

" Herodotus is also evidently convicted of reporting 
falsely of the Lacedaemonians, saying that waiting for 
the full moon they did not assist the Athenians at Mara- 
thon; but they not only made numberless military ex- 
cursions at the beginning of the month, and without 
waiting for the full moon, but they wanted so very little 
of being present at this battle, which took place on the 
sixth day of the month Boedromion, that on their arrival 
they found the dead still lying in the field. Yet Hero- 
dotus has thus written concerning the full moon." Plu- 
tarch then adds the passage before us, after which he 
8ays. " Thou, O Herodotus, transferrest the full moon 
to the beginning of the month, when she is but yet in 



CVI I. In the night before Hippias con- 
ducted the Barbarians to the plains of Mara- 
thon, he saw this vision : he thought that he 
lay with his mother. IU The inference which he 
drew from this was, that he shoidd again return 
to Athens, be restored to his authority, and die 
in his own house of old age : he was then exe - 
cuting the office of a general. The prisoners 
taken in Eretria he removed to iEgilea, an 
island belonging to the Styreans ; the vessels 
which arrived at Marathon, he stationed in the 
port, and drew up the Barbarians in order as 
they disembarked. Whilst he was thus em- 
ployed, he was seized with a fit of sneezing, 11 



her first quarter, and at the same time confoundest the 
heavens, days, and all things." 

" The Lacedaemonians," says Larcher, " did not com- 
mence a inarch before the full moon. This is confirmed 
by the evidence of Pausanias, b. i. c. 28. of Lucian, in liis 
Tract on Astrology, c. 25. who imputes this regulation 
to Lycurgus, and of the author of the Tract on Rivers, 
printed amongst the works of Plutarch ; of Hermogenea 
also, and others. In defiance of these authorities, Plu- 
tarch, not satisfied with denying the fact, asserts, that 
the battle of Marathon took place on the sixth of the 
month Boedromion, and that the Lacedaemonians, 
having arrived a short time after the battle, must con- 
sequently have begun their march before the full moon. 
But is it possible to believe that Plutarch, who lived six 
ages after that battle, should be better informed concern- 
ing its date than Herodotus, who often communicated 
with those who were there in person. Plutarch, who 
always represents Herodotus as a malignant wretch, 
still allows him the praise of ingenuity ; but if he had 
been as dull as any Boeotian, I much doubt whether he 
could have dared to advance a falsehood like this, con- 
cerning a matter so very recent, and of wliich there were 
still so many evidences, when he recited his history at 
the Olympic games." 

10 Lay with his mother.]— This was considered as a 
fortunate dream, for in a case like this a man's mother 
intimated his country. Caesar had a similar dream, at 
wliich, although, as Larcher observes, he affected to dis- 
believe the immortality of the soul, he was rendered un- 
easy ; but the interpreters of dreams, easily as we may 
suppose, revived his spirits, by assuring him that he 
should one day become the master of the world. 

11 Sneezing.]— The act of sneezing was considered as 
an auspicious omen, at least we find Penelope in the 
Odyssey welcoming it as such from Telemachus : 

She spoke — Telemachus then sneez'd aloud ; 
Constrain'd, his nostrils echoed through the crowd ; 
The smiling queen the happy omen bless'd ; 
So may these impious fall by fate oppressed. 

Pliny says, that sneezing in the morning was unlucky, 
sneezing at noon fortunate ; to sneeze to the right was 
lucky, to the left, and near a place of burial, the reverse. 
The Latins, when any one sneezed, "salvere jusserunt," 
or as we should say, cried, " save you ;" which custom 
remains to the present period, but for wliich antiquar- 
ians account very differently ; but it is generally believed 
to have arisen from some disease, with which those who 
were infected inevitably died. Aristotle's account seems 
as satisfactory as any other why it should be deemed 



312 



HERODOTUS. 



attended with a very unusual cough. _ The agi- j 
tation into which he was thrown, being an old 
man, was so violent, that as his teeth were 
loose, one of them dropped out of his mouth 
upon the sand. Much pains were taken to find 
it, but in vain ; upon which Hippias remarked 
with a sigh to those around him : " This coun- 
try is not ours, nor shall we ever become mas- 
ters of it — my lost tooth possesses all that be- 
longs to me." 

CVIIL Hippias conceived that he saw in 
the above incident the accomplishment of his 
vision. In the mean time the Athenians, 
drawing themselves up in military order near 
the temple of Hercules, were joined by the 
whole force of the Plateans. The Athenians 
had formerly submitted to many difficulties on 
account of the Plateans, who now, to return 
the obligation, gave themselves up to their di- 
rection. The occasion was this : the Plateans 
being oppressed by the Thebans, solicited the 
protection of Cleomenes the son of Anaxan- 
drides, and of such Lacedaemonians as were at 
hand : they disclaimed, however, any interfer- 
ence, for which they assigned this reason, 
" From us," said they, " situated at so great a 
distance, you can expect but little assistance ; for 
before we can even receive intelligence of your 
danger, you may be effectually reduced to ser- 
vitude ; we would rather recommend you to ap- 
ply to the Athenians, who are not only. near, 
but able to protect you. " The Lacedaemonians, 
in saying this, did not so much consider 1 the 
interest of the Plateans, as they were desirous 
of seeing the Athenians harassed by a Boeotian 
war. The advice was nevertheless accepted, 
and the Plateans going to Athens, first offered 
a solemn sacrifice to the twelve divinities, and 



auspicious : " It is," says he, "amotion of the brain, 
which through the nostrils expels what is offensive, and 
in some degree demonstrates internal strength." He 
adds, " that medical people, if they were able to provoke 
the act of sneezing from their patients, who might be 
thought dangerously indisposed, conceived hopes of 
their recovery." — T. 

1 Did not so much consider.] — Plutarch, in his tract on 
the Malignity of Herodotus, speaks thus of this passage : 
" Herodotus representing this fact adds, not as a matter 
of suspicion or opinion, but as a certainty well known to 
Mm, that the Lacedaemonians gave this counsel to the 
Plateans, not from any regard or good will to them, but 
from the wish to involve the Athenians in trouble, by 
engaging them with the Boeotians. If then Herodotus 
be not malignant, the Lacedaemonians must have been 
both fraudful and malevolent : the Athenians must also 
have been fools, in permitting themselves thus to be im- 
posed upon, and the Plateans were introduced not from 
any respect, but merely as an occasion of war. "—7'. 



then sitting near the altar, in the attitude of 
supplicants, they placed themselves formally 
under the protection of the Athenians. Upon 
this the Thebans led an army against Platea, to 
defend which the Athenians appeared with a 
body of forces. As the two armies were about 
to engage, the Corinthians interfered ; their en- 
deavours to reconcile them so far prevailed, 
that it was agreed, on the part of both nations, 
to suffer such of the people of Boeotia as did 
not choose to be ranked as Boeotians, to follow 
their own inclinations. Having effected this, 
the Corinthians retired, and their example was 
followed by the Athenians ; these latter were 
on their return attacked by the Boeotians, whom 
they defeated. Passing over the boundaries, 
which the Corinthians had marked out, they 
determined that Asopus and Hysias should be 
the future limits between the Thebans and 
Plateans. The Plateans having thus given 
themselves up to the Athenians, came to their 
assistance at Marathon. 

CIX. The Athenian leaders were greatly 
divided in opinion ; some thought that a battle 
was by no means to be hazarded, as they were 
so inferior to the Medes in point of number ; 
others, amongst whom was Miltiades, were 
anxious to engage the enemy. Of these con- 
tradictory sentiments, the less politic appeared 
likely to prevail, when Miltiades addressed 
himself to the Polemarch, 8 whose name was 
Callimachus of Aphidnae. This magistrate, 
elected into his office by vote, has the privilege 
of a casting voice ; and, according to established 
custom, is equal in point of dignity and influ- 
ence to the military leaders. Miltiades addressed 
him thus : " Upon you, O Callimachus, it 
alone depends, whether Athens shall be en- 
slaved, or whether in the preservation of its 
liberties, it shall perpetuate your name even 
beyond the glory of Harmodius and Aristo- 
giton. Our country is now reduced to a more 
delicate and dangerous predicament than it has 
ever before experienced ; if conquered, we know 
our fate, and must prepare for the tyranny of 
Hippias ; if we overcome, our city may be made 

2 Polemarch.]— The Polemarch was the third of the 
nine archons : it was his business to offer sacrifice to 
Diana, surnamed Agrotera, and to Mars; he had the 
care and protection of all strangers and foreigners who 
resided at Athens, over whom he had the same autho- 
rity as the archon had over the citizens ; he regulated 
the funeral games celebrated in honour of those who 
died in war : he was also to see that the children of those 
who lost their lives in the public service had a sufficient 
maintenance from the public treasury. — T. 



ERATO. 



313 



the first in Greece. How this may be accom- 
plished, and in what manner it depends on you, 
I will explain : the sentiments of our ten lead- 
ers are divided, some are desirous of an engage- 
ment, others the contrary. If we do not engage, 
some seditious tumult will probably arise, which 
may prompt many of our citizens to favour the 
cause of the Medes ; if we come to a battle 
before any evil of this kind take place, we may, 
if the gods be not against us, reasonably hope 
for victory : all these things are submitted to 
your attention, and are suspended on your 
will — If you accede to my opinion, our country 
will be free, our city the first in Greece ; if 
you shall favour the opinions of those who are 
averse to an engagement, you may expect the 
contrary of all the good I have enumerated." 

CX. These arguments of Miltiades pro- 
duced the desired effect upon Callimachus, from 
whose interposition it was determined to fight. 
Those leaders, 3 who from the first had been 
solicitous to engage the enemy, resigned to 
Miltiades the days of their respective command. 
This he accepted, but did not think proper to 
commence the attack, till the day of his own 
particular command arrived in its course. 

CXI. When this arrived, the Athenians were 
drawn up for battle in the following order: 
Callimachus, as polemarch, commanded the 
right wing, in conformity with the established 
custom of the Athenians ; next followed the 
tribes, ranged in close order according to their 
respective ranks ; the Plateans, placed in the 
rear, formed the left wing. Ever since this 
battle, in those solemn and public sacrifices, 
which are celebrated every fifth year, the herald 
implores happiness for the Plateans jointly with 
the Athenians. Thus the Athenians produced 
a front equal in extent to that of the Medes. 
The ranks in the centre were not very deep, 
which of course constituted their weakest part ; 
but the two wings were more numerous and 
strong. 

CXII. The preparations for the attack being 
thus made, and the appearance of the victims 
favourable, the Athenians ran towards the Bar- 
barians. There was betwixt the two armies 



3 Those leaders.'} — Of the ten Athenian generals, it 
was customary to elect one from each tribe, upon which 
occasion a memorable saying- of Philip of Macedon is pre- 
served by Plutarch in his apophthegms. — " I envy," say 
Philip, " the good fortune of the Athenians ; they every 
year can find ten men qualified to command their troops, 
whilst I on my part am only able to find Parmenio, who 
is capable of conducting mine."— T. 



an interval of about eight furlongs. The Per- 
sians seeing them approach by running, prepared 
to receive them, and as they observed the Athe- 
nians to be few in number, destitute both of 
cavalry and archers, they considered them as 
mad, and rushing on certain destruction ; but 
as soon as the Greeks mingled with the enemy, 
they behaved with the greatest gallantry. 4 They 
were the first Greeks that I know of, who ran 
to attack an enemy ; 5 they were the first also, 
who beheld without dismay the dress and armour 
of the Medes ; for hitherto in Greece the very 
name of a Mede excited terror. 

CXIII. After a long and obstinate contest, 
the Barbarians in the centre, composed of the 
Persians and Sacae, obliged the Greeks to give 
way, and pursued the flying foe into the mid- 
dle of the country. At the same time the 
Athenians and Plateans, in the two wings, 
drove the Barbarians before them ; then mak- 
ing an inclination towards each other, by con- 
tracting themselves, they formed against that 
part of the enemy which had penetrated and 
defeated the Grecian centre, and obtained a 
complete victory, 6 killing a prodigious number, 
and pursuing the rest to the sea, where they 
set fire to their vessels. 

CXIV. Callimachus the polemarch, after 

4 Greatest gallantry.] — Xenophon says that the Athe- 
nians made a vow to sacrifice to Diana as many goats as 
they should kill enemies, and being unable to procure a 
sufficient number, they determined every year to sacri- 
fice five hundred. iElian, with some slight variation, 
relates the same fact. We read in the Scholiast on Aris- 
tophanes, that Callimachus the polemarch vowed to 
sacrifice as many oxen as they should slay enemies, and 
unable to obtain a sufficient number, he substituted 
goats in their room. — Plutarch reproaches Herodotus 
for saying nothing of this vow. — Larcher. 

5 Ran to attack a?i enemy.]— According to Pausanias, 
long before this period, the Messenians ran to attack the 
Lacedaemonians, " but this author," says Larcher, " is 
too modern to oppose to Herodotus." It was certainly 
afterwards the common custom of the Greeks thus to 
meet the enemy. Caesar practised this mode of attack 
against Pompey, and with success. 

6 A complete victory."]—" It is surprising," says Lar- 
cher, " that in his account of this battle, Herodotus 
makes no mention of Aristides ; his silence is amply 
supplied by Plutarch. Aristides was one of those who 
advised an engagement, and when the day of his parti- 
cular command arrived, gave up his right to Miltiades, 
and the other generals followed his examples. Themis- 
tocles and Aristides, were the two commanders, who, 
at the head of their different tribes, drove the Persians 
to their ships. — Aristides was left on the field to guard 
the prisoners and booty ; the confidence placed in him 
by his country was not disappointed ; the gold and silver 
which was scattered about, the tents and vessels which 
were taken full of splendid and valuable effects, he nei- 
ther touched himself, nor would permit others to do so. 

2 R 



314 



HERODOTUS. 



the most signal acts of valour, lost his life in this 
battle. Stesileus also, the son of Thrasylus, 
and one of the Grecian leaders, was slain. 
Cynsegirus, 1 son of Euphorion, after seizing 
one of the vessels by the poop, had his hand 
cut off with an axe, and died of his wounds : 
with these, many other eminent Athenians 
perished. 

CXV. In addition to their victory, the 
Athenians obtained possession of seven of the 
enemy's vessels. The Barbarians retired with 
their fleet, and taking on board the Eretrian 
plunder, which they had left in the island, they 
passed the promontory of Sunium, thinking to 
eircumvent the Athenians, and arrive at their 
city before them. The Athenians impute the 
prosecution of this measure to one of the Alc- 
mseonidae, who they say held up a shield 2 as a 



1 Cyncegirus.~\ — He was the brother of JEschylus, the 
celebrated tragic poet ; he distinguished himself at the 
battle of Marathon ; but it does not appear that he had 
any separate command. A remarkable incident is re- 
lated by Lucan of a man, who, seizing the beak of liis 
enemy's ship, had Ms hand cut off; undismayed by which 
he seized it with the other, of which also he was de- 
prived. 

He, the bold youth, as board and board they stand, 
Fix'd on a Roman ship his daring hand; 
Full on his arm a mighty blow descends, 
And the torn limb from off his shoulder rends; 
The rigid nerves are cramp'd with stiffening cold, 
Convulsive grasp, and still retain their hold; 
Nor sunk his valour, by the pain depress'd, 
But nobler rage inflamed his mangled breast : 
His left remaining hand the combat tries, 
And fiercely forth to catch the right he flies; 
The same hard destiny the left demands, 
And now a naked helpless trunk he stands, &c— T. 

2 Held up a sliield.~\ — "For my part," says Reiske, 
" I by no means clearly understand this passage ; to 
whom did the Alcmseonidae show the shield, to the Per- 
sians or Athenians ? Certainly not to the last, for the 
Athenians were then in their camp : to the Persians 
then ; — but why to these ? To hold up a sliield is, ac- 
cording to Diodorus Siculus, ii. 444, a signal for battle ; 
but why should the Alcmseonidae hold up a shield to 
the Persians, who were on board their vessels, as a 
signal to engage a body of land forces ?" 

The above reasoning of Reiske seems far from satis- 
factory. If any previous agreement existed betwixt 
the Alcinaeonidse and the Persians, the holding up of the 
shield might intimate what could only be known to the 
persons concerned ; and so far from being a signal of 
battle, might suggest entirely the reverse, and tell them 
that this was no proper time to hazard an attack. The 
art of signal making is now T brought to an extraordinary 
degree of perfection, and at sea in particular, orders of 
the minutest kind are communicated, and distinctly un- 
derstood, by the simplest process imaginable, hoisting or 
lowering colours, sails, &c. The more common signal, 
as being the more obvious in ancient times, was by fire. 
In JEschylus, Agamemnon tells Clytemnestra that he 
will inform her of the capture of Troy by lighting fires ; 
this is represented as being done, and a messenger comes 



signal to the Persians, when they were under 
sail. 

CXVI. While they were doubling the cape 
of Sunium, the Athenians lost no time in has- 
tening to the defence of their city, and effec- 
tually prevented the designs of the enemy. 
Retiring from the temple of Herculus, on the 
plains of Marathon, they fixed their camp near 
another temple of the same deity, in Cynosar- 
gis. The Barbarians anchoring off Phalerum, 
the Athenian harbour, remained there some 
time, and then retired to Asia. 

CXVII. The Persians lost 3 in the battle of 
Marathon six thousand four hundred men, the 
Athenians one hundred and ninety-two. In 
the heat of the engagement a most remarkable 
incident occurred : an Athenian, the son of 
Cuphagoras, whose name was Epizelus, whilst 
valiantly fighting, was suddenly struck with 
blindness. He had received no wound, nor any 
kind of injury, notwithstanding which he con- 
tinued blind for the remainder of his life. I 
have been informed that Epizelus, in relating 
this calamity, always declared, that during the 
battle he was opposed by a man of gigantic 
stature, completely armed, whose beard covered 
the whole of his shield : he added, that the 
spectre, passing him, killed the man who stood 
next him. This, as I have heard, was the nar- 
rative of Epizelus. 4 

C XVIII. Datis, on his return with the fleet 
to Asia, being at Mycone, saw in the night a 
vision, the particulars of it are not related, but 
as soon as the morning appeared he examined 
every vessel of the fleet ; finding a golden image 
of Apollo, on board a Phenician ship, he in- 
quired from whence it had been taken : having 
learned to what temple it belonged, he took it 

to inform the queen that Troy is taken, for Agamem - 
non's signals had been seen. — T. 

3 The Persians lost.2 — Plutarch remarks on this pas- 
sage, that Herodotus derogates from the honour of the 
victory, by misrepresenting and diminishing the number 
of the slain. Some have affirmed (see Suidas, at the 
word xowX-/)) that the Persians lost two hundred thou- 
sand men; but the account of Herodotus certainly ap- 
pears the more probable. 

The battle of Marathon, according to Pausanias, was 
represented in the portico at Athens called Poecile, from 
the variety of paintings on its walls. In this picture the 
most celebrated Athenian and Platean heroes were drawn 
from the life : in one part the Barbarians are flying into 
the marsh, and in the other the Greeks are slaughtering 
the enemy as they are entering the Phenician vessels. 

4 Narrative of Epizelus.]— Flutarch, in his Life of The- 
seus, says, that numbers of those who fought at the battle 
of Marathon believed that they^ saw at the head of their 
ranks Theseus in arms, attacking the Persians.— T. 



ERATO. 



315 



himself in his own ship to Delos. The De- 
lians being returned to their island, he first 
deposited the image in the temple, and then 
enjoined the inhabitants to remove it to the 
Theban Delium, which is on the sea-coast oppo- 
site to Chalcis. Having done this, Datis re- 
turned; the Delians paid no attention to his 
request, but in the twentieth year after the above 
event the Thebans removed the image to 
Delium, by the command of an oracle. 

CXIX. Datis and Artaphernes, sailing to 
Asia, carried the captive Eretrians 5 to Susa. 
Darius, before their defeat, had expressed the 
severest indignation against them, as having 
first and unjustly commenced hostilities: but 
when they were conducted to his presence, effec- 
tually humbled and reduced to his power, he 
showed no farther resentment, but appointed 
them a residence at. a place called Ardericca, 
in the district of Cissia, one of the royal sta- 
tions. This is distant from Susa two hundred 
and ten furlongs, and forty from a well which 
produces the three substances of bitumen, salt, 
and oil ; it is drawn up with an engine, to which 
a kind of bucket is suspended made of half a 
skin ; it is then poured into one cistern, and 
afterwards removed into a second. The sub- 
stances by this process separate ; the bitumen 
and the salt form themselves into distinct 
masses. The Persians collect the oil, which 
they call rhadinace, into vessels ; this last is of 
a dark colour, and has a strong smell. In this 
place Darius placed the Eretrians, and here to 
my memory they have remained, preserving 
their ancient language. 

CXX. After the moon had passed the full, 

5 Captive Eretrians.] — Larcher tells us from Philo- 
stratus, that the Persians took 780 prisoners at Eretria, 
but that a great many escaped among the rocks of 
Euboea, and that only 400 were carried to Susa, among 
whom were ten women. 

6 Had passed the full.'] — Mankind in all ages, from 
observing the visible operations of the moon upon the 
ocean, have supposed its influence to extend not only to 
human affairs, but to the state of the human body. The 
justly celebrated Dr Mead wrote a treatise, entitled De 
imperio Solis etLunse in Corpore Humano; but all those 
prej udices and this superstition are now exploded, by the 
more satisfactory deductions of a sound philosophy. It 
has been reasonably urged, that as the most accurate 
and subtle barometers are not at all affected by the vari- 
ous positions of the moon, it is very unlikely that the 
human body should be within the sphere of its influence. 
Some travellers have remarked, that in the countries of 
the east it is customary to prefer the time of the new 
moon to begin a journey ; from this peculiarity Mr Ilar- 
mer takes occasion to comment on Proverbs vii. 19, 20, 
and 1 Samuel xx. 24, 25, which passage he explains by 



a body of two thousand Lacedaemonians arrived 
at Athens ; such was their expedition, that they 
reached Attica in three days from their leaving 
Sparta. They did not arrive till after the battle, 
but so great was their desire of beholding the 
Medes, that to gratify their curiosity they pro- 
ceeded to Marathon ; they then returned, after 
congratulating the Athenians on their prowess 
and victory. 

CXXI. I am equally astonished at having 
heard, and reluctant to believe, that the 
Alcmeeonidee held up a shield by way of signal 
to the Persians, wishing to subject the Athe- 
nians to the power of the Barbarians and Hip- 
pias. No man, in his hatred against all tyrants, 
could possibly exceed, or even equal, Callias 
the son of Phsenippus, and father of Hipponi- 
cus. Callias 7 was ever distinguished by his im- 
placable animosity against Pisistratus ; and 
when the tyrant was expelled, and his effects 
sold by public auction, he was the only man who 
dared to become a purchaser. 

CXXII. The above personage deserves to 
be remembered, not only for what we have 
already mentioned, proving him a man extreme- 
ly zealous for the liberties of his country, but 
for the honours he obtained 8 at the Olympic 
games. He obtained the first prize in the 
horse-race, the second in that of the chariots 
drawn by four horses : at the Pythian games he 
was also victorious, upon which occasion he 
treated the Greeks with great magnificence." 



referring them to some similar prejudice amongst the 
ancient Jews : 

Proverbs vii. 19, 20. The good man is not at home, he 
is gone a long journey : he hath taken a bag of money 
in his hand, and will come home at the appointed time. 
" The appointed time," says M. Harmer, " may properly 
be rendered the new moon." 

1 Sammd xx. 24. "So David hid himself in the field, 
and when the new moon was come, the king sat him 
down to eat meat." — T. 

7 Callias.]— A whimsical story is told of this Callias, 
in Plutarch's Life of Aristides; he was a man of mean 
rank, but happening to be at the battle of Marathon, was 
taken by a barbarian for a king, on account of his long 
hair, and a bandage which he wore round his forehead. 
The Persian fell at his feet, and discovered to him a pro- 
digious quantity of gold in a ditch : Callias slew him, and 
took the money. But how does this accord with what 
is elsewhere written of Aristides, that he remained on 
the field, and prevented the plunder being taken by any 
private hands ? — T. 

8 Honours he obtained.]— The whole of this passage 
is wanting in many manuscripts : Valcnaer seems to 
think it has no business here ; and Larcher thinks it was 
inserted by some sophist, who wished to pay his court 
to Hipponicus, son of this Callias. — T. 

9 With great magnificence.] — I presume it was cus- 



316 



HERODOTUS. 



His liberality also to his three daughters was 
equally conspicuous : as soon as they were of 
age to marry, he assigned them a noble portion, 
and suffered each to choose her husband from 
among all the Athenians. 

CXXIII. But all the Alcmaeonidae, as well 
as Callias, were remarkable for their enmity to 
tyrants ; I am therefore the more astonished to 
hear, and unwilling to believe, the circumstance 
imputed to them, of holding up a shield as a 
signal to the Persians. While a system of 
tyranny prevailed in their country, they lived in 
voluntary exile ; and it was by their contrivance 
that the Pisistratidae resigned their power : for 
these reasons they seem to me to have more 
assisted the cause of freedom, than either Har- 
modius or Aristogiton. These latter, by de- 
stroying Hipparchus, so far from repressing the 
ambitious designs of the other Pisistratidae, 
only inflamed them the more. The Alcmseo- 
nidse were avowedly the deliverers of Athens, 
if indeed it was at their suggestion that the 
Pythian, as I have before described, enjoined 
the Lacedaemonians to restore its freedom. 

CXXIV. It may be asked, whether they 
were induced to betray their country from any 
resentment against the people of Athens ; but 
no individuals were more illustrious at Athens, 
or held in more general estimation. The story, 
therefore, of the shield, imputed to this motive, 
contradicts probability : that a shield was held 
up cannot be disputed, but by whom I can by 
no means farther determine. 

CXXV. The Alcmaeonidae were always 
amongst the most distinguished characters of 
Athens ; but Alcmaeon himself, and Megacles, 
his immediate descendant, were more particu- 
larly illustrious. Alcmaeon, son of Megacles, 
received with great kindness, and obliged by 
many services, those Lydians whom Croesus 
sent from Sardis to consult the oracle at 
Delphi. On their return, they did not omit 
to acquaint Croesus with his benevolence ; he 
instantly sent for him to Sardis, and presented 
him with as much gold as he was able to carry. 
To improve the value of this gift, Alcmaeon 
made use of the following artifice : — Providing 



tomary to do this in proportion to the rank and affluence 
of the victor. I find in Athenaeus, book i. chap. 3. 
several examples to this effect. — Alcibiades, in conse- 
quence of being- victorious at the Olympic games, offered 
a sacrifice to the Olympian Jupiter, and gave an enter- 
tainment to all the assembly of Olympia. Ion of Chios, 
having obtained the prize for his tragedy, gave to every 
Athenian a flask of Chian wine.— T. 



himself with a large tunic, in which were many 
folds, and with the most capacious buskins he 
could procure, he followed his guide to the 
royal treasury ; there rolling himself among the 
golden ingots, he first stuffed his buskins as 
full of gold as possibly he could, he then filled 
all the folds of his robes, his hair, and even 
his mouth, with gold dust. This done, with 
extreme difficulty he staggered from the place, 
from his swelling mouth, and projections all 
around him, resembling any thing rather than a 
man. When Croesus saw him, he burst into 
laughter, and not only suffered him to carry 
away all that he had got, but added other pre- 
sents equally valuable. The family from this 
circumstance became exceedingly affluent, and 
Alcmaeon was thus enabled to procure and 
maintain those horses which obtained him the 
victory at the Olympic games. 

CXXVI. In the age which next succeeded, 
Clisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon, raised this family 
even beyond its former importance. This 
Clisthenes, who was the son of Aristonymus, 
grandson of Mynon, and great-grandson of 
Andros, had a daughter named Agarista : his 
determination was to marry her to the most 
distinguished man in Greece. During the cele- 
bration of the Olympic games at which Clis- 
thenes was victorious in the contest of the 
chariots drawn by four horses, he ordered this 
proclamation to be made by a herald — that who- 
ever thought himself worthy of becoming the 
son-in-law of Clisthenes was desired to appear 
at Sicyon within sixty days ; for in the course 
of a year, reckoning from that period, Clis- 
thenes intended to give his daughter in marriage. 
All those therefore who were either proud of 
their own merit, or of their country, appeared 
as candidates : and Clisthenes prepared for the 
occasion a palaestra, 1 and other proper places 
of exercise. 



1 A palcestra.] — Not unlike to this conduct of Clis- 
thenes, were the solemnities, described in books of an- 
cient romance and chivalry, as preceding the nuptials of 
a king's daughter. The knight who was victorious at 
tilts and tournaments generally captivated the affections 
of the lady, and obtained the consent of the father. 
Bishop Hard, in his Letters on Chivalry and Romance, 
traces the origin of jousts and tournaments no farther 
than the feudal constitution of the middle ages ; perhaps, 
without great impropriety, he might have found the 
seeds of their existence in the public games of Greece. 
To these we may certainly look for the contests, whether 
of gladiators or beasts, exhibited in the amphitheatres of 
ancient Rome ; from which basis, through various modi- 
fications, the spirit of Gothic chivalry might possibly be 
derived. — T. 



ERATO. 



317 



CXXVII. From Italy came Smindyrides, 8 
son of Hippocrates, a native of Sybaris, and a 
man eminent for his refined luxury; Sybaris 
was at that time an affluent and powerful city. 
On the same occasion Damas of Siris appeared, 
he was the son of Samyris, surnamed the Wise. 
Amphimnestus the Epidamnian, son of Epis- 
trophus, came from the Ionian Gulf. Amongst 
others also was Males the iEtolian, brother of 
that Titormus 3 who surpassed the rest of his 
countrymen in bodily prowess, but who had 
retired from society to the remote parts of 
iEtolia. Leocedes, son of Phidon, prince of 
the Argives, came from the Peloponnese : this 
man first instituted the instruments of measur- 
ing 4 in the Peloponnese, and was the most in- 
solent of all his cotemporaries. He removed 
the Agonothetae 5 from Elis, which office he 
himself afterwards executed at Olympia. Ami- 
antus the Arcadian, son of Lycurgus, came 
from Trapezus : there was also Laphenes the 
Azenian, of the city of Paeos, and son of that 
Euphorion who, as is reported in Arcadia, en- 
tertained at his house Castor and Pollux, and 
was afterwards remarkable for his universal 
hospitality. Onomastus of Elis, the son of 
Agaeus, was also of the number. Amongst 
the Athenians were Megacles, son of that Alc- 

2 Smindyrides.]— The effeminate softness of this man 
is twice mentioned by JElian in his Various History. See 
book ix. c. 24. He complained, after sleeping upon 
ro3es, that he had got tumours in his body from the hard- 
ness of his bed. Seneca, in his Treatise de Ira, had evi- 
dently in his eye the above passage of jElian ; but he says 
that Smindyrides complained of the roses being doubled 
under him — foliis rosse duplicatis. The words of iElian 
are pka»Ttutats is, ms ivtr,? ix c -<v ; now $?.vxTeuvui cer- 
tainly mean tumours occasioned from extreme exercise 
or fatigue. 

The other passage in iElian, is book xii. c. 24 ; from 
which we l"arn, that when he paid his addresses to the 
daughter of Clisthenes, he carried with him a thousand 
cooks, a thousand fowlers, and a thousand fishermen. — 
T. 

3 Titormus.'}— This man, as we learn from Athenasus, 
one day disputed with Milo of Crotona, which could 
soonest devour a whole ox. Of this last, incredible as it 
may seem, it is related that he carried a young bull of four 
years old upon his shoulders to some distance; after 
which he killed it, divided it into portions, and eat the 
whole of it by himself, in the space of a day.— Larcher. 

4 Instruments of measuring } — On this subject the 
following passage occurs in Pliny. Mensuras etpondera 
Phidon Argivus invenit, vel Palamedes ut malluit Gel- 
liua. — The first introduction of weights and measures 
into Greece is imputed by some to Pythagoras. See 
Diog. Laert. in Pythag. D'Anville is of opinion that 
the measures here mentioned were not those of distance. 
— Larcher. 

5 Agouatheta-.}— These were the judges and arbiters 
of the public games. 



maeon who wont to Croesus ; and Hippoclides, 
son of Tisander, who was eminent among his 
countrymen, both for his affluence and his per- 
sonal accomplishments. The only Euboean 
was Lysanias, who came from Eretria, which 
was at that time in considerable repute. Of 
the Scopadae of Thessaly, was present Diacto- 
rides the Cranonian, and Alcon from among 
the Molossians. — These were the suitors. 

CXXVIII. On their appearance at the day 
appointed, Clisthenes first inquired of each, his 
country and his family. He then detained them 
all for the space of a year, examining their com- 
parative strength, sensibility, learning, and 
manners : for this purpose he sometimes con- 
versed with them individually, sometimes col- 
lectively. The youngest he often engaged in 
public exercises ; but his great trial of them all 
was at public entertainments. As long as they 
were with him they were treated with the ut- 
most magnificence and liberality ; but to the 
Athenians he showed a particular preference. 
Of these Hippoclides, the son of Tisander, was 
the first in his regard, both on account of his 
own personal prowess, as well as because his an- 
cestors were related to the Cypselidae 6 of Corinth. 

CXXIX. When the day arrived which was 
to decide the choice of Clisthenes, and the 
solemnization of the nuptials, a hundred oxen 7 
were sacrificed, and the suitors, with all the 
Sicyonians, invited to the feast. After sup- 
per, the suitors engaged in a dispute about 
music, and in other general subjects. Whilst 
they were drinking, 8 Hippoclides, who made 
himself remarkably conspicuous, directed one 
of the musicians to play a tune called " Em-. 
melia :" 9 his request being obeyed, he began to 



6 Cypselidce.} — See an account of the founder of this 
family, in the fifth book, chapter 92. 

7 Hundred oxen.} — The origin of hecatombs, accord- 
ing to Strabo, was this : there were a hundred cities 
in Laconia, each of which every year sacrificed an ox. 
The etymology of hecatomb is from ix.a.Top.fiir,, a solemn 
sacrifice ; or rather from ixa.ro;, a hundred, and /Beu;, an 
ox. By a hecatomb in general, we understand the sacrifice 
of a hundred beasts of the same kind, upon a hundred 
altars, by a hundred different priests.— T. 

8 Whilst they were drinking.} — In Greece, says Lar- 
cher, they did not drink till after they had done eating. 
This is exemplified from a passage of Xenophon, where, 
when somebody at the table of Seuthes desires Aristus 
to drink ; he replies, " that he has not yet done eating, 
but that he might ask Xenophon to drink, who had 
dined." 

9 Emmelia.}— It has been generally understood of the 
dance called Emmelia, that it was of a peculiar gravity 
and stateliness, suited to the dignity of tragedy: but I 
think with Larcher, from the passage before us, (hat 



318 



HERODOTUS. 



dance with much satisfaction to himself, though, 
as it should seem, to the great disgust of Clis- 
thenes, who attentively observed him. After 
a short pause, Hippoclides commanded a table 
to be brought ; upon this he first of all danced 
according to the Lacedeemonian, and then in 
the Athenian manner : at length he stood upon 
his head, using his legs as if they had been his 
hands. The two former actions of Hippo- 
elides Clisthenes observed with great command 
of temper; he determined not to choose him 
as his son-in-law, being much offended with 
his want of delicacy and decorum ; but when 
he saw him dancing with his feet in the air, he 
could contain himself no longer, but exclaimed, 
" Son of Tisander, you have danced away your 
wife." — " Hippoclides cares not," was the 
abrupt reply. This afterwards became a pro- 
verb. 1 

CXXX. After this Clisthenes, demanding 
silence, thus addressed the assembly: " Ye, 
who have come hither as suitors to my daugh- 
ter, are all entitled to my praise, and if it were 
in my power I would gratify you all, not dis- 
tinguishing one in preference to the rest ; but 
this is impossible, for as there is only one vir- 
gin, the wishes of you all cannot be satisfied : 
to each of you therefore, who must depart 
hence disappointed of your object, in acknow- 
ledgment of your condescension in desiring to 
marry a daughter of mine, I present a talent 
of silver ; but I give my daughter Agarista to 
Megacies the son of Alcmaeon, to be his wife 
according to the Athenian laws." Megacies 
accepted the honour, and the marriage was so- 
lemnized. 



there must have been different kinds of dances under 
this name ; for it seems not at all likely that Clisthenes 
should quarrel with his son-in-law elect for exercising 
himself in a solemn and dignified dance. Of this dance 
also we are told that Plato approved, along with the 
Pyrrhic or military dances, which he certainly would 
not have done, if it had been of the immodest kind which 
is here reprobated. It may also without impropriety be 
observed, that the Athenians deemed those impolite who 
refused to exercise themselves in dancing, when the pro- 
per opportunity occurred ; and what time could be more 
suitable than a nuptial feast ? The act of dancing would 
naturally seem to indicate joy, but it constituted a part 
of the funeral ceremonies of the ancients. I have some- 
where read of a tribe of Indians, amongst whom danc- 
ing was practised as a testimony of sorrow.— T. 

1 Became a proverb. ]— Lucian uses this as a proverbial 
expression, in his Apolog. pro Merced. Arduct. ov tp^ovri 
'IvxozXuty, « Hippoclides cares not." We have one in 
this country, among the common people, nearly the 
same—" Who cares ?" The expression nXt-yov poi fjt.au 
occurs frequently in the Vespis of Aristophanes, proba- 
bly in allusion to this place of Herodotus. 



CXXXI. Such was the decision made with 
respect to these suitors, and in this manner the 
Alcmseonidae became illustrious in Greece. 
The first offspring of this marriage was called 
Clisthenes, after his maternal grandfather, the 
prince of Sicyon. He it was who divided the 
Athenians into tribes, and introduced a democ- 
racy. The name of the second son was Hip- 
pocrates, to whom afterwards was born a son 
named Megacies, and a daughter called Aga- 
rista, after the daughter of Clisthenes : she was 
married to Xanthippus, the son of Ariphron. 
During her pregnancy, she dreamt that she 
brought forth a lion, and was very soon after- 
wards delivered of Pericles. 

CXXXII. Miltiades was always very popu- 
lar at Athens ; but after the signal defeat of 
the Persians at Marathon, his reputation still 
more increased. He demanded of his Country- 
men a fleet of seventy ships, with a supply of 
money and of men : he did not specify to what 
place he intended to conduct them, he only 
promised that he would lead them to affluence, 
and to a country from whence they should 
bring abundance of gold. The Athenians be- 
lieved and obeyed him. 

CXXXIII. Receiving the reinforcement 
he had solicited, Miltiades sailed to Paros. 
His pretended object was to punish the Pa- 
rians, for taking an active part in favour of the 
Persians, at the battle of Marathon. This 
however was assumed ; his resentment against 
the Parians arose from Lysagoras, the son of 
Tysias, a native of Paros, who had prejudiced 
Hydarnes the Persian against him. On his 
arrival before the place, Miltiades commenced 
a vigorous siege, sending at the same time a 
herald to the Parians, to demand a hundred 
talents; and declaring, that if they did not 
grant it, he would not leave the place till he 
had destroyed it. The Parians never thought 
for a moment of complying with his demand, 
but attended vigilantly to the defence of their 
city, strengthening those parts which were 
weak, and rendering, under advantage of the 
night, their wall twice as strong as it was be- 
fore. 

C XXXIV. Thus far all the Greeks cor- 
respond in their account : what ensued is thus 
related by the Parians : Miltiades, reduced to 
great perplexity, 2 consulted with a female cap- 



2 Great perplexity.]— The account given of Miltiades, 
and of this particular expedition, by Cornelius Nepos, is 
materially different. — T. . 



ERATO. 



319 



tive, a Parian by birth, whose name was Timo, 
a priestess of the infernal deities. On her ap- 
pearing before him; she said, that if he wished 
to accomplish his designs upon Paros, he must 
follow her advice. In consequence of what she 
recommended, Miltiades advanced to an emi- 
nence before the city, and not able to open the 
gates of a place consecrated to Ceres Thesmo- 
phoros, he leaped over the fence : from hence 
he proceeded to the temple, either to remove 
something which it was deemed impious to 
touch, or with some other intention • on ap- 
proaching the entrance, he was seized with a 
sudden horror of mind ; and returning by the 
same way, he in leaping a second time over the 
wall dislocated his thigh, though, as some say, 
he wounded his knee. 

CXXXV. After the above accident Mil- 
tiades returned home, without bringing the 
Athenians the wealth he promised, or render- 
ing himself master of Paros, before which, 
after laying waste the island, he remained six- 
and-twenty days. When the Parians knew 
that Timo the priestess had advised Miltiades, 
they wished to punish her. As soon therefore 
as the siege was raised, they sent to Delphi to 
inquire whether they might put the priestess to 
death, as having pointed out to an enemy the 
means of possessing their country, and who had 
exposed to Miltiades those sacred ceremonies 
at which it was not lawful for a man to be pre- 
sent. The Pythian would not suffer them to 
hurt her, saying, that Timo was not culpable, 
for that it was decreed that Miltiades should 
miserably perish, and that she was only the 
instrument of conducting him to his destiny. 
• C XXXVL On his return from Paros, 
Miltiades was generally censured by his coun- 
trymen, and in particular by Xanthippus, the 
son of Ariphron, who accused him capitally to 
the Athenians as a betrayer of his country. To 
this Miltiades coidd not personally reply, for 
his wound mortifying, he was confined to his 
bed ; but he was very vigorously defended by 
his friends, who adduced in his favour the vic- 
tory of Marathon, the taking of Lemnos, which, 
after chastising the Pelasgi, he had reduced to 
the power of Athens. By the interference of 
the people, his life was saved, but he was con- 
demned to pay a fine of fifty talents. 3 His 
wound growing worse, Miltiades died, but the 
fine was discharged by his son Cimon. 



3 Fifty talents.] — This, according to Cornelius Nepos, 
was the sum which it cost the Athenians to fit out the 
armament which Miltiade6 led against Paros.— T. 



CXXXVII. Miltiades had thus obtained 
possession of Lemnos. The Pelasgians had 
been expelled Attica by the Athenians, whether 
justly or otherwise, I am not able to determine : 
Hecataeus, the son of Hegesander, in his his- 
tory, says unjustly. The Athenians according 
to him, observing their territory near Hymettus, 
which they had given up to the Pelasgi as a 
reward for building them a wall, well cultivated, 
whereas formerly it produced little, and was of 
no estimation, they expelled them from it, with- 
out any other motive than envy, and a desire 
of obtaining the place. The Athenian account 
says, that the Pelasgi were justly expelled; 
this people, they assert, made hostile excursions 
from Hymettus, 4 and frequently offered vio- 
lence to the young women who went from 
Athens to the nine fountains, for the purpose 
of drawing water ; for at this period the Greeks 
had no slaves. Not satisfied with treating these 
with great insolence and brutality, the Pelasgi 
formed the bolder design of rendering them- 
selves masters of Athens. The Athenians 
think their conduct on this occasion entitled to 
the highest praise ; for, having detected the 
Pelasgi of treachery, they might justly have 
exterminated them, instead of which they only 
expelled them the country. Thus circumstanc- 
ed, they dispersed themselves, and some of 
them settled at Lemnos — Such are the diffe- 
rent accounts of Hecataeus and the Athenians. 

CXXXVIII. Those Pelasgi who settled 
at Lemnos, were very solicitous to avenge 
themselves on the Athenians. Knowing there- 
fore the times of their public festivals, they 
prepared two fifty-oared barks to surprise the 
Athenian females 5 who were engaged near 

4 Hymettus.'] — This place, now called Hymetto, was 
anciently famous for producing fine marble, abundance 
of bees, and excellent honey. The hills of Hymettus 
were the scene of the celebrated story of Cephalus and 
Procris. See Ovid de Arte Amandi, iii. 687. 

Est prope purpureos colles florenlis Hymetti 
Fons sacer, &c. T. 

5 Athenian females.] — In the Greek, the wives of the 
Athenians. It is proper to observe, that the Athenians, 
who called themselves Athenaioi, never called their 
women Athenaiai, because Minerva is in Homer called 
Athenaia, such was their superstition. They spoke of 
their women by a periphrasis, as here, or by the word 
a.<rrau, astai, female citizens, because Athens, by way of 
distinction, was called Atrrv, the city. 

The feast here mentioned was called Brauronia, from 
the place at which it was celebrated. A goat was sac- 
rificed, and rhapsodists sung portions of the Iliad j it 
was celebrated every five years. Young girls, sacred to 
Diana, celebrated this feast in saffron-coloured robes ; 
they might not be more than ten years old, nor leas than 
five. — Larcher 



320 



HERODOTUS. 



Brauron in celebrating the feast of Diana : many 
of these fell into their hands, and being carried 
to Lemnos, became their concubines. These 
women had a number of children whom they 
educated in the Athenian language and man- 
ners : these accordingly refused to associate 
with the other children of the Pelasgi ; and if one 
of them was at any time beaten by them, they 
mutually ran to one another's assistance. They 
thought themselves worthy of being their mas- 
ters, and ultimately became so. The Pelas- 
gians, observing this, were much exasperated, 
for, said they, if these children thus unite 
against the offspring of our legitimate wives, 
and are continually aiming at superiority over 
them, what will they do when they arrive at 
manhood ? They resolved therefore to put 
these children to death, after which they 
determined also to kill their mothers. This 
action, added to a former one, in which the 
women of Lemnos destroyed all their husbands, 
with Thoas their king, 1 induced the Grecians 
to call every atrocious crime Lemnian. 

C XXXIX. The Pelasgi, after the above 
murder of their children and concubines, found 
their earth, their cattle, and their wives alike 
cursed with sterility : to obtain relief from 



1 Thoas their king.] — Later writers have made Hypsi- 
pyle preserve the life of her father Thoas. The whole 
of this is beautifully described by Valerius Flaccus, iu 
his second book. The motive which was supposed to 
induce the Lesbian women to this sanguinary action 
was this : — The Lemnian women celebrated every year 
a festival in honour of Venus ; but having neglected this 
custom, the goddess punished their neglect by giving 
them a disagreeable odour, which made their husbands 
avoid them. The women, thus deeming themselves 
despised, slew all the men.— T. 



which they sent a deputation to Delphi. The 
Pythian commanded them to render such satis- 
faction to the Athenians as they should re- 
quire; they accordingly went to Athens, en- 
gaging themselves to submit to whatever should 
be proposed. The Athenians set in order 
some couches in the Prytaneum, which they 
adorned with the greatest magnificence, they 
prepared also a table covered with every deli_ 
cacy ; they then required the Pelasgi to sur- 
render Lemnos in a similar state of abundance : 
— " Whenever," said they, in reply, " one of 
your vessels shall in a single day make its pas- 
sage to our country with a northern wind, we 
will comply with what you require." This they 
conceived to be impracticable, as Attica lies 
considerably to the south of Lemnos. 

CXL. After an interval of some years, 
when the Chersonese on the Hellespont came 
under the power of the Athenians, Miltiades 
the son of Cimon, under the favour of the 
Etesian winds, passed in a single day from 
Elaeos in the Chersonese to Lemnos ; he in- 
stantly commanded them to depart from Lem- 
nos, reminding them of the declaration of the 
oracle, 2 the completion of which they little ex- 
pected. With this the Hephaestians complied, 
but the Myrinsei not allowing the Chersonese 
to be Attica, sustained a siege, but were com- 
pelled to surrender. Thus, by means of Mil- 
tiades, 3 the Athenians became masters of 
Lemnos. 



2 Oracle.]— A speech of the kind related in the former 
chapter, though delivered by common persons, was con- 
sidered as prophetic and oracular. 

3 Means of Miltiades.'}— Compare the account of He- 
rodotus with that given by Cornelius Nepos 



HERODOTUS. 



BOOK VII. 



POLYMNIA. 



I. When the news of the battle of Mara- 
thon was communicated to Darius, he, who was 
before incensed against the Athenians, on ac- 
count of their invasion of Sardis, became still 
more exasperated, and more inclined to invade 
Greece. He instantly therefore sent emissar- 
ies to the different cities under his power, to 
provide a still greater number of transports, 
horses, corn, and provisions. In the interval 
which this business employed, Asia experienced 
three years of confusion ; her most able men 
being enrolled in the Greek expedition, and 
making preparation for it. In the fourth, the 
Egyptians, who had been reduced by Camby- 
ses, revolted from the Persians ; but this only 
induced Darius to accelerate his preparations 
against both nations. 

II. At this juncture there arose a violent 
dispute among the sons of Darius, concerning 
the succession to the throne, the Persian cus- 
toms forbidding the sovereign to undertake any 
expedition without naming his heir. Darius 
had three sons before he ascended the throne, 
by the daughter of Gobryas ; he had four after- 
wards by Atossa, daughter of Cyrus : Artoba- 
zanes 1 was the eldest of the former, Xerxes of 
the latter. Not being of the same mother, a 
dispute arose 2 between them ; Artobazanes as- 

1 Artobazanes.] — Larcher is of opinion, that from this 
personage the celebrated Mithridates, king- of Pontus, 
who for so many years resisted the Roman power, was 
descended. Diodorus Siculus, Polybius, and other au- 
thors, trace this prince to one of the seven Persians who 
conspired against Smerdis Magus. This Artobazanes 
probably enjoyed the satrapy of Pontus, and his descend- 
ants doubtless enjoyed it also, till Mithridates, surnamed 
Ctistes (the founder) became sovereign of the country of 
which he had before only been governor. 

This reasoning will hardly appear satisfactory, unless 
it were evident that the satrapies under the crown of 
Persia were hereditary, which was by no means the case. 
— T. 

2 A dispute arose."] — The account given of this affair 
by Plutarch, in his Treatise of Brotherly Love, differs 
materially. 



serted his pretensions from being the eldest of 
all his father's sons, a claim which mankind in 
general consent to acknowledge. 3 Xerxes 

" When Darius died, some contended that Ariamenes 
should succeed him, as being eldest : others recommended 
Xerxes, because Atossa, daughter of Cyrus, was his 
mother, and he was born whilst Darius was actually 
king. Ariamenes accordingly went to Media, not with 
any hostile views, but peaceably to have the matter de- 
termined. Xerxes, who was on the spot, exercised the 
royal functions ; but as soon as his brother arrived, he 
laid aside his crown and kingly ornaments, and hastened 
to salute him. He sent him various presents, and words 
to this effect : " Xerxes your brother sends you these 
presents, to show how much he honours you. If the 
Persians shall elect me king, you shall be next to myself." 
The reply of Ariamenes was, " I accept your presents ; 
the crown I believe to be my right : I shall honour all 
my brethren, and Xerxes in particular." When the day 
of decision arrived, the Persians elected as judge Arta- 
banus, brother of Darius. Xerxes, who depended on the 
multitude, objected to him, for which he was censured 
by his mother Atossa : "Why," she observed, "should 
you refuse to have your uncle as judge, one of the wor- 
thiest men in Persia ? and why dread a contest, where if 
inferior you will still be next to the king ?" Xerxes 
suffered himself to be persuaded, and after hearing the 
arguments of both, Artabanus adjudged the crown to 
Xerxes. Ariamenes on this hastily arose, made obei- 
sance to his brother, and taking him by the hand, con- 
ducted him to the throne." 

3 Consent to acknowledge.] — The principle of heredi- 
tary succession is universal, but the order has been 
variously established by convenience or caprice, by the 
spirit of national institutions, or by some partial ex- 
ample, which was originally decided by fraud or violence. 
— See Gibbon, iv. 387. 

The jurisprudence of the Romans (lie continues) ap- 
pears to have deviated from the equality of nature, much 
less than the Jewish, the Athenian, or the English insti- 
tutions. On the death of a citizen, all his descendants, 
unless they were already freed from his paternal power, 
were called to the inheritance of his possessions. The 
insolent prerogative of primogeniture was unknown : the 
two sexes were placed on a just level ; all the sons and 
daughters were entitled to an equal share of the patri- 
monial estate. 

Amongst the Patriarchs, the first-born enjoyed a mys- 
tical and spiritual primogeniture. In the land of Canaan 
he was entitled to a double portion of inheritance. 

At Athens the sons were equal, but the poor daughters 
were endowed at the discretion of their brothers. 



322 



HERODOTUS. 



claimed the throne because he was the grand- 
son of Cyrus, to whom the Persians were in- 
debted for their liberties. 

III. Before Darius had made any decision, 
and in the very midst of the contention, there 
arrived at Susa, Demaratus, 1 the son of Aris- 
ton, who being deprived of the crown of Spar- 
ta, had fled from Lacedsemon. This man, 
hearing of the controversy, went, as is reported, 
to Xerxes, and recommended him to urge far- 
ther, in support of his claim, that when he was 
born, Darius was in actual enjoyment of the 
empire of Persia, but at the birth of Artoba- 
zanes, his father was only a private individual. 
The pretensions of Xerxes therefore could not 
be set aside, without the most obvious violation 
of equity. To strengthen this, the example 
of the Spartans 2 was adduced, among whom, 
those children born after the accession of the 
prince to the throne were universally preferred 
to those born before. Xerxes availed himself 
of this counsel given by Demaratus, which so 
effectually impressed Darius, that he declared 
him his successor. For my own part, I think 
that Xerxes would have reigned without this 
advice from Demaratus, as Atossa enjoyed an 
almost unlimited authority. 3 



In England the eldest son alone inherits all the land : 
a law, says judge Blackstone, unjust only in the opinion 
of younger brothers. 

Upon the above I would remark, that Blackstone 
speaks judiciously : whilst I can consider the sentiments 
of Mr Gibbon as little better than declamation. It seems 
evident, that property continually subdivided must be 
rendered useless to all ; or, if this were not the case, to 
create a numerous class too proud to be industrious, 
would be to introduce a swarm of useless and inactive 
drones into the political hive. The wealth of the elder 
brothers maintains the splendour and dignity of a state ; 
the activity of the younger branches gives it life and 
strength.— T. 

1 Demaratus.]— Xerxes gave Demaratus the cities of 
Pergamus, Teuthrania, and Halisarnia, because he at- 
tended him on his expedition to Greece. These places 
were enjoyed by Eurysthenes and Procles, his descen- 
dants, at the end of the first year of the 95th Olympiad. 
— Lurcher. 

2 Example of the Spartans.]— Cragius, in his useful 
book De Republica Lacedaemoniorum, speaks at some 
length on the right of succeeding to the throne of Spar- 
ta ; but I do not find that he mentions the particularity 
which is here sanctioned by the respectable authority of 
Herodotus.— T. 

3 Atossa enjoyed an almost unlimited authority.] — 
Atossa is the name which Pope applied to Sarah duchess 
of Marlborough. See his Moral Essays, ep. ii. 115 j 

But what are these to great Atossa's mind. 

The Persian Atossa appears to have been an artfal 
woman, and of a very intriguing spirit, fond of power, 
and using the most violent means to attain sometimes the 



IV. Darius having declared Xerxes his heir, 
prepared to march : but in the year which suc- 
ceeded the Egyptian revolt, he died ; having 
reigned thirty-six years, without being able to 
gratify his resentment against the Egyptians 4 
and Athenians who had opposed his power. 

V. On his death, Xerxes immediately suc- 
ceeded to the throne, who from the first, seem- 
ed wholly inclined to the Egyptian rather than 
the Athenian war. But Mardonius, who was 
his cousin, being the son of Gobryas, by a sis- 
ter of Darius, thus addressed him : " I should 
think, Sir, 5 that the Athenians, who have so 
grievously injured the Persians, ought not to 
escape with impunity. I would nevertheless 
have you execute what you immediately pro- 
pose ; but when you shall have chastised the 
insolence of Egypt, resume the expedition 
against Athens* Thus will your reputation 
be established, and others in future be deterred 
from molesting your dominions." What he 
said was farther enforced by representing the 
beauties of Europe, that it was exceedingly fer- 
tile, abounded with all kinds of trees, 6 and de- 
served to be possessed by the king alone. 

VI. Mardonius said this, being desirous of 
new undertakings, and ambitious of the govern- 
ment of Greece. Xerxes at length acceded to 
his counsel, to which he was also urged by 

meanest ends ; the parallel, according to the testimonies 
of most writers, seems pertinent enough. 

4 Egyptians.] — Aristotle on this subject is at variance 
with Herodotus ; he says that Darius having taken pos- 
session of Egypt, passed over from thence into Greece, 
confounding Darius with Xerxes. The authority of 
Herodotus, says Larcher, who was almost a contempo- 
rary, seems preferable to that of Aristotle, who lived a 
long time afterwards. ~ 

5 I should think, Sir.]— Thje word Ato-roTot, I have ren- 
dered "Sir:" Larcher has expressed it by the word 
"Seigneur," as most significant of the reverence with 
which a slave addressed his lord. For my own part, I 
am inclined to consider it as a term of general respect, 
and not as having any appropriate signification, to inti- 
mate the condition of the Persians with regard to their 
sovereigns. Thus, amongst the Jews, the word rabbi 
meant, as it is properly rendered in our versions, " mas- 
ter," that is to say, it did not imply that they to whom 
it is applied were the masters of those who used it ; but 
it was a term which custom adopted, and politeness 
sanctioned, as respectful from an inferior to a person 
above him. Add to this, that it was peculiar to the lofty 
genius of the oriental languages to adopt phrases by no 
means to be interpreted or understood in their strict and 
literal sense. — T. 

5 All kinds of trees.] — It seems a little singular, that 
Mardonius should say this : for I believe it has always 
been acknowledged that the luxuriant climates of Asia 
produce every tiling which relates to fruit and vegeta- 
tion, in far greater abundance and perfection than the 
less genial soil of Europe.— T. 



POLYMNIA. 



323 



ether considerations. Some messengers came 
from Thessaly on the part of the Aleuadae, 
imploring the king to invade Greece; to ac- 
complish which they used the most earnest en- 
deavours. These Aleuadae were the princes 
of Thessaly ; their solicitations were strength- 
ened by the Pisistratidae, who had taken refuge 
at Susa, and who to the arguments before ad- 
duced added others. They had among them 
Onomacritus, an Athenian, a famous priest, 
who sold the oracles of Musaeus ; with him they 
had been reconciled previous to their arrival at 
Susa. This man had been formerly banished 
from Athens by the son of Pisistratus ; for 
Lasus 6 of Hermione had detected him in the 
fact of introducing a pretended oracle among 
the verses of Musaeus, intimating that the is- 
lands contiguous to Lemnos should be over- 
whelmed in the ocean. Hipparchus for this 
expelled him, though he had been very inti- 
mate with him before. He accompanied the 
Pisistratidae to Susa, who always spoke of him 
in terms highly honourable, upon which ac- 
count, whenever he appeared in the royal pre- 
sence, he recited certain oracular verses. He 
omitted whatever predicted any thing unfor- 
tunate to the Barbarians, selecting only what 
promised them auspiciously ; among other 
things he said the Fates decreed that a Persian 
should throw a bridge over the Hellespont. 

VII. Thus was the mind of Xerxes assail- 
ed by the predictions of the priest, and the 
opinions of the Pisistratidae. In the year 7 
which followed the death of Darius, he deter- 
mined on an expedition against Greece, but 
commenced hostilities with those who had re- 
volted from the Persians. These being sub- 
dued, and the whole of Egypt 8 more effectually 



6 Lasus was a musician, poet, and according to some, 
one of the seven sages of Greece. He was the inventor 
of the dithyrambic verses and of the circular dances. 
Aristophanes, in the Aves, calls him xuzkios hdacrzotXo;. 
He was fond of gaming : and, according to Plutarch, 
when Xenophanes refused once to play with him, he re- 
proached him with cowardice : " Yes," answered Xeno- 
phanes, " in every thing which is base and dishonest, I 
confess myself a coward." — T. 

7 In the year.] — Herodotus was born this year at 
Halicarnassus in Caria. See Aulus Gellius book xv. c. 
23. 

" Hellanicus, Herodotus, and Thucydides flourished 
in the same time, and were nearly of the same age ; 
Hellanicus, in the commencement of the Peloponnesian 
war, was sixty-five years old, Herodotus fifty- three, and 
Thucydides forty."— T. 

8 Whole of Egypt.]— Xerxes having ascended the 
throne, employed the first year of his reign in carrying 



reduced than it had been by Darius, the govern- 
ment of it he confided to Achaemenes his own 
brother, son of Darius. Achaemenes was 
afterwards slain by Inarus, a Libyan, the son 
of Psammetichus. 

VIII. After the subjection of Egypt, 
Xerxes prepared to lead an army against 
Athens, but first of all he called an assembly 
of the principal Persians, to hear their senti- 
ments, and to deliver without reserve his own. 
He addressed them to the following purport : 
" You will remember, O Persians, that I am 
not about to execute any new project of my 
own ; I only pursue the path which has been 
previously marked out for me. I have learned 
from my ancestors, that ever since we recovered 
this empire from the Medes} after the depres- 
sion of Astyages by Cyrus, we have never been 
in a state of inactivity. A deity is our guide, 
and auspiciously conducts us to prosperity. It 
must be unnecessary for me to relate the ex- 
ploits of Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius, and 
the nations they added to our empire. For 
my own part, ever since my accession to the 
throne, it has been my carefid endeavour not to 
reflect any disgrace upon my forefathers, by 
suffering the Persian power to diminish. My 
deliberations on this matter have presented me 
with a prospect full of glory : they have pointed 
out to me a region not inferior to our own in 
extent, and far exceeding it in fertility, which 
incitements are farther promoted by the ex- 
pectation of honourable revenge ; I have there- 
fore assembled you to explain what I intend : 
I have resolved, by throwing a bridge over the 
Hellespont, 9 to lead my forces through Europe 
into Greece, and to inflict vengeance on the 



on the preparations for the reduction of Egypt, which 
his father had begun. He confirmed to the Jews at 
Jerusalem all the privileges granted them by his father, 
especially that of having the tribute of Samaria for the 
furnishing them with sacrifices for the carrying on of 
divine worship in the temple of God at that place. — 
Prideaux. 

9 Hellespont.]— Boclvaxt thinks it very probable, what 
other learned men have also conjectured, that the Hel- 
lespont was originally called Elis-pont, from Elisha, the 
eldest of Javan's sons ; and it may be added, that one of 
the 120 provinces, as they stood in the rolls of the Persian 
empire, was named Provincia Alysionensis, for so Hero- 
dotus informs us ; and it is placed between the pro- 
vinces of Ionia and Phrygia,comprehending iEolia, From 
the authority above cited, upon the change of language 
Elisha the son of Javan was called JEolus. The Jewish 
rabbins explain the name Elisha, adinsidamj and Varro 
as cited by Servius, on the 1st ^Eneid, gives the same 
title to iEolus Hippotades, styling him Dominua insalu- 
rum (lord of the islands.)— T. 



324 



HERODOTUS. 



Athenians for the injuries offered to my father 
and Persia. You well know that this war was 
intended by Darius, though death deprived him 
of the means of vengeance. Considering what 
is due to him and to Persia, it is my determi- 
nation not to remit my exertions, till Athens 
shall be taken and burned. 1 The Athenians, 
unprovoked, first insulted me and my father : 
under the conduct of Aristagoras of Miletus, 
our dependant and slave, they attacked Sardis, 
and consumed with fire our groves and temples. 
What they perpetrated against you, when, led 
by Datis and Artaphernes, you penetrated their 
country, you know by fatal experience. Such 
are my inducements to proceed against them : 
but I have also additional motives. If we re- 
duce these and their neighbours who inhabit 
the country of Pelops the Phrygian, to our 
power, the Persian empire will be limited by 
the heavens alone ; the sun will illuminate no 
country contiguous to ours : I shall over-run 
all Europe, and with your assistance possess 
unlimited dominion. For if I am properly 
informed, there exists no race of men, nor can 
any city or nation be found, which if these be 
reduced, can possibly resist our arms : we shall 
thus subject, as well those who have, as those 
who have not injured us. I call therefore for 
your assistance, which I shall thankfully accept 
and acknowledge ; I trust that with cheerful- 
ness and activity you will all assemble at the 
place I shall appoint. To him who shall ap- 
pear with the greatest number of well-provided 
troops, I will present those gifts which in our 
country are thought to confer the highest 
honour. That I may not appear to dictate my 
own wishes in an arbitrary manner, I commit 
the matter to your reflection, permitting every 
one to deliver his sentiments with freedom." 

IX. When Xerxes had finished, Mardonius 
made the following reply : " Sir, you are not 
only the most illustrious of all the Persians 
who have hitherto appeared, but you may 



1 Taken and burned.] — Mr Glover had probably this 
6peech of Xerxes in his mind, when he wrote the follow- 
ing lines, which he makes Mardonius utter on entering 
Athens : 

Is this the city whose presumption dared 
Invade the lord of Asia ? sternly said 
Mardonius, entering. — Whither now are fled 
Th' audacious train, whose firebrands Sardis felt t 
Where'er you lurk, Athenians, if in sight, 
Soon shall you view your citadel in flames 
Or, if retreated to a distant land, 
No distant land of refuge shall you find 
Against avenging Xerxes. 

Athenaid. 



securely defy the competition of posterity. 
Among other things which you have advanced, 
alike excellent and just, you are entitled to our 
particular admiration for not suffering the peo- 
ple of Ionia, contemptible as they are, to insult 
us with impunity. It would indeed be prepos- 
terous, if after reducing to our power the Sacae, 
the Indians, the Ethiopians, and the Assyrians, 
with many other great and illustrious nations, 
not in revenge of injuries received, but solely 
from the honourable desire of dominion, we 
should not inflict vengeance on these Greeks 
who, without provocation, have molested us. 
There can be nothing to excite our alarm ; no 
multitude of troops, no extraordinary wealth ; 
we have tried their mode of fighting, and know 
their weakness. Their descendants, who un- 
der the names of lonians, iEolians, and Do- 
rians, reside within our dominions, we first sub- 
dued, and now govern. Their prowess I my- 
self have known, when at the command of your 
father I prosecuted a war against them. I 
penetrated Macedonia, advanced almost to 
Athens, and found no enemy to encounter. 
Besides this, I am informed that in all their 
military undertakings the Greeks betray the 
extremest ignorance and folly. As soon as 
they commence hostilities among themselves, 
their first care is to find a large and beautiful 
plain,* where they appear and give battle : the 
consequence is, that even the victors surfer se- 
vere loss ; of the vanquished I say nothing, for 
they are totally destroyed. As they use one 
common language, they ought in policy to ter- 
minate all disputes by the mediation of ambas- 
sadors, and above all things to avoid a war 
among themselves: or, if this should prove 
unavoidable, they should mutually endeavour to 
find a place of great natural strength, and then 
try the issue of a battle. By pursuing as ab- 
surd a conduct as I have described, the Greeks 
suffered me to advance as far as Macedonia 
without resistance. But who, Sir, shall oppose 
you, at the head of the forces and fleet of Asia ? 
The Greeks, I think, never can be so audacious. 
If however I should be deceived, and they shall 
be so mad as to engage us, they will soon find 



2 Plain.] — The Romans in attacking an enemy, so dis- 
posed their army, as to be able to rally three different 
times. This has been thought by many as the great 
secret of the Roman discipline ; because fortune must 
have foiled their efforts three different times before they 
could be possibly defeated. The Greeks drew up their 
forces in one extended line, and therefore depended upojj 
the effect of the first charge.— T. 



— 



POLYMNIA. 



325 



to their cost that in the art of war we are the 
first of mankind. Let ns however adopt 
various modes of proceeding, for perfection and 
success can only be the result of frequent ex- 
periment." — In this manner Mardonius second- 
ed the speech of Xerxes. 

X. A total silence prevailed in the assembly, 
no one daring to oppose 3 what had been said ; 
till at length Artabanus, son of Hystaspes, and 
uncle to Xerxes, deriving confidence from his 
relationship, thus delivered his sentiments : 
" Unless, O king, different sentiments be sub- 
mitted to the judgment, no alternative of choice 
remains, the one introduced is of necessity 
adopted. The purity of gold cannot be ascer- 
tained by a single specimen ; it is known and 
approved by comparing it with others. It was 
my advice to Darius, your father and my brother, 
that he should by no means undertake an expe- 
dition against the Scythians, a people without 
towns and cities. Allured by his hopes of 
subduing them, he disregarded my admonitions ; 
and proceeding to execute his purpose was 
obliged to return, having lost numbers of his 
best troops. The men, O king, whom you are 
preparing to attack, are far superior to the 
Scythians, and alike formidable by land and sea. 
I deem it therefore my duty to forewarn you of 
the dangers you will have to encounter. You 
say that, throwing a bridge over the Hellespont, 
you will lead your forces through Europe into 
Greece : but it may possibly happen, that either 
on land or by sea, or perhaps by both, you may 
sustain a defeat, for our enemies are reported to 
be valiant. Of this indeed we have had suffi- 
cient testimony ; for if the Athenians by them- 
selves routed the numerous armies of Datis 
and Artaphernes, it proves that we are not 
either by land or sea, perfectly invincible. If, 
preparing their fleet, they shall be victorious by 
sea, and afterwards sailing to the Hellespont, 
shall destroy your bridge, we may dread all that 
is bad. I do not argue in this respect from my 
own private conjecture ; we can all of us re- 
member how very narrowly we escaped des- 

3 Daring to oppose.] — The following- is from iElian's 
Various History, book xii. c. 62. 

" This was one of the Persian laws ; if any one thought 
proper to give advice to the king about any thing- which 
was forbidden, or ambiguous, he did so standing on a 
golden tile ; if his advice appeared to be salutary, the gold 
tile was given him as a reward ; he was nevertheless 
beaten for presuming to contradict the king. " But in 
my opinion," says /Elian, " a man of an ingenuous mind 
would never have submitted to the disgrace for the sake 
of the re ward.'— T. 



truction, when your father, throwing bridges 
over the Thracian Bosphorus and the Ister, 
passed into Scythia. The guard of this pass 
was intrusted to the Ionians, whom the Scy- 
thians urged to break it down, by the most 
earnest importunity. If at this period His- 
tiseus of Miletus had not opposed the senti- 
ments of the rest, there would have been an 
end of the Persian name. It is painful to re- 
peat, and afflicting to remember, that the safe- 
ty of our prince and his dominions depended on 
a single man. Listen therefore to my advice, 
and where no necessity demands it, do not in- 
volve yourself in danger. For the present dis- 
miss this meeting ; revolve the matter more 
seriously in your mind, and at a future and 
seasonable time make known your determina- 
tion. For my own part, I have found from 
experience that deliberation produces the hap- 
piest effects. In such a case, if the event does 
not answer our wishes, we still merit the praise 
of discretion, and fortune is alone to be blamed. 
He who is rash and inconsiderate, although 
fortune may be kind, and anticipate his desires, 
is not the less to be censured for temerity. 
You may have observed how the thunder- bolt 
of Heaven chastises the insolence of the more 
enormous animals, whilst it passes over with- 
out injury the weak and insignificant : before 
these weapons of the gods you must have seen 
how the proudest palaces 4 and the loftiest trees 
fall and perish. The most conspicuous things 
are those which are chiefly singled out as ob- 
jects of the divine displeasure. From the same 
principle it is that a mighty army is sometimes 
overthrown by one that is contemptible ; for 
the deity in his anger sends his terrors among 
them, and makes them perish in a manner un- 
worthy of their former glory. Perfect wis- 
dom 5 is the prerogative of Heaven alone, and 

4 Proudest palaces, .] — 

Aureani quisquis mediocritatem 
Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti 
Sordibus tecti, oaret invidenda 

Sobrius aula. 
Saepius ventis agitatur ingens 
Pinus: et celsse graviore casu 
Decidunt turres, feriuntque summos 

Fulgura monies. Hur. 1. ii. 10. 

5 Perfect wisdom.'] — The English reader may perhaps 
thank me for taking this opportunity of relating an anec- 
dote of the celebrated Buffon, not generally known. 
That perfect wisdom is the attribute of Heaven only, no 
human being, we should suppose, would be inclined to 
controvert : yet Buffon, during his life time, suffered a 
statue to be erected to him with this remarkable inscrip- 
tion, maji£stati natuim; i'aii inobnium, which can surely 
be applicable to the Deity alone.— T. 



326 



HERODOTUS. 



every measure undertaken with temerity is 
liable to be perplexed with error, and punished 
by misfortune. Discreet caution on the con- 
trary has many and peculiar advantages, which 
if not apparent at the moment, reveal them- 
selves in time. Such, O king, is my advice ; 
and little does it become you, O son of Go- 
bryas, to speak of the Greeks in a language 
foolish as well as false. By calumniating 
Greece, you excite your sovereign to war, the 
great object of all your zeal : but I entreat you 
to forbear : calumny is a restless vice, where it 
is indulged there are always two who offer in- 
jury. The calumniator himself is injurious, 
because he traduces an absent person ; he is 
also injurious who suffers himself to be per- 
suaded without investigating the truth. The 
person traduced is doubly injured, first by him 
who propagates, and secondly by him who re- 
ceives the calumny. If this war be a measure 
of necessity, let it be prosecuted ; but let the 
king remain at home' with his subjects. Suffer 
the children of us two to remain in his power, 
as the test of our different opinions ; and do 
you, Mardonius, conduct the war with what- 
ever forces you shall think expedient. If, 
agreeably to your representations, the designs 
of the king shall be successful, let me and my 
children perish ; but if what I predict shall be 
accomplished, let your children die, and your- 
self too, in case you shall return. If you re- 
fuse these conditions, and are still resolved to 
lead an army into Greece, I do not hesitate to 
declare, that all those who shall be left behind 
will hear that Mardonius, after having involved 
the Persians in some conspicuous calamity, be- 
came a prey to dogs and ravenous birds, in the 
territories either of Athens or Lacedsemon, or 
probably during his march thither. Thus you 
will know, by fatal experience, what those men 
are against whom you endeavour to persuade 
the king to prosecute a war." 

XL When Artabanus had finished, Xerxes 
thus angrily replied ; " Artabanus, you are my 
father's brother, which alone prevents your re- 
ceiving the chastisement due to your foolish 
speech. This mark of ignominy shall however 



1 Let the king remain at home.'].— See 2 Sam. xxi. 17. 

"Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, 
Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou 
quench not the light of Israel." 

In our country, soon after the revolution, when 
William narrowly escaped destruction by the falling of 
his horse, it was determined by parliament, that the 
eovereign should never again expose his person in battle. 



adhere to you — as you are so dastardly and 
mean, you shall not accompany me to Greece, 
but remain at home, the companion of our wo- 
men. Without your assistance, I shall pro- 
ceed in the accomplishment of my designs ; 
for I should ill deserve to be esteemed the son 
of Darius, 2 who was the son of Hystaspes, and 
reckoned among his ancestors, Arsamis, Arin- 
nis, Teispeus, Cyrus, Cambyses, Teispeus, 
and Achaemenes, if I did not gratify my re- 
venge upon the Athenians. I am well assured, 
that if we on our parts were tranquil, they 
would not, but would invade and ravage our 
country. This we may reasonably conclude 
from their burning of Sardis, and their incur- 
sions into Asia. Neither party can therefore 
recede ; we must advance to the attack of the 
Greeks, or we must prepare to sustain theirs ; 
we must either submit to them, or they to us ; 
in enmities like these there can be no medium. 
Injured as we have been, it becomes us to seek 
for revenge : for I am determined to know 
what evil is to be dreaded from those whom 
Pelops the Phrygian, the slave of my ances- 
tors, so effectually subdued, that even to this 
day they, as well as their country, are distin- 
guished by his name." 

XII. On the approach of evening the sen- 
timents of Artabanus gave great disquietude 
to Xerxes, and after more serious deliberation 
with himself in the night, he found himself 
still less inclined to the Grecian war. Having 
decided on the subject, he fell asleep, when, as 
the Persians relate, the following vision ap- 
peared to him : — He dreamed that he saw be- 
fore him a man of unusual size and beauty, 
who thus addressed him : " Are you then de- 
termined, O Persian, contrary to your former 
resolutions, not to lead an army against Greece, 
although you have ordered your subjects to 
prepare their forces? This change in your 



2 Son of Darius.]— The following was the genealogy 
of his family : 

Ach^menes. 

Teispeus. 

Cambyses 
I 

CVR09. 



Cambyses. 

Cyrus. 
Cambyses. 



Teispeus. 

Arinnis. 

I 
AR.sa.mis. 

Hystaspes. 

Darius. 



POLYMNIA. 



327 



sentiments is absurd in itself, and will certain- 
ly be censured by the world. Resume, there- 
fore, and persist in what you had resolved by 
day." Having said this, the vision disappeared. 

XIII. The impression made by the vision 
vanished with the morning. Xerxes a second 
time convoked the former meeting, and again 
addressed them : " Men of Persia," said he, 
" you will forgive me, if my former sentiments 
are changed. I am not yet arrived at the full 
maturity of my judgment ; and they who wish 
me to prosecute the measures which I before 
seemed to approve, do not remit their impor- 
tunities. When I first heard the opinion of 
Artabanus, I yielded to the emotions of youth, 
and expressed myself more petulantly than was 
becoming to a man of his years. To prove that I 
see my indiscretion, I am resolved to follow his 
advice. It is not my intention to undertake an 
expedition against Greece ; remain therefore in 
tranquillity." — The Persians, hearing these 
sentiments, prostrated themselves with joy be- 
fore the king. 

XIV. On the following night the same 
phantom appeared a second time to Xerxes in 
his sleep, and spake to him as follows : " Son 
of Darius, disregarding my admonitions as of 
no weight or signification, you have publicly 
renounced all thoughts of war. Hear what I 
say : unless you immediately undertake that 
which I recommend, the same short period of 
time which has seen you great and powerful, 
shall behold you reduced and abject." 

XV. Terrified at the vision, the king leaped 
from his couch, and sent for Artabanus. As 
soon as he approached, " Artabanus," exclaim- 
ed Xerxes, " in return for your salutary coun- 
sel, I reproached and insulted you ; but as soon 
as I became master of myself I endeavoured to 
prove my repentance, by adopting what you 
proposed. This however, whatever may be 
my wishes, I am unable to do. As soon as 
my former determinations were changed, I be- 
held in my sleep a vision, which first endea- 
voured to dissuade me, and has this moment 
left me with threats. If what I have seen pro- 
ceed from the interference of some deity, who 
is solicitous that I should make war on Greece, 
it will doubtless appear to you, and give you a 
similar mandate. This will I think be the case, 
if you will assume my habit, and after sitting 
on my throne retire to rest in my apartment. 

XVI. Artabanus was at first unwilling to 
comply, alleging that he was not worthy to sit 



on the throne of the king. 3 But being urged, 
he finally acquiesced, after thus expressing his 
sentiments : "lam of opinion, O king, that 
to think well, and to follow what is well-ad- 
vised, is alike commendable 4 : both these 
qualities are yours ; but the artifice of evil 
counsellors misleads you. Thus, the ocean is 
of itself most useful to mankind, but the 
stormy winds render it injurious, by disturbing 
its natural surface. Your reproaches gave me 
less uneasiness than to see that when two opi- 
nions were submitted to public deliberation, 
the one aiming to restrain, the other to coun- 
tenance the pride of Persia, you preferred that 
which was full of danger to yourself and your 
country, rejecting the wiser counsel, which 
pointed out the evil tendency of ambition. 
Now that you have changed your resolution 
with respect to Greece, a phantom has ap- 
peared, and, as you say, by some divine interpo- 
sition, has forbidden your present purpose of dis- 
missing your forces. But, my son, I dispute 
the divinity of this interposition, for of the fal- 
lacy of dreams I who am more experienced than 
yourself, can produce sufficient testimonies. 
Dreams in general originate from those inci- 
dents which have most occupied the thoughts 
during the day. 5 Two days since, you will re- 
member, that this expedition was the object of 
much warm discussion : but if this vision be 



3 Of the king.] — To sit on the king's tlirone, was in 
Persia deemed a capital offence. 

4 Alike commendable.'} — Larcher at this passage quotes 
the two following sentences, from Livy and from Cicero. 

Ssepe ego audivi, milites, eum primum esse virum qui 
ipse consulat quid in rem sit, secundum eum qui bene 
monenti obediat. 

I have often heard, my fellow-soldiers, that he was 
first to be esteemed who gave advice suitable to the oc- 
casion : and that he deserved the second place who fol- 
lowed it. — Lit-, xxii. 29. 

Sapientissimum dicunt eum cui quod opus sit veniat in 
mentem, proxime accedere ilium, qui alterius bene in- 
ventus obtemperet. Which passage of Cicero, pro 
Cluentio, may be rendered nearly the same as that from 
Livy. The sentiment is originally Hesiod's, and is by 
him beautifully expressed in his Works and Days, ver. 
293. It has been imitated also by Sophocles, in his Anti- 
gone. The turn Cicero gives it is curious enough : " In 
folly," he says, "it is just the contrary, the greatest fool 
is he who thinks of an absurdity : the next he who 
adopts it." This is perfectly true. — T. 

5 During the day.] — After all that has been said and 
written on the subject of dreams, I shall I hope bfl ex- 
cused, when I confess that the following words of Mr 
Locke are to me quite satisfactory on the subject. 

"The dreams of sleeping men are all made up of the 
waking man's ideas, though for the most part oddly put 
together."— T. 



328 



HERODOTUS. 



really sent from heaven, your reasoning upon 
it is just, and it will certainly appear to me as 
it has donelo you, expressing itself to a similar 
effect ; but it will not show itself to me dressed in 
your robes, and reclining on your couch, sooner 
than if I were in my own habit and my own 
apartment. No change of dress will induce 
the phantom, if it does appear, to mistake me 
for you. If it shall hold me in contempt, it 
will not appear to me, however I may be 
cloathed. It unquestionably however merits 
attention; its repeated appearance I myself 
must acknowledge to be a proof of its divi- 
nity. If you are determined in your purpose, 
I am ready to go to rest in your apartment, 
but till I see the phantom myself I shall retain 
my former opinions." 

XVII. Artabanus, expecting to find the 
king's dream of no importance, did as he was 
ordered. He accordingly put on the robe of 
Xerxes, seated himself on the royal throne, 
and afterwards retired to the king's apartment. 
The same phantom which had disturbed 
Xerxes appeared to him, 1 and thus addressed 
him : " Art thou the man who, pretending to 
watch over the conduct of Xerxes, art endea- 
vouring to restrain his designs against Greece ? 
Your perverseness shall be punished both now 
and in future ; and as for Xerxes himself, he 
has been forewarned of the evils he will suffer, 
if disobedient to my will. " 

XVIII. Such were the threats which Arta- 
banus heard from the spectre, which at the 
same time made an effort to burn out his eyes 
with a hot iron. Alarmed at his danger, Ar- 
tabanus leaped from his couch, and uttering a 
loud cry, went instantly to Xerxes. After re- 
lating his vision, he thus spake to him : " Be- 
ing a man, O king, of much experience, and 
having seen the undertakings of the powerful 
foiled by the efforts of the weak, I was unwill- 
ing that you should indulge the fervour of 
your age. Of the ill effects of inordinate am- 
bition, I had seen a fatal proof, in the expedi- 
tion which Cyrus undertook against the Massa- 
getse; I knew also what became of the army 
of Cambyses in their attack of ^Ethiopia ; and 
lastly, I myself witnessed the misfortunes of 
Darius in his hostilities with the Scythians. 
The remembrance of these incidents induced 



1 Appeared to him.']— Larcher reasonably supposes 
that this was a plot of Mardonius to impose upon 
Xerxes ; and that some person, dressed and disguised 
for the purpose, acted the part of the ghost 



me to believe that if you continued a peaceful 
reign, you would beyond all men deserve the 
character of happy : but as your present incli- 
nation seems directed by some supernatural in- 
fluence, and as the Greeks seem marked out 
by heaven for destruction, I acknowledge that 
my sentiments are changed ; do you therefore 
make known to the Persians the extraordinary 
intimations you have received, and direct your 
dependants to hasten the preparations you had 
before commanded. Be careful, in what relates 
to yourself, to second the intentions of the 
gods." — The vision indeed had so powerfully 
impressed the minds of both, that as soon as 
the morning appeared, Xerxes communicated 
his intentions to the Persians ; which Artaba- 
nus, in opposition to his former sentiments, 
now openly and warmly approved. 

XIX. Whilst every thing was making ready 
for his departure, Xerxes saw a third vision. 
The magi to whom it was related were of 
opinion that it portended to Xerxes unlimited 
and universal empire. The king conceived 
himself to be crowned with the wreath of an 
olive-tree, whose branches covered all the earth, 
but that this wreath suddenly and totally dis- 
appeared. Alter the above interpretation of 
the magi had been made known in the national 
assembly of the Persians, the governors de- 
parted to their several provinces, eager to exe- 
cute the commands they had received, in ex- 
pectation of the promised reward. 

XX. Xerxes was so anxious to complete 
his levies, that no part of the continent was left 
without being ransacked for this purpose. 
After the reduction of Egypt, four entire years 
were employed in assembling the army and col- 
lecting provisions ; but in the beginning of the 
fifth 8 he began his march, with an immense 
body of forces. Of all the military expeditions 
the fame of which has come down to us, this 
was far the greatest, much exceeding that which 
Darius undertook against Scythia, as well as 
the incursion made by the Scythians, who pur- 
suing the Cimmerians, entered Media, and 

2 Beginning of the fifth.] — Darius was three years in 
preparing for an expedition against Greece; in the 
fourth Egypt revolted, and in the following year Darius 
died ; this therefore was the fifth year after the battle of 
Marathon. Xerxes employed four years in making pre- 
parations for the same purpose ; in the fifth he began his 
march, he advanced to Sardis, and there wintered ; in 
the beginning of the following spring he entered Greece. 
This therefore was the eleventh year after the battle of 
Marathon ; which account agrees with that given by 
Thucydides.— T. 



POLYMNIA. 



329 



made themselves entire masters of almost all 
the higher parts of Asia ; an incursion which 
afforded Darius the pretence for his attack on 
Scythia. It surpasses also the famous expedi- 
tion of the sons of Atreus against Troy, as 
well as that of the Mysians and Teucrians be- 
fore the Trojan war. These nations, passing 
over the Bosphorus into Europe, reduced all 
the inhabitants of Thrace, advancing to the 
Ionian sea, and thence as far as the southern 
oart of the river Peneus. 

XXI. None of the expeditions already men- 
tioned, nor indeed any other, may at all be 
compared with this of Xerxes. It would be 
difficult to specify any nation of Asia which 
did not accompany the Persian monarch against 
Greece, or any waters, except great rivers, 
which were not exhausted by his armies. Some 
supplied ships, some a body of infantry, others 
of horse ; some provided transports for the 
cavalry and the troops ; others brought long 
ships to serve as bridges ; many also brought 
vessels laden with corn, all which preparations 
were made for three years, to guard against a 
repetition of the calamities which the Persian 
fleet had formerly sustained in their attempts 
to double the promontory of Mount Athos. 
The place of rendezvous for the triremes was 
at Elseos of the Chersonese, from whence de- 
tachments from the army were sent, and by 
force of blows compelled to dig a passage 
through Mount Athos, 3 with orders to relieve 
each other at certain regular intervals. The 
undertaking was assisted by those who inhabit- 
ed the mountain, and the conduct of the work 
was confided to Bubaris, the son of Megaby- 
zus, and Antachaeus, son of Artaeus, both of 
whom were Persians. 

XXII. Athos is a large and noble moun- 
tain, projecting into the sea, and inhabited ; 



3 Through Mount Athos.'] — This incident Mr Richard- 
son conceives to be utterly incredible. This promontory 
was, as he justly remarks, no more than 200 miles from 
Athens ; and yet Xerxes is said to have employed a num- 
ber of men, three years before his crossing the Helles- 
pont, to separate it from the continent, and make a canal 
for his shipping. Themistocles also, who from the time 
of the battle of Marathon had been incessantly alarming 
the Athenians with another Persian invasion, never en- 
deavoured to support his opinion by any allusion to this 
canal, the very digging of which must have filled all 
Greece with astonishment, and been the subject of every 
public conversation. — See Richardson farther on this 
subject, Dissertation, p. 312. Pococke, who visited 
Mount Athos, deems also the event highly improbable, 
and says that he could not perceive the smallest vestige 
of any such undertaking— T. 



where it terminates on the land side it has the 
appearance of a peninsula, and forms an isth- 
mus of about twelve stadia in breadth : the 
surface of this is interspersed with several 
small hills, reaching from the Acanthian sea to 
that of Torone, 4 which is opposite. Where 
Mount Athos terminates, stands a Grecian 
city, called Sana ; in the interior parts, betwixt 
Sana and the elevation of Athos, are situated 
the towns of Dion, Olophyxus, Acrothoon, 
Thyssum, and Cleonse, inhabited by Greeks. 
It was the object of the Persians to detach 
these from the continent. 

XXIII. They proceeded to dig in this 
manner : the Barbarians marked out the ground 
in the vicinity of Sana with a rope, assigning 
to each nation their particular station ; then 
sinking a deep trench, whilst they at the bot- 
tom continued digging, the nearest to them 
handed the earth to others standing immedi- 
ately above them upon ladders ; it was thus 
progressively elevated, till it came to the sum- 
mit, where they who stood received and carried 
it away. The brink of the trench giving way, 
except in that part where the Phenicians were 
employed, occasioned a double labour ; and 
this, as the trench was no wider at top than at 
bottom, was unavoidable. But in this, as in 
other instances, the Phenicians discovered 
their superior sagacity, for in the part allotted 
to them they commenced by making the breadth 
of the trench twice as large as was necessary ; 
and thus proceeding in an inclined direction, 
they made their work at the bottom of the pre- 
scribed dimensions. In this part was a mea- 
dow which was their public place for business 
and for commerce, and where a vast quantity 
of corn was imported from Asia. 

XXIV. The motive of Xerxes in this 
work 5 was, as far as I am able to conjecture, 
the vain desire of exhibiting his power, and of 



4 Torone.]— There were two places of this name, one 
on the coast of Epirus, the other this bay in Macedonia, 
where the roaring of the sea was so loud that the ex- 
pression eurdor Toronceo ponto, became proverbial. — T. 

5 In tfiis wo /•&.]— Plutarch, in his treatise de Ira cohi- 
benda, has preserved a ridiculous letter, supposed to 
have been written by Xerxes to Mount Athos. It was 
to this effect : " O thou miserable Athos, whose top now 
reaches to the heavens, I give thee in charge not to 
throw any great stones in my way, which may impede 
my work! if thou shalt do this, I will cut thee in pieces 
and cast thee into the sea." 

This threat to the mountain is however at least as 
sensible as the chastisement inflicted upon the Helles- 
pont ; so that if one anecdote be true, the other may also 
obtain credit. — T. 

2 T 



330 



HERODOTUS. 



leaving a monument to posterity. When with 
very little trouble he might have transported 
his vessels over the isthmus, he chose rather to 
unite the two seas by a canal, of sufficient dia- 
meter to admit two triremes a-breast. Those 
employed in this business were also ordered to 
throw bridges over the river Strymon. 

XXV. For these bridges Xerxes provided 
cordage made of the bark 1 of the biblos, and of 
white flax. The care of transporting provisions 
for the army was committed jointly to the 
^Egyptians and Phoenicians, that the troops, as 
well as the beasts of burden, in this expedition 
to Greece, might not suffer from famine. After 
examining into the nature of the country, he 
directed stores to be deposited in every con- 
venient situation, which were supplied by trans- 
ports and vessels of burden, from the different 
parts of Asia. Of these the greater number 
were carried to that part of Thrace which is 
called the " White Coast ;" others to Tyro- 
diza of the Perinthians ; the remainder were 
severally distributed at Doriscus, at E'ion on 
the banks of the Strymon, and in Macedonia. 

XXVI. Whilst these things were carrying 
on, Xerxes, at the head of all his land forces, 
left Critalis in Cappadocia, and marched to- 
wards Sardis : it was at Critalis that all those 
troops were appointed to assemble who were 
to attend the king by land ; who the com- 
mander was, that received from the king the 
promised gifts, on account of the number and 
goodness of his troops, I am unable to decide, 
nor indeed can I say whether there was any 
competition on the subject. Passing the river 
Halys, 2 they came to Phrygia, and continuing 
to advance, arrived at Celaenae, where are the 
fountains of the Maeander, as well as those of 
another river of equal size with the Maeander, 
called Catarracte, which rising in the public 
square of Celaense, empties itself into the 
Maeander. In the forum of this city is sus- 
pended the skin of Marsyas, 3 which the Phry- 

1 Of the bark.] — The Indians make very strong cord- 
age of the bark of the eocoa-tree. The English word 
cordage comes from the Greek word z°$vi, chorde, a 
kind of gut of which cord was made. — T. 

2 Halys. ]— If the reader will be pleased to remember, 
that Herodotus makes the river Halys the boundary of 
the kingdoms of Cyrus and Croesus, it may lead to some 
interesting and useful reflections on the progress of am- 
bition, and the fate of empires. — T. 

3 Marsyas.'} — This story must be sufficiently familiar ; 
See Ovid Metamorph. 1. vi. 382. 

The punishment of Marsyas, says Licetus, was only 
an allegory. Before the invention of the lyre, the flute 
was the first of all musical instruments ; after the intro- 



gians say was placed there after he had been 
flayed by Apollo. 

XXVII. In this city lived a man named 
Pythius, son of Atys, a native of Lydia, who 
entertained Xerxes and all his army with great 
magnificence ; he farther engaged to supply the 
king with money for the war. Xerxes was on 
this induced to inquire of his Persian attend- 
ants who this Pythius was, and what were the 
resources which enabled him to make these of- 
fers : " It is the same," they replied, " who 
presented your father Darius with a plane tree 
and a vine of gold, 4 and who, next to yourself, 
is the richest of mankind. 5 " 



duction of the lyre, the flute came into disrepute, and 
nothing was to be gained by excelling on it. Pausanias, 
describing one of the Pictures of Polygnotus, in his 
book of the Territories of Phocis, says, that in one of 
the temples of Delphi was a picture, which contained 
among other figures Marsyas sitting upon a rock, and 
the youth Olympus by Mm, who seems to be learning 
to play on the flute.— T. 

4 Vine of gold.}— See Seneca's Epistles, Nemo glori- 
ari nisi de suo debet. — Vitem laudamus si fructu palmites 
onerat, si ipsa ad terram pondere eorum quae tulit ad- 
minicula deducit. Nuin quis huic illam vitem prseferat 
cui aurese uvae aurea folia dependent. Upon which Jor- 
tin remarks : Illem inquit vitem quasi de aliqua vite 
aurea satis cognita loquens : de ilia puta quam Aristobu- 
lus dederat Pompeio. 

Mention is made by the ancient writers of several 
golden vines. According to Pliny, Cyrus, when he con- 
quered Asia, carried one away with him. See also 
Athenaeus, book xii. where it is said, that this vine of 
gold, adorned with the most valuable jewels, was de- 
posited in the bed-chamber of the Persian monarch. See 
Jortin, Remarks on Latin authors. 

5 Richest of mankind.] — Many wonderful anecdotes 
are related of the riches of individuals in more ancient 
times ; among which this does not seem to be the least 
marvellous. The sum of which Pythius is said to have 
been possessed amounted to five millions and a half of 
our sterling money ; this is according to the estimate of 
Prideaux : that given by Montfaucon differs essentially. 
" The denii," says the last writer, " weighed eight mo- 
dern louis d'ors ; therefore Pythius possessed thirty-two 
millions of louis d'ors. " If so great then was the wealth 
of a single dependant on the sovereign of Persia, what 
must have been the riches of all the satraps, princes, 
nobility, &c. collectively ? 

Montfaucon, relating the history of Pythius, adds these 
reflections : 

" A man might in those days safely be rich, provided 
he obtained his riches honestly ; and how great must 
have been the circulation in commerce, if a private man 
could amass so prodigious a sum!" The wealth which 
the Roman Crassus possessed was not much inferior ; 
when he had consecrated a tenth of his property to Her- 
cules, and at ten thousand tables feasted all the people of 
Rome, beside giving as much corn to every citizen as 
was sufficient to last him three months, he found himself 
still possessed of 7100 Roman talents, equivalent to a 
million and a half of our money. The gold which Solo- 
mon employed in overlaying the sanctum sanctorum of 
the temple, which was no more than thirty feet square 






POLYMNIA. 



331 



XXVIII. These last words filled Xerxes 
with astonishment ; and he could not refrain 
from asking Pythius himself the amount of 
his wealth : " Sir," he replied, " I conceal 
nothing from you, nor affect ignorance ; but as 
I am able I will fairly tell you. — As soon as I 
heard of your approach to the Grecian sea, I 
was desirous of giving you money for the war ; 
on examining into the state of my affairs, I 
found that I was possessed of two thousand 
talents of silver, and four millions, wanting only 
seven thousand, of gold staters of Darius ; all 
this I give you — my slaves and my farms will 
be sufficient to maintain me." 

XXIX. " My Lydian friend," returned 
Xerxes, much delighted, " since I first left 
Persia, you are the only person who has treated 
my army with hospitality, or who, appearing in 
my presence, has voluntarily offered me a sup- 
ply for the war : you have done both ; in 
acknowledgment for which I offer you my 
friendship ; you shall be my host, and I will 
give you the seven thousand staters, which are 
wanting to make your sum of four millions com- 
plete — Retain, therefore, and enjoy your pro- 
perty j persevere in your present mode of con- 
duct, which will invariably operate to your 
happiness." 

XXX. Xerxes having performed what he 
promised, proceeded on his march ; passing by 
a Phrygian city, called Anaua, and a lake from 
which salt is made, he came to Colossse.** This 
also is a city of Phrygia, and of considerable 
eminence; here the Lycus disappears, entering 
abruptly a chasm in the earth, but at the dis- 
tance of seven stadia it again emerges, and con- 
tinues its course to the Maeander. The Pei> 
sian army, advancing from Colossae, came to 
Cydrara, a place on the confines of Phiygia and 
Lydia ; here a pillar had been erected by Croe- 



and thirty feet high, amounted to four millions three 
hundred and twenty thousand pounds sterling. The 
gold which he had in one year from Opliir was equal to 
three millions two hundred and forty thousand pounds : 
his annual tribute in gold, beside silver, was four millions 
seven hundred ninety-five thousand two hundred 
pounds. Lucullus the Roman senator, whenever he 
supped in his room called the Apollo, expended fifty 
thousand Roman denarii, nearly equal to fifteen hundred 
pounds. See Plutarch, Montfaucon, and Frideaux. Tliis 
Btory is related differently in Plutarch's treatise de Virtu- 
tibus Mulierum.— 7 1 . 

6 CoIossce — or Colossis, a town of Phrygia, near Lao- 
dicea, on the confines of Caria. This place is memorable 
in scripture, on account of the epistle addressed by St 
Paul to its inhabitants.— T. 



sus, with an inscription defining the boundaries 
of the two countries. 

XXXI. On entering Lydia from Phrygia 
they came to a place where two roads met, the 
one on the left leading to Caria, the other on 
the right to Sardis : to those who go by the 
latter it is necessary to cross the Mseander, and 
to pass Callatebus, a city where honey is made 
of the tamarisk and wheat. Xerxes here found 
a plane-tree, so very beautiful, that he adorned 
it with chains of gold, and assigned the guard 
of it 7 to one of the immortal band ; 8 the next 
day he came to the principal city of the Lydians. 

XXXII. When arrived at Sardis, his first 
step was to send heralds into Greece, demand- 
ing earth and water, and commanding prepara- 
tions should be made to entertain him. He 
did not, however, send either to Athens or 
Lacedaemon : his motive for repeating the de- 
mand to the other cities, was, the expectation 
that they who had before refused earth and 
water to Darius, would, from their alarm at his 
approach, send it now ; this he wished positively 
to know. 

XXXIII. Whilst he was preparing to go 
to Abydos, numbers were employed in throw- 
ing a bridge over the Hellespont, from Asia to 
Europe ; betwixt Sestos and Madytus, in the 
Chersonese of the Hellespont, the coast to- 
wards the sea from Abydos is rough and woody. 
After this period, and at no remote interval of 
time, Xanthippus, son of Ariphron, and com- 
mander of the Athenians, in this place took 
Antayctes, a Persian, and governor of Sestos, 
prisoner ; he was crucified alive ; he had for- 
merly carried some females to the temple of 
Protesilaus in Elaeos, and perpetrated what is 
detestable. 

XXXIV. They on whom the office was 
imposed proceeded in the work of the bridge, 
commencing at the side next Abydos. The 
Phenicians used a cordage made of linen, the 
Egyptians the bark of the biblos : from Abydos 
to the opposite continent is a space of seven 
stadia. The bridge was no sooner completed, 



7 The guard of if] — This caprice of Xerxes is ridiculed 
by iElian, 1. ii. c. 14. but with no great point or humour. 
He remarks, that the beauty of a tree consists in its firm 
root, its spreading branches, itstliick leaves, but that tbe 
bracelets of Xerxes, and gold of Barbarians, would cer- 
tainly be no addition to its excellence. — T. 

8 Immortal band.]— See on this subject, chapter 83. 

9 Seven stadia.]— The Hellespont was so called by the 
ancients because Helle, attempting to swim over here, 
on the ram with the golden fleece, was drowned. The 
Europeans call it the Dardanelles, as well as the castles 



332 



HERODOTUS. 



than a great tempest arose, which tore in pieces 
and destroyed the whole of their labour. 

XXXV. When Xerxes heard of what had 
happened, he was so enraged, that he ordered 
three hundred lashes to be inflicted 1 on the 
Hellespont, and a pair of fetters to be thrown 
into the sea. I have been informed that he 
even sent some executioners to brand the Hel- 
lespont with marks of ignominy ; but it is 
certain, that he ordered those who inflicted the 
lashes to use these barbarous and mad expres- 
sions : " Thou ungracious water, thy master 
condemns thee to this punishment, for having 
injured him without provocation. Xerxes the 
king will pass over thee, whether thou con_ 
sentest or not : just is it that no man honours 
thee with sacrifice, for thou art insidious, and 
of an ungrateful flavour." After thus treating 
the sea, the king commanded those who pre- 
sided over the construction of the bridge to be 
beheaded. 

XXXVI. These commands were executed 
by those on whom that unpleasing office was 
conferred, A bridge was then constructed by 
a different set of architects, who performed it 
in the following manner $ they connected to- 
gether ships of different kinds, some long vessels 
of fifty oars, others three-banked gallies, to the 
number of three hundred and sixty on the side 
towards the Euxine sea, and three hundred and 



about the middle of it ; the Turks gave it the name of 
Bogas (the mouth or entrance). The entrance to the 
Dardanelles is now to be computed from the Asia light- 
house, about a league without Lamsac, and from the 
Europe light-house, half a league to the north of Galli- 
poli; the whole length is about twenty-six miles; the 
broadest part is not computed to be above four miles 
over, though at Gallipoli it was judged by the ancients to 
be five miles, and from Sestos to Abydos only seven stadia, j 
— Pococke. 

On a reconnu dans ces derniers temps que ce trajet, 
le plus resserve de tout le detroit, n'est que d'environ 375 
toises et demi, les ponts ayant 7 stades de longuer ; M. 
d'Anville en a conclu que ces stades n'etoient que de 51 
toises. — Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis. 

1 To be inflicted.]— Juvenal makes a happy use of this ' 
historical anecdote ; Sat. x. 179. 

Ille tamen (Xerxes) qualis rediit Salamine relicta 
In Corum atque Eurum solitus saevire flagellis. 
Barbarus, iEolio nunquam hoc in carcere passos, 
Ipsum compedibus qui vinxerat Ennosigaeum 
Mitius id sane, quod non et stigmate dignum 
Credidit. 

Of which lines this is Dryden's translation : 

But how did he return, this haughty brave, 
Who whipt the winds, and made the sea his slave ? 
Though Neptune took unkindly to be bound, 
And Eurus never such hard usage found 
In his /Eolian prison under ground. 

The reader will observe that the more pointed part of 



thirteen on that of the Hellespont. 2 The for- 
mer of these were placed transversely, but the 
latter, to diminish the strain upon the cables, in 
the direction of the current. When these 
vessels were firmly connected to each other, 
they were secured on each side by anchors of 
great length ; on the upper side, because of the 
winds which set in from the Euxine ; on the 
lower, toward the iEgean sea, on account of 
the south and south-east winds. 3 They left, 
however, openings in three places, sufficient to 
afford a passage for light vessels, which might 
have occasion to sail into the Euxine or from 
it : having performed this, they extended cables 
from the shore, 4 stretching them upon large 
capstans of wood j for this purpose they did 
not employ a number of separate cables, but 
united two of white flax with four of biblos. 
These were alike in thickness, and apparently 
so in goodness, but those of flax were in pro- 
portion much the more solid, weighing not less 

the passage is totally omitted by Dryden.— Gifford is far 
more successful. — T. 

2 On that of the Hellespont.] — It seems a matter of 
certainty that these numbers must be erroneous.— Ves- 
sels placed transversely must reach to a much greater 
extent than the same number placed side by side; yet here 
the greater number of ships is stated to have been on the 
side where they were arranged transversely, that is, 
across the channel, with their broadsides to the stream. 
What the true numbers were it is vain to conjecture, it 
is sufficient to have pointed out that the present must be 
wrong. — T. 

3 The south and south-east winds.] — At first sight it 
appears that the west winds were most to be dreaded on 
that side ; but the western side of the channel is sheltered 
by the shore of the Chersonese, and it turns in such a 
manner, as to bring the south-east winds, as well as the 
south, to act against that side. It seems extraordinary 
that no mention is here made of the current as making 
anchors necessary on the upper side. I am tempted to 
think that some words expressing that circumstance 
have been lost from the text: we might perhaps read 
tvs poyS) km TCdv a,vi,ucov uvtxot, instead of t*is e^eg?;?, tm 
anpaiv : the first tvs lii^s being not necessary to the 
construction, though very consistent with it. I con- 
ceive each range of vessels to have been secured by 
anchors above and below, the transverse ships having 
them from each side, those placed with the current, at 
head and stern, so that there were in all four sets of 
anchors : or, perhaps, the cables extended from shore to 
shore secured each range of vessels on the inner side ; if 
so, there would be only two sets of anchors, one from 
the upper sides of the transverse ships, the other from 
one end of those which lay side by side. — T. 

4 Extended cables from the shore.] — That is, from 
shore to shore, and doubtless within each range of ships, 
at such a distance from each other as to be of a con- 
venient breadth for the bridge ; thus the ships served as 
piers to support the weight, and the cables resting on 
the vessels, or something projecting from them, formed 
the foundation for the road by which the army was to 



V- 



P OLYMNI A. 



333 



than a talent to every cubit. When the pass 
was thus secured, they sawed out rafters of 
wood, making their length equal to the space 
required for the bridge ; these they laid in 
order across upon the extended cables, and 
then bound them fast together. They next 
brought unwrought wood, which they placed 
very regularly upon the rafters ; over all they 
threw earth, which they raised to a proper 
height, and finished all by a fence on each side, 
that the horses and other beasts of burden 
might not be terrified by looking down upon 
the sea. 

XXXVII. The bridges were at length 
completed, and the work at mount Athos 
finished : to prevent the canal at this place be- 
ing choked up by the flow of the tides, deep 
trenches were sunk at its mouth. The army 
had wintered at Sardis, but on receiving intel- 
ligence of the above, they marched at the com- 
mencement of the spring for Abydos. At the 
moment of their departure, the sun, which be- 
fore gave his full light, in a bright unclouded 
atmosphere, withdrew his beams, and the dark- 
est night succeeded. Xerxes, alarmed at this 
incident, consulted the magi upon what it 
might portend. They replied, that the pro- 
tection of heaven was withdrawn from the 
Greeks ; the sun, they observed, was the tute- 
lar divinity of Greece, as the moon was of 
Persia. 5 The answer was so satisfactory to 
Xerxes, that he proceeded with increased 
alacrity. 

XXXVIII. During the march, Pythius 
the Lydian, who was much intimidated by the 
prodigy which had appeared, went to the 
king ; deriving confidence from the liberality 
he had shown and received, he thus addressed 
him : " Sir," said he, " I entreat a favour no 
less trifling to you than important to myself. " 
Xerxes, not imagining what he was about to 
ask, promised to grant it, and desired to know 
what he would have. Pythius on this became 
still more bold : " Sir," he returned, " I have 
five sons, who are all with you in this Grecian 
expedition; I would entreat you to pity my 
age, and dispense with the presence of the 
eldest. Take with you the four others, but 
leave this to manage my affairs ; so may you 



5 Tlie moon was of Persia.] — Several of the oriental 
nations worshipped the moon as a divinity. The Jews 
were reproved for doing tiiis by the prophet Jeremiah ; 
see chap. xliv. 17. 

" Let us sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and pour out 
our drink-offerings unto her," &c— 7". 



return in safety, after the accomplishment of 
your wishes." 

XXXIX. Xerxes, in great indignation, 
made this reply : " Infamous man ! you see me 
embark my all in this Grecian war ; myself, 
my children, my brothers, my domestics, and 
my friends ; how dare you then presume to 
mention your son, you who are my slave, and 
whose duty it is to accompany me on this oc- 
casion with all your family, and even your 
wife ? 7 — Remember this, the spirit of a man 
resides in his ears ; when he hears what is 
agreeable to him, the pleasure diffuses itself 
over all his body ; but when the contrary hap- 
pens he is anxious and uneasy. If your former 
conduct was good, and your promises yet better, 
you still cannot boast of having surpassed the 
king in liberality. Although your present beha- 
viour is base and insolent, you shall be punished 
less severely than you deserve ; your former 
hospitality preserves yourself and four of your 
children; the fifth, whom you most regard, 
shall pay the penalty of your crime." As soon 
as he had finished, the king commanded the 
proper officers to find the eldest son of Pythius, 
and divide his body in two : he then ordered 
one part of the body to be thrown on the right 
side of the road, the other on the left, whilst 
the army continued their march betwixt them. 

XL. The march was conducted in the fol- 
lowing order ; first of all went those who had 
the care of the baggage : they were followed by 
a promiscuous body of strangers of all nations, 
without any regularity, but to the amount of 
more than half the army : after these was a 
considerable interval, for these did not join the 
troops where the king was : next came a thou- 

6 Great indignation.]— Wo two characters could well 
afford a more striking - contrast to each other, than those 
of Darius and Xerxes ; that of Darius was on various 
occasions marked by the tenderest humanity ; it is un- 
necessary to specify any, as numerous instances occur 
in the course of this work. Xerxes on the contrary was 
insolent, imperious, and unfeeling : and viewing the 
whole of his conduct, we are at a loss which to repro- 
bate most, his want of sagacity, of true courage, or veal 
sensibility. The example before us, as we have nothing 
on record of the softer or more amiable kind to contrast 
it with, as it was not only unprovoked, but as the unso- 
licited liberality of Pythius demanded a very different 
return, we are compelled to consign it to everlasting in- 
famy, as au act of consummate meanness and brutality, 
— T. 

7 Even your wife ] — This expression may at first sight 
appear a little singular; its apparent absurdity vanishes, 
when we take into consideration the jealous care with 
which the orientals have in all ages secluded their wo- 
men from the public eye. — T. 



334 



HERODOTUS. 



sand horse, the flower of the Persian army, who 
were followed by the same number of spearmen, 
in like manner selected, trailing their pikes up- 
on the ground : behind these were ten sacred 
horses called Niseean, 1 with very superb trap- 
pings (they take their name from a certain 
district in Media, called Nisseus, remarkable 
for producing horses of an extraordinary size) j 
the sacred car of Jupiter was next in the pro- 
cession, it was drawn by eight white horses, 
behind which, on foot, was the charioteer, with 
the reins in his hands, for no mortal is permitted 
to" sit in this car ; then came Xerxes himself, 
in a chariot 2 drawn by Nissean horses, by his 
side sat his charioteer whose name was Patir- 
amphes, son of Otanes the Persian. 

XLI. Such was the order in which Xerxes 
departed from Sardis ; but as often as occasion 
required he left his chariot for a common car- 
riage. 3 A thousand of the first and noblest 
Persians attended his person,bearing their spears 
according to the custom of their country ; and 
a thousand horse, selected like the former, im- 
mediately succeeded. A body of ten thousand 
chosen infantry came next : a thousand of these 
had at the extremity of their spears a pome- 
granate of gold, the remaining nine thousand, 
whom the former enclosed, had in the same 
manner pomegranates of silver. They who pre- 
ceded Xerxes, and trailed their spears, had their 
arms decorated with gold ; they who followed 
him had, as we have described, golden pome- 
granates : these ten thousand foot were fol- 
lowed by an equal number of Persian cavalry ; 
at an interval of about two furlongs followed a 
numerous, irregular, and promiscuous multi- 
tude. 



1 Niscean.] — Suidas says, that these horses were also 
remarkable for their swiftness j see article Nitraaov. — T. 

2 In a c7iariot.]— The curious reader will find all the 
different kinds of ancient chariots, and other carriages, 
enumerated and explained in Montfaucon's Antiquities. 
— T. 

3 Common carriage.] — Of the Harmamaxa Larcher 
remarks, that it was a carriage appropriated to females. 
The Greek carriages were distinguished by the different 
names of «§,".*, <x.p.K$,<x., ox'/ipa,. 

" The first heroes," says Lucretius, " were mounted 
on horses, for chariots were a more modern invention." 
— See book v. 

Et prius est reppeitum in equi conscendere costas, 
Et moderanter hunc fraenis dextraque vigere 

Quam bijugo curru belli tentare pericla. 

Mounted on well-rein'd steeds, in ancient time, 

Before the use of chariots was brought in, 

The first brave heroes fought. 

See also Pottev's Antiquities of Greece, on the Grecian 
chariots. — T. 



XLII. From Lydia the army continued its 
march along the banks of the Caicus, to Mysia, 
and leaving Mount Canse on the left, proceed- 
ed through Atarnis to the city Carina. Mov- 
ing hence over the plains of Thebes, and 
passing by Adramythium and Antandros, a 
Pelasgian city, they left mount Ida to the left, 
and entered the district of Ilium. In the very 
first night which thejypassed under Ida, a furi- 
ous storm of thunder and lightning arose, which 
destroyed numbers of the troops. From hence 
they advanced to the Scamander; 4 this river 
first of all, after their departure from Sardis, 
failed in supplying them with a quantity of 
water sufficient for their troops and beasts of 
burden. 

XLIII. On his arrival at this river, Xerxes 
ascended the citadel of Priam, desirous of ex- 
amining the place. Having surveyed it atten- 
tively, and satisfied himself concerning it, he 
ordered a thousand oxen to be sacrificed to the 
Trojan Minerva, 5 at the same time the magi 
directed libations to be offered to the manes of 
the heroes ; when this was done, a panic spread 
itself in the night through the army. At the 
dawn of morning they moved forward, leaving 
to the left the towns of Rhcetion, Ophryneon, 
and Dardanus, which last is very near Abydos ; 
the Gergithse and Teucri were to the right. 

XLIV. On their arrival at Abydos, Xerxes 
desired to take a survey of all his army : the 
inhabitants had, at his previous desire, con- 
structed for him, on an eminence, a seat of 
white marble ; upon this he sate, and directing 
his eyes to the shore, beheld at one view his 
land and sea forces. He next wished to see a 
naval combat ; 6 one was accordingly exhibited 



4 Scamander. 1— See Homer : 

'On Sotvdov xaXiovcri 8101, cevh^t; St 2x<x,a«vSg«v. 
Which the gods call Xanthus, mortals Scamander. 

5 Trojan Minerva.]— The temple of the Trojan Mi- 
nerva was in the citadel. The story of the Palladium, 
how essential it was deemed to the preservation of Troy, 
and how it was surreptitiously removed by Diomede and 
Ulysses, must be sufficiently known. See in particular 
the speech of Ulysses, in the 13th book of the Metamor 
phoses : 

Quam rapui Phrygia signum penetrale Minervae 
Hostibus e mediis et se mihi comparat Ajax ? 
Nempe capi Trojam prohibebant fata sine illo. 

Verum etiam summas arces intrare, suaque 
Eripere asde deam, &c. 

Alexander the Great, when he visited Troy, did not 
omit offering sacrifice to the Trojan Minerva.— T. 

6 Naval combat.]— The Naumachiae constituted one of 
the grandest of the Roman shows,and were first exhibited 
at the end of the first Punic war: they were originally 
intended to improve the Romans in naval discipline ; but 



-r — 



POLYMNIA. 



335 



before him, in which the Phoenicians of Sidon 
were victorious. The view of this contest, as 
well as the number of his forces, delighted 
Xerxes exceedingly. 

XLV. When the king beheld all the Hel- 
lespont crowded with ships, and all the shore, 
with the plains of Abydos, covered with his 
troops, he at first congratulated himself as 
happy, but he afterwards burst into tears. 7 

XL VI. Artabanus, the uncle of Xerxes, 
who with so much freedom had at first opposed 
the expedition against Greece, observed the 
king's emotion : " How different, Sir," said he, 
addressing him, " is your present behaviour, 
from what it was a few minutes since ! you 
then esteemed yourself happy, you now are dis- 
solved to tears." " My reflection," answered 
Xerxes, " on the transitory period of human life, 
excited my compassion for this vast multitude, 
not one of whom will complete the term of 
one hundred years." " This," returned Arta- 
banus," is not to be reckoned the greatest ca- 
lamity to which human beings are exposed , 
for, short as life is, there is no one in this mul- 
titude, nor indeed in the universe, who has been 



in more luxurious times they were never displayed from 
this motive, but to indulge private ostentation, or the 
public curiosity. 

Lampridius relates of Heliogabalus, that the artificial 
lake in which the vessels were to appear at a public 
naumachia was by his command filled with wine instead 
of water.— T. 

1 Into tears.'} — 

As down 
Th' immeasurable ranks his sight was lost, 
A momentary gloom o'ercast his mind : 
While this reflection fill'd his eyes with tears — 
That, soon as time a hundred years had told, 
Not one among those millions should survive. 
Whence, to obscure thy pride, arose that cloud ; 
Was it that once humanity could touch 
A tyrant's breast ? Or rather did thy soul 
Repine, O Xerxes, at the bitter thought 
That all thy pow'r was mortal ? Glover's Leonidas. 

Seneca justly points out the inconsistency of these tears. 
" The very man," says he, "who shed them was about 
to precipitate their fate, losing- some by land, some by 
Bea, some in battle, some in flight, in a word destroying 
within a very little space of time that multitude, whose 
death within a hundred years he now appeared to dread. " 
-De Brev. Vita, c. xvii.— He also assigns as the truer 
cause of his regret, the idea which concludes the above 
citation from Glover. Rollin has expressed the thought 
of Seneca with some improvement : " He might have 
found another subject of reflection, which would have 
more justly merited his tears and affliction, had he turn. 
ed his thoughts upon himself, and considered the re- 
proaches he deserved for being the instrument of short- 
ening that fatal term to millions of people, whom his 
cruel ambition was going to sacrifice in an unjust and 
unnecessary war." The younger Pliny rather justifies 
his tears, Ep. iii. l.—T. 



so truly happy, as not repeatedly to have desired 
death rather than life. The oppressions of 
misfortune, and the pangs of disease, render 
the short hours of life tedious and painful ; 
death thus becomes the most delightful refuge 
of the unfortunate ; and perhaps the invidious- 
ness of the deity is most apparent, by the very 
pleasures we are suffered to enjoy." 

XL VII. " Artabanus," replied Xerxes, 
" human life is what you represent it ; but we 
will omit reflecting upon what fills us with 
uneasiness, and enjoy the pleasures which are 
before us : rather tell me, has the vision which 
you saw impressed full conviction on your mind, 
or do your former sentiments incline you to 
dissuade me from this Grecian war ? — speak 
without reserve." " May the vision, O king," 
replied Artabanus, " which we have mutually 
seen, succeed to both our wishes ! for my own 
part I am still so full of apprehensions, as not 
at all to be master of myself : after reflecting 
seriously on the subject, I discern two impor- 
tant things, exceedingly hostile to your views." 

XL VIII. "What, my good friend, can 
these two things possibly be ?" replied Xerxes ; 
" do you think unfavourably of our land army, 
as not being sufficiently numerous ? Do you 
imagine the Greeks will be able to collect one 
more powerful ? Can you conceive our fleet 
inferior to that of our enemies ? — or do both 
these considerations together distress you ? If 
our force does not seem to you sufficiently ef- 
fective, reinforcements may soon be provided." 

XLIX. " No one, Sir," answered Artaba- 
nus, " in his proper senses, could object either 
to your army, or to the multitude of your fleet : 
should you increase their number, the more 
hostile would the two things be of which I 
speak ; I allude to the land and the sea. In 
case of any sudden tempest, you will find no 
harbour, as I conjecture, sufficiently capacious 
or convenient for the protection of your fleet ; 
no one port would answer this purpose, you 
must have the whole extent of the continent ; 
your being without a resource of this kind, 
should induce you to remember that fortune 
commands men, 8 and not men fortune. This 
is one of the calamaties which threaten you : 

8 Fortune commands men.]— This sentiment is beauti- 
fully expressed in Ecclesiastes, ix. 11. 

" I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is 
not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither 
yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of under, 
standing, nor yet favour to men of skill ; but time and 
chance happeneth to them all." 



336 



HERODOTUS 



I will now explain the other : The land is also 
your enemy ; your meeting with no resistance 
will render it more so, as you will be thus 
seduced imperceptibly to advance ; it is the 
nature of man never to be satisfied with 
success : thus, having no enemy to encounter, 
every moment of time, and addition to your 
progress, will be gradually introductive of 
famine. He, therefore, who is truly wise, will 
as carefully deliberate about the possible event 
of things, as he will be bold and intrepid in 
action." 1 

L. Xerxes made this reply : " What you 
allege, Artabanus, is certainly reasonable ; but 
you should not so much give way to fear, as to 
see every thing in the worst point of view ; if 
in consulting upon any matter we were to be 
influenced by the consideration of every pos- 
sible contingency, we should execute nothing. 
It is better to submit to half of the evil which 
may be the result of any measure, than to re- 
main in inactivity from the fear of what may 
eventually occur. If you oppose such senti- 
ments as have been delivered, without inform- 
ing us what more proper conduct to pursue, 
you are not more deserving of praise than they 
are, whom you oppose. I am of opinion that 
no man is qualified to speak upon any subject 
with decision : they who are bold and enter- 
prising are more frequently successful, than 
they who are slow in their measures from ex- 
treme deliberation. You are sensible to what 
a height the power of Persia has arrived, 
which would never have been the case, if my 
predecessors had either been biassed by such 
sentiments as yours, or listened to such 
advisers : it was their contempt of danger 
which promoted their country's glory, for great 
exploits are always attended with proportion- 
able danger. 2 We, therefore, emulous of their 



A moralist may perhaps be excused for adding-, as a 
comment to the above, the simple but elegant line of 
Pope: 

Chance is direction which thou canst not see. — T. 

1 Intrepid in action."} — Larcher quotes, as a parallel 
passage to this, these words from Sallust. — Catilin. c. i, 
Prius quam incipias consulto, et ubi consulueris mature facto opus 

est. 

2 Proportionable danger. ] — 

The steep ascent must he with toil subdued ; 

Watehings and cares must win the lofty prize 
Proposed by heaven — true bliss, and real good. 

Honour rewards the brave and bold alone, 
She spurns the timorous, indolent, and base; 

Danger and toil stand stern before her throne, 
And guard, so Jove commands, the sacred place : 

Who seeks her must the mighty cost sustain, 
And pay the price of fame— labour, and care, and pain. 

^.Choice of Hercules. 



reputation, have selected the best season of the 
year for our enterprise ; and, having effectually 
conquered Europe, we shall return without ex- 
perience of famine or any other calamity : we 
have with us abundance of provisions, and the 
nations among which we arrive will supply us 
with corn, for they against whom we advance 
are not shepherds, but husbandmen." 

LI. " Since, Sir," returned Artabanus, 
" you will suffer no mention to be made of fear, 
at least listen to my advice : where a number 
of things are to be discussed, prolixity is un- 
avoidable. — Cyrus, son of Cambyses, made all 
Ionia tributary to Persia, Athens excepted ; do 
not, therefore, I entreat you, lead these men 
against those from whom they are immediately 
descended -. without the Ionians, we are more 
than a sufficient match for our opponents. 
They must either be most base, by assisting 
to reduce the principal city of their country ; 
or, by contributing to its freedom, will do 
what is most just. If they shall prove the 
former, they can render us no material service ; 
if the latter, they may bring destruction on 
your army. Remember, therefore, the truth 
of the ancient proverb, When we commence a 
thing we cannot always tell how it will end. 3 " 

LII. " Artabanus," interrupted Xerxes, 
" your suspicions of the fidelity of the Ionians 
must be false and injurious ; of their constancy 
we have had sufficient testimony, as you your- 
self must be convinced, as well as all those 
who served under Darius against the Scythians. 
It was in their power to save or destroy all the 
forces of Persia, but they preserved their faith, 
their honour, and their gratitude ; add to this, 
they have left in our dominions their wives, 
their children, and their wealth, and therefore 
dare not meditate any thing against us. In- 
dulge, therefore, no apprehensions, but cheer- 
fully watch over my family, and preserve my 
authority : to you I commit the exercise of my 
power." 

LIII. Xerxes after this interview dismissed 
Artabanus to Susa, and a second time called 
an assembly of the most illustrious Persians. 
As soon as they were met, he thus addressed 



3 Will end.]— 

Prudens futuri temporis exitum 

Caliginosa nocte premit deus, 

Ridetque si mortalis ultra 

Fas trepidat, &c. Hor. 

See also Piudar, in Olympiis : 

Nyv $ iXxoptx.! fji.lv, tv diM yi vav n\o. 
We may hope indeed, but the event is with God 
alone.— T. 



POLYMNIA. 



337 



them j " "My motive, Persians, for thus convok- 
ing you, is to entreat you to behave like men, 
and not dishonour the many great exploits of 
our ancestors j let us individually and collec- 
tively exert ourselves. We are engaged in a 
common cause ; and I the rather call upon you 
to display your valour, because I understand we 
are advancing against a warlike people, whom 
if we overcome, no one will in future dare op- 
pose us. Let us, therefore, proceed, having 
first implored the aid of the gods of Persia." 

LIV. On the same day they prepared to 
pass the bridge : the next morning, whilst they 
waited for the rising of the sun, they burned 
on the bridge all manner of perfumes, and 
strewed the way with branches of myrtle. 4 
When the sun appeared, Xerxes poured into 
the sea a libation from a golden vessel, and then 
addressing the sun, he implored him to avert 
from the Persians every calamity, till they 
should totally have vanquished Europe, arriv- 
ing at its extremest limits. Xerxes then threw 
the cup into the Hellespont, together with a 
golden goblet, and a Persian scymitar. I am 
not able to determine whether the king, by 
throwing these things into the Hellespont, in- 
tended to make an offering to the sun, or 
whether he wished thus to make compensation 
to the sea for having formerly chastised it. 

LV. When this was done, all the infantry 
and the horse were made to pass over that part 
of the bridge which was towards the Euxine ; 
over that to the iEgean, went the servants of 
the camp, and the beasts of burden. They 
were preceded by ten thousand Persians, having 
garlands on their heads j and these were fol- 
lowed by a promiscuous multitude of all na- 
tions ; — these passed on the first day. The 
first who went over the next day were the 
knights, and they who trailed their spears ; 

4 Branches of myrtle.] — The myrtle was with the 
ancients a very favourite plant, and always expressive of 
triumph and joy : the hero wore it as a mark of victory : 
the bridegroom on his bridal-day : and friends presented 
each other with myrtle garlands in the conviviality of 
the banquet. Venus is said to have been adorned with 
it when Paris decided in her favour the prize of beauty, 
and that for this reason it was deemed odious to Juno 
and Minerva. It was probably from this reason, that 
when all other flowers and shrubs might be used in the 
festival of the Bona Dea at Rome, myrtle alone was ex- 
cluded. — See Rosinus. Harmodius and Aristogiton be- 
fore mentioned, when they slew the Athenian tyrant, 
had their swords concealed beneath wreaths of myrtle ; 
of which incident, as recorded in a fragment of Alcaeus, 
Sir William Jones has made a happy use in his Poem to 
Liberty ; I have already quoted the passage. 



these also had garlands on their heads ; next 
came the sacred horses, and the sacred car; 
afterwards Xerxes himself, who was followed 
by a body of spear-men, and a thousand horse. 
The remainder of the army closed the proces- 
sion, and at the same time the fleet moved to 
the opposite shore ; I have heard from some, 
that the king himself was the last who passed 
the bridge. 

LVI. As soon as Xerxes had set foot in 
Europe, he saw his troops driven over the 
bridge by the force of blows ; and seven whole 
days and as many nights were consumed in the 
passage of his army. When Xerxes had passed 
the Hellespont, an inhabitant of the country is 
said to have exclaimed : " Why, O Jupiter, 
under the appearance of a Persian, and for the 
name of Jupiter taking that of Xerxes, art thou 
come to distract and persecute Greece ? or why 
bring so vast a multitude, when able to accom- 
plish thy purpose without them." 

LVII. When all were gone over, and were 
proceeding on their march, a wonderful prodigy 
appeared, which, though disregarded by Xer- 
xes, had an obvious meaning — a mare brought 
forth a hare : 5 from this it might have been in- 
ferred, that Xerxes, who led an army into 
Greece with much ostentation and insolence, 
should be involved in personal danger, and 
compelled to return with dishonour. Whilst 
yet at Sardis, he had seen another prodigy — a 
mule produced a young one which had the 
marks of both sexes, those of the male being 
beneath. 

L VIII. Neither of these incidents made any 
impression on his mind, and he continued to 
advance with his army by land, whilst his fleet 
passing beyond the Hellespont, coasted along 
the shore in an opposite direction. The latter 
sailed towards the west to the promontory of 
Sarpedon, where they were commanded to re- 
main : the former proceeded eastward through 
the Chersonese, having on their right the tomb 
of Helle, the daughter of Athamas, on the left 
the city of Cardia. Moving onward, through 

5 Brought forth a hare.~]—lr\ Julius Obsequens de 
Prodigiis, chap, xxxiii. p. 20, we have an account no less 
remarkable, L. Posthumio Albino. Sempronio Graccho 
Coss. mare arsit, ad Sinuessam bos equuleum peperit. 

See also the same book, on the subject of a mule's 
producing young. 

Mulapariens.discordiaracivium, bonoruin interitum, 
mutationem leguni, turpes matronarum partus siguifi- 
cavit. — This was always deemed an unfortunate omen. 
See Pliny, book viii. c. 44. That mules never do pro- 
duce young I have before observed. — T. 
2 U 



338 



HERODOTUS. 



the midst of a city called Agera, they turned 
aside to the gulph of Melana, and a river of 
the same name, the waters of which were not 
sufficient for the troops. Having passed this 
river, which gives its name to the above-men- 
tioned gulf, they directed their march west- 
ward, and passing iEnos, a city of iEolia, and 
the lake Stertoris, they came to Doriscus. 

LIX. Doriscus is on the coast, and is a 
spacious plain of Thrace, through which the 
great river Hebrus flows. Here was a royal 
fort called Doriscus, in which Darius, in his 
expedition against Scythia, had placed a Per- 
sian garrison. This appearing a proper place 
for the purpose, Xerxes gave orders to have his 
army here marshalled and numbered. The 
fleet being all arrived off the shore near Doris- 
cus, their officers ranged them in order near 
where Sala, a Samothracian town,' and Zena 
are situated. At the extremity of this shore 
is the celebrated promontory of Serrium, 

which formerly belonged to the Ciconians 

The crews having brought their vessels to 
shore, 2 enjoyed an interval of repose, whilst 
Xerxes was drawing up his troops on the plain 
of Doriscus. 

LX. I am not able to specify what number 
of men each nation supplied, as no one has re- 
corded it. The whole amount of the land 
forces was seventeen hundred thousand. 3 Their 

1 Samothracian town."] — See Bellanger's remarks on 
this passage, in his Essais de Critique, where with great 
humour he compliments our countryman Littlebury, 
for kindly making his readers a present of two cities 
which never existed. Littlebury has rendered the pas- 
sage thus. 

" Xerxes commanded the sea captains to bring all their 
ships to the shore that lay nearest to Doriscus, where 
the cities of Sala, Samothracia, and Zena are situate, 
with another called Serrium, built upon a famous pro- 
montory formerly belonging to the Ciconians." 

Voila, ce me semble (says Bellanger) deux villes a pur 
gain, Samothracia avec une autre appellee Serrium. 
C'est de quoi enrichir les grands dictionnaires geogra- 
phiques. 

1 have studiously avoided pointing out any errors I 
may have discovered in Littlebury, from the fear of be- 
ing thought invidious : I should not have done it in this 
instance, but that I wished to direct the reader to an 
excellent piece of criticism, which will at the same time 
reward his attention, and justify me. 

2 Vessels to shore.]— As the vessels were not in those 
times so considerable as ours, they drew them on shore 
whenever they wanted to remain any time in one place. 

This custom, which we learn from Homer was in use 
in the time of the Trojan war, was also practised in the 
better ages of Greece. It is frequently mentioned by 
Xenophon, Thucydides, and other historians. — Larcher. 

3 Seventeen hundred thousand.]— I remain still in 
doubt, says Richardson, whether any such expedition 



mode of ascertaining the number was this : 
they drew up in one place a body of ten 
thousand men ; making these stand together 

w r as ever undertaken by the paramount sovereign of 
Persia. Disguised in name by some Greek corruption, 
Xerxes may possibly have been a feudatory prince or 
viceroy of the western districts : and that an invasion 
of Greece may have possibly taken place under this 
prince, I shall readily believe, but upon a scale I must 
also believe infinitely narrower than the least exagger- 
ated description of the Greek historians. 

In Herodotus the reputed followers of Xerxes amount 
to 5,283,220. Isocrates, in his Panathenaicos, estimates 
the land army in round numbers at 5,000,000. And with 
them Plutarch in general agrees : but such myriads ap- 
peared to Diodorus, Pliny,iElian, and other later writers s 
so much stretched beyond all belief, that they at once 
cut off four-fifths, to bring them within the line of pos- 
sibility. Yet what is this, but a singular and very un- 
authorized liberty in one of the most consequential 
points of the expedition ? What circumstance in the 
whole narration is more explicit in Herodotus, or by its 
frequent repetition, not in figures, but in words at length, 
seems less liable to the mistake of copiers ? &c. — See 
Richardson. 

Upon this subject, Larcher, who probably had never 
seen Richardson's book, writes as follows : 

This immense army astonishes the imagination, but 
still is not incredible. All the people dependant upon 
Persia were slaves j they were compelled to march, 
without distinction of birth or profession. Extreme 
youth or advanced age were probably the only reasons 
which excused them from bearing arms. The only rea- 
sonable objection to be made to this recital of Herodotus 
is that which Voltaire has omitted to make— where were 
provisions to be had for so numerous an army ? But 
Herodotus has anticipated this objection: "We have 
with us," says Xerxes, " abundance of provisions, and 
all the nations among which we shall come, not being 
shepherds but husbandmen, we shall find corn in their 
country, which we shall appropriate to our own use." 

Subsequent writers have, it is true, differed from He- 
rodotus, and diminished the number of the army of 
Xerxes ; but Herodotus, who was in some measure a 
contemporary, and who recited his history to Greeks 
assembled at Olympia, where were many who fought at 
Salamis and Platea, is more deserving of credit than 
later historians. 

The truth perhaps may lie betwixt the two different 
opinions of Richardson and Larcher. It is not likely, as 
there were many exiles from Greece at the court of 
Persia, that Xerxes should be ignorant of the numbers 
and resources of Greece. To lead there so many millions 
seems at first sight not only unnecessary but preposter- 
ous. Admitting that so vast an army had marched 
against Greece, no one of common, sense would have 
thought of making an attack by the way of Thermopylae, 
where the passage must have been so tedious, and any 
resistance, as so few in proportion could possibly be 
brought to act, might be made almost on equal terms : 
whilst on the contrary, to make a descent, they had the 
whole range of coast before them. With respect to pro- 
visions, the difficulty appears still greater, and almost 
insurmountable. I recur therefore to what I have be- 
fore intimated ; and believe, in contradiction to Rich- 
ardson, that the expedition actually took place ; but I 
cannot think, with Larcher, that the numbers recorded 
by Herodotus are consistent with probability.— T. 



POLYMNIA. 



339 



as compactly as possible, they drew a circle 
round them. Dismissing these, they enclosed 
the circle with a wall breast high; into this 
they introduced another and another ten thou- 
sand, till they thus obtained the precise num- 
ber of the whole. They afterwards ranged 
each nation apart. 

LXI. The nations who composed the army 
were these. I speak of the Persians first, who 
,wore small helmets on their heads, which they 
call tiarae : their bodies were covered with 
tunics of different colours, having sleeves, and 
adorned with plates of steel, in imitation of the 
scales of fishes ; their thighs were defended, 
and they carried a kind of shield called gerra, 
beneath which was a quiver. 4 They had short 
spears, 5 large bows, and arrows made of reeds ; 
and on their right side, a dagger suspended from 
a belt. They were led by Otanes, father of 
Amestris, one of the wives of Xerxes. The 
Persians were once called Cephenes by the 
Greeks ; by themselves and their neighbours 
Artsei. But when Perseus, the son of Danae 
and Jupiter, went to reside with Cepheus son 
of Belus, he married his daughter Andromeda, 
and had by her a son named Perses, who was 
left with his grandfather. Cepheus had no 
male offspring, and the Persians took their 
name from his grandson Perses. 

LXII. The Medes had the same military 
dress ; indeed, properly speaking, it is Median 
and not Persian. Their leader was Tigranes, 
of the family of Achaemenides. In ancient 
times the Medes were universally called Arii : 
but when Medea of Colchis went over to these 
Arii from Athens, they changed their name ; 
this is What they say of themselves. The ar- 
mour of the Cissians generally resembled that 
of the Persians, except that instead of tiara? 
they wore mitres: they were commanded by 
Anaphes, son of Otanes. The Hyrcani were 
also dressed like the Persians, and had for their 
leader Megapanus, who was afterwards gover- 
nor of Babylon. 

LXIII. The Assyrian forces had brazen 
helmets of a barbarous form, and difficult to 
describe. Their shields, spears, and daggers, 



4 A quiver.]— It is probable from this account, say9 
Larcher, that on their march the Persians did not carry 
their shields in their hands, but suspended behind from 
their shoulders. 

5 Short spears.]— The reader will find an excellent 
description of these military habits in Montfaucou, and 
by no means an inelegant or incorrect one in the Leonidas 
of our countryman Glover.— T 



were like those of the Egyptians; they bad 
also large clubs pointed with iron, and linen 
cuirasses. These people the Greeks call 
Syrians, the Barbarians Assyrians ; mixed with 
these were the Chaldaeans : the whole were 
under the conduct of Otaspes, son of Artachae- 
us. 

LXIV. The Bactrians, in what they wore 
on their heads, most resembled the Medes, but 
after the custom of their country, they used bows 
made of reeds, and short spears. The Sacae, 
who are a Scythian nation, had helmets ter- 
minating in a point, and wore breeches. They 
were also armed in their country manner, with 
bows, daggers, and a hatchet called sagaris. This 
people, though really the Amyrgii of Scythia, 
were called Sacae, the name given by the Per- 
sians indiscriminately to all Scythians. Hys- 
taspes, son of Darius by Atossa the daughter 
of Cyrus, commanded the Bactrians and the 
Sacae. 

LXV. The dress of the Indians was cot- 
ton : their bows were made of reeds, as were 
also their arrows, which were pointed with iron : 
their leader was Pharnazathres, son of Arta- 
bates. The Arii had bows like the Medes, 
but were in other respects equipped like the 
Bactrians, and were under the command of 
Sisamnes son of Hydarnes. 

LXVI. The Parthians," Chorasmians, Sog- 
dians, Gandarians, and the Dadicae, had the 
same armour as the Bactrians. The Parthians 
and Chorasmians were led by Artabanus, son 
of Pharnaces ; Azanes, son of Artreus, com- 
manded the Sogdians ; as did Artyphius, son 
of Artabanus, the Gandarians and Dadicae. 

LXVII. The Caspians wore a vest made 
of skins ; they had the armour of their country, 
bows made of reeds, and scymitars. Ariomar- 
dus the brother of Artyphius conducted them. 
The Sarangae had beautiful habits of different 
and splendid colours : they had buskins reach- 
ing to their knees, bows and javelins like the 
Medes, and Pherendates the son of Megabyzus 
commanded them. The Pactyes also had vests 
made of skins, bows and daggers after the man- 
ner of their country, and Artyntes son of 
Ithamatres was their leader. 

L XVIII. The Utii, Mycii, and Paricahii, 
were armed like the Pactyes. The Utii and 



6 Parthians, ^rc.]— Various and numerous as these 
confederates of Xerxes are here described, Lucan, in a 
poetical hyperbole, affirms, that the allies of Pompey 
wore still more so.— See L. Hi. 285.— T. 



340 



HERODOTUS. 



Mycii had for their commander Arsamenes, 
son of Darius : Sirometris the son of CEobazus 
conducted the Paricanii. 

LXIX. The Arabians wore large folding 
vests, which they call zirae : their bows were 
long, flexible, and crooked. The Ethiopians 
were clad in skins of panthers and lions : their 
bows were of palm, and not less than four cu- 
bits long. Their arrows were short, and 
made of reeds, instead of iron they were point- 
ed with a stone which they use to cut their 
seals. They had also spears armed with the 
horns of goats, shaped like the iron of a lance ; 
and besides these, knotty clubs. It is the cus- 
tom of this people, when they advance to com- 
bat, to daub one half of their body with gypsum, 
the other with vermilion. Arsanes son of 
Darius by Artystone a daughter of Cyrus, 
commanded the Arabians and the Ethiopians 
who came from beyond Egypt. Of all his 
wives, Darius loved Artystone the most, and 
he constructed a golden statue in her honour. 

LXX. Those Ethiopians who came from 
the more eastern parts of their country (for 
there were two distinct bodies in this expedi- 
tion) served with the Indians. These differed 
from the former in nothing but their language 
and their hair. The Oriental Ethiopians have 
their hair straight, those of Africa have their 
hair more crisp and curling than any other men. 
The armour of the Asiatic Ethiopians resem- 
bled that of the Indians, but on their heads 
they wore the skins of horses' heads, 1 on which 
the manes and ears were left. The manes 
served as the plumes, and the ears remained 
stiff and erect. Instead of shields they held 
out before them the skins of cranes. 

LXXI. The Libyans were dressed in skins, 
and had the points of their spears hardened in 
the fire. They were conducted by Messages, 
son of Oarizus. 

LXX II. The Paphlagonians wore helmets 
made of network ; they had small spears and 
bucklers, besides javelins and daggers. Agree- 
ably to the fashion of their country, they had 
buskins which reached to the middle of the 
leg. The Ligyes, Matieni, Maryandeni, and 
Syrians, were habited like the Paphlagonians. 
These Syrians are by the Persians called Cap- 
padocians. The general of the Paphlagonians 
and Matieni was Dotus, son of Megasidras. 



1 Horses' heads.] — These helmets were, according to 
the description of Caesar, in his Commentaries, very 
common among the ancient Germans.-- T. 



' The Maryandeni, Ligyes, and Syrians, were 
led by Bryas, son of Darius and Artystone. 

LXXIII. The armour of the Phrygians 
differed very little from that of the Paphlago- 
nians. According to the Macedonians, the 
Phrygians, as long as they were their neigh- 
bours, and lived in Europe, were called Bry- 
ges ; on passing over into Asia they took the 
name of Phrygians. 8 The Armenians are a 
colony of the Phrygians, and were armed like 
them. Artochmes, who had married a daugh- 
ter of Darius, commanded both nations. 

LXXIV. The Lydians were equipped very 
like the Greeks. They were once called Meo- 
nians ; 3 but they changed their ancient name, 
and took that of Lydus, the son of Atys. The 
Nysians wore the helmets of their country, had 
small shields, and javelins hardened in the fire. 
They are a colony of the Lydians, and named 
Olympians, from mount Olympus. These 
two nations were conducted by Artaphernes, 
son of that Artaphernes who in conjunction 
with Datis had invaded Marathon. 

LXXV. The Thracians wore on their 
heads skins of foxes ; the other part of their 
dress consisted of a tunic, below which was a 
large and folding robe of various colours : they 
had also buskins made of the skins of fawns^ 
and were armed with javelins, small bucklers, 
and daggers. They were, as themselves re- 
late, formerly called Strymonians, from inhabit- 
ing the banks of the Strymon ; but passing 
over into Asia, were named Bithynians. 
They say they were expelled their country by 
the Teucrians and the Mysians. 

LXX VI. Bassaces son of Artabanus com- 
manded the Thracians of Asia ; these used 
short bucklers made of hides, and each of them 
carried two Lycian spears : they had also hel- 
mets of brass, on the summit of which were the 
ears and horns of an ox, made also of brass, 



2 Phrygians.'] — Arrian tells us that the Phrygians 
were reported to be the oldest of mankind^ teyovrca 
<&%wyts -XKXa.toTa.Tot aii>9%a'rav. Cited by Eust. in Com. in 
Dion. p. 809. The reader will remember that this was 
disputed with them by the Egyptians, but given up after 
the expedient used by Psammetichus.— T. 

3 Meonians.] — Bochart deduces this name from the 
Greek Matouo-Oxi, and their after-name Lydi from the 
Hebrew. But it does not seem probable that the oldest 
name should be taken from the Greek, and the latter 
from the Hebrew language. What is yet farther re- 
moved from consistency, he places a descendant of Shem 
in the lot of Japhet, and supposes the Lydians to be the 
children of Ludim. From hiin I presume they would 
have been called Lydimi, not Lydi. — See the invention of 
games imputed to this people, book i. c. 94. — T. 



POLYMNIA. 



341 



together with a crest. On their legs they had 
purple buskins. This people have among 
them an oracle of Mars. 4 

LXXVIL The Cabalian Meonians, 5 who 
are also called Lasonians, were habited like the 
Cilicians, whom I shall describe in their proper 
order. The Milyae carried short spears, their 
vests confined with clasps ; some of them had 
Lycian bows, and they wore helmets of leather. 
Of all these, Badres, son of Hystanes, was 
commander. The Moschi had helmets of wood, 
small bucklers, and short spears with long iron 
points. 

L XX VIII. The Tibareni, Macrones, and 
Mosynceci, were in all respects habited like 
the Moschi. Ariomardus son of Darius and 
of Parmys, daughter of Smerdis, son of Cyrus, 
commanded the Moschi and the Tibareni. 
Artayctes son of Chorasmes, who was gover- 
nor of Sestos on the Hellespont, conducted the 
Macrones and Mosynceci. 

LXXIX. The Mares, after the fashion of 
their country, had net-work casques, small 
leathern bucklers, and spears. The Colchians 
had helmets of wood, small bucklers made of 
the hard hides of oxen, short spears, and 
swords. Pharandates, son of Teaspes, com- 
manded the Mares and the Colchians. The 
Allarodii and Saspines were dressed like the 
Colchians, and led by Masistius son of Siro- 
mitras. 

LXXX. The people who came from the 
islands of the Red Sea, to which those who 
labour under the king's displeasure are exiled, 
were habited and armed like the Medes : they 
were led by Mardontes, son of Bagaeus, who 
two years afterwards was slain at the battle of 
Mycale, where he commanded. 

LXXXI. These were the nations who pro- 
ceeded over the continent, and composed the 
infantry of the army. Their leaders who mar- 
shalled and numbered them, I have already 
specified : they appointed also the captains of 



4 Oracle of Mars.'] — It is thought by some, that here 
is something wanting : for the description which by the 
context seems here to be given of the Thracians, with 
truth will apply neither to the Thracians of Asia nor of 
Europe. Wesseling presumes that they may be the 
Chalybians, amongst whom was an oracle of Mars, and 
who were neighbours to the nations here described by 
Herodotus. Larcher also is of this opinion. 

5 Cabalian Meonians.] — These were probably the 
same people who are mentioned book iii. c. 90. the 
chauge of the a for e being agreeably to the Ionic dia- 
lect 



thousands and ten thousands, who again chose 
the centurions and leaders of ten. The diffe- 
rent forces and nations had also other officers, 
but those whom I have named were the princi- 
pal commanders. 

LXXXII. The generals in chief of all the 
infantry were Mardonius, son of Gobryas ; 
Trintataechmes, son of Artabanus, who had 
given his opinion against the Grecian war ; 
and Smerdones, son of Otanes, which last two 
were sons of two brothers of Darius, the uncles 
of Xerxes. To the above may be added Ma- 
sistes, son of Darius by Atossa, Gergis son 
of Arinus, and Megabyzus, son of Zopyrus. 6 

LXXXIII. These were the commanders 
of all the infantry, except of the ten thousand 
chosen Persians, who were led by Hydarnes, 
son of Hydarnes. These were called the im- 
mortal band, and for this reason, if any of them 
died in battle, or by any disease, his place was 
immediately supplied. They were thus never 
more nor less than ten thousand. The Per- 
sians surpassed all the rest of the array, not 
only in magnificence but valour. Their 
armour I have before described; they were 
also remarkable for the quantity of gold which 
adorned them ; they had with them carriages 
for their women, and a vast number of atten- 
dants splendidly provided. They had also 
camels and beasts of burden to carry their pro- 
visions, besides those for the common occasions 
of the army. 

L XX XIV. All the above nations are ca- 
pable of serving on horseback ; but on this ex- 
pedition those only constituted the cavalry, 
which I shall enumerate. The Persian horse, 
except a small number, whose casques were 
ornamented with brass and iron, were habited 
like the infantry. 

LXXXV. There appeared of the Sagartii 
a body of eight thousand horse. These people 
lead a pastoral life, were originally of Persian 
descent, and use the Persian language : their 
dress is something betwixt the Persian and the 
Pactyan; they have no offensive weapons, either 
of iron or brass, except their daggers : their 
principal dependance in action is upon cords 
made of twisted leather, which they use in this 
manner : when they engage an enemy, they 
throw out these cords, having a noose at the 



6 Zopyrus.]— This was the famous Zopyrus through 
whose means Darius became master of Babylon. — See 
book iii. c. ICO.— T. 



342 



HERODOTUS. 



extremity ; if they entangle 1 in them either 
horse or man, they without difficulty put them 
to death — These forces were embodied with 
the Persians. 

LXXXVI. The cavalry of the Medes, and 
also of the Cissians, are accoutred like their 
infantry. The Indian horse likewise were 
armed like their foot ; but besides led horses, 
they had chariots of war, drawn by horses and 
wild asses. 2 The armour of the Bactrian and 
Caspian horse and foot were alike. This was 
also the case with the Africans, only it is to be 
observed that these last all fought from chariots. 
The Paricanian horse were also equipped like 
their foot, as were the Arabians, all of whom 
had camels, by no means inferior to the horse 
in swiftness. 

LXXXVII. These were the cavalry, who 
formed a body of eighty thousand, exclusive of 
camels or chariots. They were drawn up in 
regular order, and the Arabians were disposed 
in the rear, that the horses might not be ter- 
rified, as a horse cannot endure a camel. 3 

LXXXVIIL Harmamithres and Tithaeus, 
the sons of Datis, commanded the cavalry ; 
they had shared this command with Pharnuches, 
but he had been left at Sardis indisposed. As 
the troops were marching from Sardis he met 
with an unfortunate accident : a dog ran under 
the feet of his horse, which being terrified rear- 
ed up and threw his rider. Pharnuches was in 
consequence seized with a vomiting of blood, 
which finally terminated in a consumption. 
His servants, in compliance with the orders of 
their master, led the horse to the place where the 
accident happened, and there cut off his legs 4 



1 If they entangle.'} — A similar mode of fighting was 
practised by those of the Roman gladiators who were 
called the Retiarii : beneath their bucklers they carried a 
kind of net, which, when the opportunity presented it- 
self, they threw over the head of their adversaries the 
Socutores, and, thus entangled, put them to death with 
a kind of trident which constituted their offensive wea- 
pon.— T. 

2 Wild asses.} — M. Larcher renders ova ccypei, zebras, 
but I do not see that this necessarily follows. The zebra is 
certainly a species of wild ass ; but I conceive that every 
wild ass is not a zebra. Buffon makes mention of wild 
asses very distinct from the zebra?. The French transla- 
tor supports his opinion from the description of the ovo; 
*y%tos in Oppian, L. iii. v. 183 ; but this is by no means 
convincing to me. — T. 

3 Cannot endure a camel."} — See note onch. 80 of book 
Clio. 

4 Cut off his legs.} — See Seneca de Ira. —At qui ut his 
irasci dementis est, quae anima carent, sic mutis animali- 
bus, quia nulla est injuria nisi a consilio profecta. 

Jortin, in Remarks, at this passage of Seneca, quotes 
the incident before us from Herodotus : after which he 
adds— 



at the knees. Thus was Pharnuches deprived 
of his command. 

LXXXIX. The number of the triremes 
was twelve hundred and seven ; s of these the 
Phenicians, in conjunction with the Syrians of 
Palestine, furnished three hundred. They who 
served on board them had on their heads hel- 
mets nearly resembling those of the Greeks ; 
they had breast-plates made of linen, bucklers 



Canis vero caput horum et causa malorum, an impune 
isthuc habuerit, nescimus — certe equo judice crucifra- 
gium merebatur. 

Whether the dog, the first cause and occasion of these 
evils, escaped with impunity, we are not told. Certainly, 
if the horse were judge, he deserved to have his legs 
broken. 

I have my doubts, whether Jortin in this remark did 
not, under the word equo, design to convey a pun. 

Some of my readers may probably thank me for treat- 
ing them with an excellent Greek pun, which I find in 
the notes to Wesseling's Diodorus Siculus, vol. ii. p. 595. 

Dioscurus, an Egyptian bishop, before he began the 
service, had the constant custom of saying, u^vvi tottriv 
(irene pasin) peace be to all. It was notorious, that the 
pious churchman had at home a favourite mistress, whose 
name was Irene, which incident produced the following 
smart epigram : 

Uag ^vva.Toc.1 xctcriv, viv jjlovos ivdov £££<. 
The good bishop wishes peace (Irene) to all ; but how 
can he give that to all, which hekeeps to himself at home. 
5 Twelve hundred and seven.} — I give the account of 
the Persian fleet as stated by Herodotus, that the reader 
may compare it with that which follows of Diodorus 
Siculus : 
The Phenician vessels were . . 300 

Egyptians 200 

Cyprians 150 

Cilicians ....... 100 

Pamphylians SO 

Lycians 50 

Dorians 30 

Carians 70 

Ionians 100 

Islanders 17 

iEolians ...'... 60 

People of the Hellespont ... 100 

1,207 

According to Diodorus Siculus. 
The Greeks had 320 

The Dorians 40 

iEolians 40 

Ionians . . .... 100 

Hellespontians 80 

Islanders 50 

Egyptians 200 

Phenicians 300 

Cilicians 80 

Carians 80 

Pamphylians 40 

Lycians ....... 40 

Cyprians 150 

1,200 



POLYMNIA, 



343 



without bosses, and javelins. This people, by 
their own account, once inhabited the coasts of 
the Red Sea, 6 but migrated from thence to 
the maritime parts of Syria; all which dis- 
trict, as far as Egypt, is denominated Palestine. 
The Egyptians furnished two hundred vessels : 
they wore on their heads casques made of net- 
work ; their shields were of a convex form, 
having large bosses ; their spears were calculat- 
ed for sea- service, and they had huge battle-axes. 
Their forces, in general, had breast-plates, and 
large swords. 

XC. The people of Cyprus supplied fifty 
vessels : as to their armour, their princes wore 
mitres on their heads ; the troops wore tunics, 
but were in other respects habited like the 
Greeks. The Cyprians, according to their 
own account, are variously composed of the 
people of Salamis and Athens : some also came 
from Arcadia, some from Cythnus, others from 
Phenicia, and others from Ethiopia. 

XCI. From Cilicia came one hundred ships. 
This people had a kind of helmet peculiar to 
their country, and a small buckler made of 
the untanned hide of an ox ; they had also 
tunics of wool : each of them had two spears, 
and a sword not unlike those of Egypt. For- 
merly they were called Hypachaeans : they were 
named Cilicians from Cilex the Phenician, the 
son of Agenor. The Pamphylians brought 
thirty ships, and were accoutred like the 
Greeks : they are descended from those who 
after the destruction of Troy were dispersed 
under Amphilochus and Calchas. 7 

6 Coasts of the Red Sea.]— There were Phenicians of 
different countries : they were to be found upon the 
Sinus Persicus, upon the Sinus Arabicus, in Egypt, in 
Crete, in Africa, in Epirus, and even in Attica. — See 
Hesychius. &oivtzis yiuo; n A0r t r/!trt. There is a race of 
Phenicians among the Athenians. In short, it was 
a title introduced at Sidon and the coast adjoining, 
by people from Egypt ; and who the people were that 
brought it, may be known from several passages in an- 
cient history, but particularly from an extract in Euse- 
bius. — See Bryant, vol. i. 324, 325. 

7 Calchas.]— With the name of Calchas every one is 
acquainted ; but few perhaps know the end he met with. 
Mopsus, son of Marto and Apollo, had at the death of 
his mother, by right of inheritance, the oracle of Apollo, 
at Claros. About this period Calchas, who after the 
taking of Troy led a wandering life, arrived at Colophon. 
The two seers maintained a long and obstinate dispute, 
till at length Amphimachns king of Lycia terminated 
their difference. Mopsus dissuaded him from going to 
war, foretelling that he would be defeated ; Calchas, on 
the contrary, advised him to go, assuring him he would 
prove victorious. Amphimachus having been overcome, 
Mopsus received greater honours than ever, and Calchas 
put himself to death.— Larclier. 



, XCI I. Fifty ships were furnished by the 
Lycians, who were defended with breast-plates 
and a kind of buskin ; besides their spears, they 
had bows made of cornel wood ; their arrows 
were of reeds, but not feathered. From their 
shoulders the skin of a goat was suspended, 
and on their heads they wore a cap with a plume 
of feathers : they had also axes and daggers. 
They are descended from the Cretans, and 
were once called Termilae ; afterwards they 
took the name of Lycians, from Lycus an 
Athenian, the son of Pandion. 

XCIII. The Dorians of Asia came in thirty 
vessels : these being originally from the Pelo- 
ponnese, were provided with Grecian arms. 
The Carians had seventy ships, and were equip- 
ped in every respect like the Greeks, with the 
addition of axes and daggers. "We have in a 
former place made mention of the name, by 
which they were originally known. 

XCIV. The Ionians, armed likethe Greeks, 
appeared with a fleet of one hundred ships. 
According to the Grecian account, this people, 
when they inhabited that part of the Pelopon- 
nese called Achaia, before the arrival of Danaus 
and Xuthus, were called the Pelasgian 
iEgialians. They were afterwards named 
Ionians, from Ion, son of Xuthus. 

XCV. The Islanders, 8 in Grecian armour, 
were in seventeen vessels. These, once Pe- 
lasgian, were ultimately termed Ionian, for the 
same reason as the twelve Ionian cities founded 
by the Athenians. The iEolians brought 
sixty ships, and were armed in the Grecian 
manner : these also, according to the Greeks, 
were once Pelasgi. The inhabitants of the 
Hellespont, those of Abydos excepted, in con- 
junction with the people of Pontus, furnished 
one hundred vessels : those of Abydos, by the 
command of the king, remained to defend the 
bridges. The Hellespontians, being a mixed 



• 8 The Islanders.]— These Ionian islanders could not 
be either those of Chios or of Samos. These assembled 
at the Panionium, and were a part of the twelve cities, 
which these islanders were not. Diodorus Siculus adds 
also the inhabitants of Chios and of Samos to the Ionians, 
and makes, like Herodotus, a distinction betwixt them 
and the islanders. But who then were they ? Diodorus 
Siculus informs us. The king, says he, was joined by 
all those islands betwixt the Cyaneae and the promonto- 
ries of Triopium and Sunium. .Thus it appears that they 
were the isles of Ceos, or Cea, as the Latins have it, 
Naxos, Sephros, Seriphos, Andros, and Tenos, which 
were Tienian, and founded by the Athenians, as appears 
from Herodotus, book viii. chap. 46, 48 ; and from Thucy- 
dides, book vii. c. 57, where it should be read Tr,vm and 
not Tvioi. — Valcyiaer. 



344 



HERODOTUS. 



colony of Ionians and Dorians, were armed like 
the Greeks. 

XCVI. In each of these vessels were de- 
tachments of Medes, Persians, and Sacas. The 
best mariners were the Phenicians, and of the 
people of Phenicia, the Sidonians. The sea 
and land forces of all these nations were under 
the immediate command of their own officers. 
The mention of their particular names, as it is 
not essential to my purpose, we shall omit. It 
would indeed prove an uninteresting labour, as 
every city had its own commander, who with- 
out any great distinction or authority merely 
helped to swell the mass of the army. Those 
who had the principal conduct of the war, I 
have already enumerated, as well as the Persian 
officers to whom the command of each nation 
was assigned. 

XCVII. The commanders in chief of the 
sea forces were, Ariabignes, son of Darius, 
Prexaspes, son of Aspathines, and Megabyzus, 
son of Megabates, together with Achsemenes, 
another son of Darius : of these Ariabignes, 
son of Darius, by a daughter of Gobryas, had 
the conduct of the Ionian and Carian fleets. — 
The Egyptians were commanded by Achae- 
menes, brother of Xerxes, both on the father 
and mother's side. The two other generals 
conducted the rest of the fleet to the amount 
of three thousand vessels, which were composed 
of vessels of thirty and fifty oars, of Cercuri, 1 
and of long transports for the cavalry. 

XCVI II. After the generals, the more 
distinguished officers of the fleet were the Si- 
donian Tetramnestus, son of Anysus ; Martes 
of Tyre, son of Siromus ; Nerbalus the Ara- 
bian, son of Agbalus ; the Cilician Syennesis, 
son of Oromedon ; and Cyberniscus the son of 
Sicas. To these may be added Gortes, son of 
Chersis, and Timonax, son of Timagoras, both 
of them Cyprians, with the three Carian 
leaders, Histiaeus, son of Tymnis, Pigres, son 
of Seldomus, and Damasithymus, son of Can- 
daules. 

XCIX. The other leaders 1 forbear to spe- 
cify, it not appearing necessary ; but it is im- 
possible not to speak, and with admiration, of 
Artemisia, 3 who, though a female, served in 

1 Cercuri.'] — These, according to Pliny, were a par- 
ticular kind of vessel, invented by the Cyprians. 

2 Artemisia.] — There were two of this name, both 
natives, and queens of Caria, from which circumstance 
they have by different writers been frequently con- 
founded. Pliny, Hardouin, and Scaliger have been 
guilty of this error, and have ascribed to the first what 



this Grecian expedition. On the death of her 
husband she enjoyed the supreme authority, for 
her son was not yet grown up, and her great 
spirit and vigour of mind alone induced her to 
exert herself on this occasion. She was the 
daughter of Lygdamis, by her father's side of 
Halicarnassus, by her mother of Cretan de- 
scent. She had the conduct of those of Hali- 
carnassus, Cos, Nisyros, and Calydne. She 
furnished five ships, which, next to those of the 
Sidonians, were the best in the fleet, She was 
also distinguished among all the allies for the 

salutary counsels which she gave the king 

The people I have recited as subject to Arte- 
misia, were I believe all of them Dorians. The 
Halicarnassians were originally of Traezene, the 
rest of Epidaurus. Such were the maritime 
forces. 

C. Xerxes having ranged and numbered his 
armament, was desirous to take a survey of 
them all. Mounted in his car, he examined 
each nation in their turn. To all of them he 
proposed certain questions, the replies to which 
were noted down by his secretaries. In this 
manner he proceeded from first to last through 
all the ranks, 3 both of horse and foot. When 

is true only of the last. — See Bayle, article Artemisia. 
Nothing can however be more clear and satisfactory, 
than that the Artemisia who accompanied Xerxes was 
the daughter of Lygdamis. The Artemisia whose mau- 
soleum in honour other husband's memory has rendered 
her so illustrious, was the daughter of Hecatemnes, and 
lived at a much later period. The daughter of Lygda- 
mis, of whom it is our business to speak, was certainly a 
great and illustrious character. Her wisdom is very 
conspicuous, from the excellent advice which she gave 
Xerxes; and her valour was eminently distinguished, 
above that of all the men, in the battle of Salamis. See 
in a subsequent paragraph the speech of Xerxes con- 
cerning her, which has been imitated by Justin : " Arte- 
misia queen of Halicarnassus, who joined her forces 
with Xerxes, appeared amongst the forwardest com- 
manders in the hottest engagements ; and as on the 
man's side there was an effeminate cowardice, on the 
woman's was observed a masculine courage." 

She is honourably mentioned by a variety of writers, 
but at length fell a victim to the tender passion. She 
was violently in love with a native of Abydos, named 
Dardanus ; to rid herself of which she took the cele- 
brated lover's leap from the promontory of Lucas, and 
perished. — T. 

3 Through all tlie ranks.]— The procession of Xerxes 
in his car through the ranks of his army is well de- 
scribed by Glover in his Leonidas, and seems to afford a 
fine subject for an historical painting. 

The monarch will'd, and suddenly he heard 

His trampling horses — High on silver wheels 

The iv'ry car with azure sapphires shone, 

Caerulean beryls, and the jasper green, 

Th e emerald, the ruby's glowing blush. 

The flaming topaz, with its golden beam, 

The pearl, th' empurpled amethyst, and all 



POLYMNIA. 



345 



this was done, the fleet also was pushed off 
from land, whilst the monarch, exchanging his 
chariot for a Sidonian vessel, on the deck of 
which he sat, beneath a golden canopy, passed 
slowly the heads of the ships, proposing in like 
manner questions to each, and noting down the 
answers. The commanders had severally 
moored their vessels at about four plethra from 
shore, in one uniform line, with their sterns 
out to sea, and their crews under arms, as if 
'prepared for battle. Xerxes viewed them, 
passing betwixt their prows and the shore, 

CI. When he had finished his survey, he 
went on shore ; and sending for Demaratus, 
the son of Ariston, who accompanied him in 
this expedition against Greece, he thus ad- 
dressed him : " From you, Demaratus, who 
are a Greek, and as I understand from your- 
self and others, of no mean or contemptible 
city, I am desirous of obtaining information ; 
do you think that the Greeks will presume to 
make any resistance against me ? For my own 
part, not to mention their want of unanimity, 
I cannot think that all the Greeks, joined to 
all the inhabitants of the west, would be able 
to withstand my power : what is your opinion 
on this subject ?" " Sir," said Demaratus, in 
reply, " shall I say what is true, or only what is 
le ?'" Xerxes commanded him to 



The various gems which India's mines afford, 

To deck the pomp of kings. In burnish 'd gold 

A sculptured eagle from behind display'd 

His stately neck, and o'er the royal head 

Outstretch'd his dazzling wings. Eight generous steeds, 

Which on the fam'd Nisaean plain were nursed 

In wintry Media, drew the radiant car. 

— — — At the signal bound 
Th* attentive steeds, the chariot flies ; behind 
Ten thousand horsemen in thunder sweep the field- 
He now draws nigh. Th' innumerable host 
Roll back by nations and admit their lord 
With all his satraps. As from crystal domes, 
Built underneath an arch of pendent seas, 
When that stern power whose trident rules the floods, 
With each coerulean deity, ascends 
Thron'd in his pearly chariot— all the deep 
Divides its bosom to th' emerging god, 
So Xerxes rode between the Asian world, 
On either side receding. Leonidas. 

4 Or only wliat is agreeable.'] — This naturally brings 
to mind the old proverb in the Andria of Terence : 
Obsequium amicos, Veritas odium parit. 

Which expression Cicero, in his treatise de Amicitia, 
reprobates with proper dignity. 

See also some lines, quoted in Athcnams, from Aga- 
tho, the English of which is, If I speak the truth I shall 
not please you : If I please you I shall not speak the 
truth. 

If, as appears from Xenophon in particular, and from 
various other writers, that to speak the truth constituted 
an indispensable part of Persian education, these words 
of Demaratus must have appeared an insult to Xerxes, 



speak the truth, assuring him that he would be 
as agreeable to him as ever. 

CII. " Since," answered Demaratus, " you 
command me to speak the truth, it shall be my 
eare to deliver myself in such a manner that no 
one hereafter, speaking as I do, shall be con- 
victed of falsehood. Greece has ever been the 
child of poverty ; for its virtue it is indebted to 
the severe wisdom and discipline, 5 by which it 
has tempered its poverty, and repelled its op- 
pressors. To this praise all the Dorian Greeks 
are entitled ; but I shall now speak of the La- 
cedaemonians only. You may depend upon it 
that your propositions, which threaten Greece 
with servitude, will be rejected, and if all the 
other Greeks side with you against them, the 
Lacedaemonians will engage you in battle. 
Make no inquiries as to their number, for if 
they shall have but a thousand men, or even 
fewer, they will fight you."" 

CIII. " What, Demaratus," answered Xer- 
xes, smiling, " think you that a thousand men 
will engage so vast a host ? Tell me, you who, 
as you say, have been their prince ? would you 
now willingly engage with ten opponents ? If 
your countrymen be what you describe them, 
according to your own principles you, who are 
their prince, should be equal to two of them. 
If, therefore, one of them be able to contend 
with ten of my soldiers, you may be reasonably 
expected to contend with twenty : such ought to 

not to be justified by any affected humility, or any real 
difference of rank. What Homer thought on this sub- 
ject may be gathered from the two noble lines which he 
puts into the mouth of Achilles : 

Who dares think one thing and another tell, 
My scul detests him as the gates of hell T. 

5 Wisdom and discipline.] — The character which De- 
maratus here gives of the Greeks, corresponds with that 
assigned to the Romans in the Cato of Addison : 

A Roman soul is bent on higher views ; 
To civilize the rude unpolish'd world, 
And lay it under the restraint of laws ; 
To make man mild and sociable to man ; 
To cultivate the wild licentious savage 
With wisdom, discipline, and liberal arts, 
Th' embellishments of life. Virtues like these 
Make human nature shine, reform the soul, 
And break our fierce barbarians into men. 

6 Will fight you.] — In close imitation of the passage 
before us, the author of Leonidas makes Xerxes thus 
address Demaratus : 

Now declare 
If yonder Grecians will oppose their march. 
To him the exile : Deem not, mighty lord, 
I will deceive thy goodness by a tale, 
To give them glory who degraded mine : 
Nor be the king offended while I use 
The voice of truth— the Spartans never fly. 
Contemptuous smiled the monarch and resumed, 
Wilt thou, in Lacedrcmon once supreme. 
Encounter twenty Persians J 

2 X 



346 



HERODOTUS. 



be the test of your assertions. But if your coun- 
trymen really resemble in form and size you, 
and such other Greeks as appear in my pre- 
sence, it should seem that what you say is dic- 
tated by pride and insolence ; for how can it be 
shown that a thousand, or ten thousand, or even 
fifty thousand men, all equally free, and not sub- 
ject to the will of an individual, could oppose so 
great an army? Granting them to have five 
thousand men, we have still a majority of a 
thousand to one ; they who like us are under the 
command of one person, from the fear of their 
leader, and under the immediate impression of 
the lash, are animated with a spirit contrary to 
their nature, and are made to attack a number 
greater than their own ; but they who are urged 
by no constraint will not do this. If these 
Greeks were even equal to us in number, I 
cannot think they would dare to encounter 
Persians. The virtue to which you allude is 
to be found among ourselves, though the ex- 
amples are certainly not numerous : there are 
among my Persian guards men who will 
singly contend with three Greeks. 1 The pre- 
posterous language which you use can only, 
therefore, proceed from your ignorance. " 

CIV. " I knew, my lord, from the first," 
returned Demaratus," that by speaking truth 
I should offend you. I was induced to 
give you this representation of the Spartans, 
from your urging me to speak without re- 
serve. You may judge, Sir, what my at- 
tachment must be to those who, not con- 
tent with depriving me of my paternal dig- 
nities, drove me ignominiously into exile. 
Your father received, protected, and supported 
me ; 3 no prudent man will treat with ingrati- 
tude the kindness of his benefactor. I will 
never presume to engage in fight with ten men, 
nor even with two, nor indeed willingly with 
one ; but if necessity demanded, or danger pro- 



1 With three Greeks ]— This vain boast of Xerxes was 
in the end punished by Polydamas. Darius, natural son 
of Artaxerxes, and who by the favour of the Persians 
succeeded to the throne, had heard of Ins remarkable 
exploits ; having by promises allured him to Susa, Poly, 
damas challenged three of those whom the Persians call 
the immortal, encountered them all at once, and slew 
them. — Larcher. 

2 Protected and supported me.~\— That prince gave 
him the towns of Pergamus, Teuthrania, and Halisar- 
nia, which Eurysthenes and Procles, descendants of 
Demaratus, enjoyed in the 95th Olympiad, who joined 
themselves to Thimbron the Lacedaemonian general, 
when he passed into Asia Minor to make war on Per- 
sia.— Larcher. 



voked me, I would not hesitate to fight with any 
one of those who they say is a match for three 
Greeks. The Lacedaemonians, when they 
engage in single combat, are certainly not in- 
ferior to other men, but in a body they are 
not to be equalled. Although free, they are 
not so without some reserve ; the law is their 
superior, 3 of which they stand in greater awe 
than your subjects do of you : they are obedient 
to what it commands, 4 and it commands them 
always not to fly from the field of battle, what- 
ever may be the number of their adversaries. 
It is their duty to preserve their ranks, to con- 
quer, or to die. 5 If what I say seem to you 
absurd, I am willing in future to be silent, I 
have spoken what I think, because the king 
commanded me, to whom may all he desires 
be accomplished." 

CV. Xerxes smiled at these words of De- 
maratus, whom he dismissed without anger 

3 The law is their superior. 2 — Thomson, in his poem 
to Liberty, gives this just and animated description ©f 
Sparta : 

■ Spread on Eurota's bank, 

Amid a circle of soft-rising hills, 
The patient Sparta stood, the sober, hard, 
And man-subduing city, which no shape 
Of pain could conquer, nor of pleasure charm. 
Lycurgus there built, on the solid base 
Of equal life, so well a temper'd state, 
Where mix'd each government in each just poise, 
Each power so checking and supporting each, 
That firm for ages and unmoved it stood, 
The fort of Greece, without one giddy hour, 
One shock of faction or of party rage : 
For, drain'd the springs of wealth, corruption there 
Lay wither'd at the root. Thrice happy land, 
Had not neglected art with weedy vice 
Confounded sunk ; but if Athenian arts 
Loved not the soil, yet then the calm abode 
Of wisdom, virtue, philosophic ease, 
Of manly sense, and wit in frugal phrase, 
Confined and press'd into laconic force ; 
There too, by rooting thence still treach'rous self, 
The public and the private grew the same ; 
The children of the nursing public all, 
And at iis table fed : for that they toil'd, 
For that they lived entire; and even for that 
The tender mother urged her son to die. 

Liberty, part ii. 108, &c. 

Dr Johnson says truly of this poem, that none of 
Thomson's works have been so little regarded ; I may, 
nevertheless, venture to promise whoever has not per- 
used it, that it will very well pay his attention. — T. 

4 What it commands.] — " With the Lacedaemonians," 
says Plato, " the law is the king and master : and men 
are not the tyrants of the laws." " The Deity," says 
he, in another place, " is the law of wise and moderate 
men ; pleasure that of men who are foolish and intern, 
perate." — Larcher. 

5 Conquer or to die.~]— 

O conceive not, prince, 
That Spartans want an object where to fix 
Their eyes in reverence, in obedient dread. 
To them more awful than the name of king 
To Asia's trembling millions, is the law, 
Whose sacred voice enjoins them to confront 
Unnumber'd foes, to vanquish or to die.— Leonidat. 



POLYMNI A. 



347 



civilly from his presence. After the above i 
conference, he removed from Doriscus the ! 
governor who had been placed there by Darius, 
and promoted in his room Mascamis, son of 
Megadostis. He then passed through Thrace 
with his army, towards Greece. 

CVI. To this Mascamis, as to the bravest 
of all the governors appointed either by him- 
self or by Darius, Xerxes sent presents every 
year, and Artaxerxes, son of Xerxes, continued 
to do the same to his descendants. Before 
this expedition against Greece, there had con- 
stantly been governors both in Thrace and the 
Hellespont, all of whom, except Mascamis, the 
Greeks afterwards expelled : he alone retained 
Doriscus in his subjection, in defiance of the 
many and repeated exertions made to remove 
him. It was in remembrance of these ser- 
vices, that he and all his descendants received 
presents from the kings of Persia. 

CVI I. The only one of all those expelled 
by the Greeks, who enjoyed the good opinion 
of Xerxes, was Boges, 6 the governor of E'ion ; 
this man he always mentioned in terms of es- 
teem, and all his descendants were honourably 
regarded in Persia. Boges was not undeserv- 
ing his great reputation : when he was besieged 
by the Athenians under the conduct of Cimon, 
son of Miltiades, he might, if he had thought 
proper, have retired into Asia ; this he re- 
fused, and defended himself to the last extrem- 
ity, from apprehensions that the king might 
ascribe his conduct to fear. When no pro- 
visions were left, he caused a large pile to be 
raised ; he then slew his children, his wife, his 
concubines, and all his family, and threw them 
into the fire ; he next cast all the gold and sil- 
ver of the place from the walls into the 
Strymon ; lastly, he leaped himself into the 
flames. This man is, therefore, very deserved- 
ly extolled by the Persians. 

CVHI. Xerxes, in his progress from Do- 
riscus to Greece, compelled all the people 
among whom he came to join his army. All 
this tract of country, as far as Thessaly, as 
I have before remarked, had been made tribu- 
tary to the king, first by Megabyzus, and con- 
clusively by Mardonius. Leaving Doriscus, 
he first passed beyond the Samothracian forts, 



6 Boges."]— This proper name is by Pausanias writ- 
ten Boes. The expedition of Cimon is mentioned by 
Thucydides, JEschines, and others. — This Cimon was the 
grandson of the Cimon spoken of in Livy, book vi. chap. 
34.39. 



the last of which, towards the west, is called 
Mesambria ; contiguous to this is Stryme, a 
Thasian town. The river Lissus waters 
both these towns, the streams of which, on the 
present occasion, were insufficient for the army. 
This district was once called Gala'ice, now 
Briantica, and properly belonged to the Ci 
conians. 

CIX. Xerxes having passed the exhausted 
bed of the Lissus, continued his march beyond 
the Grecian cities of Maronea, Dicaea, and 
Abdera ; 7 he passed also the following lakes in 
the vicinity of these towns ; the Ismaris, be- 
twixt Maronea and Stryme, the Bistonis in the 
neighbourhood of Dicaea, which is filled by the 
two streams of the Trauus and Compsatus. 
Near Abdera is no lake of importance ; but the 
king passed near the Nestus, which empties 
itself into the ocean. He proceeded onwards 
through the more midland cities, in one of 
which is a lake almost of thirty stadia in cir- 
cumference, full of fish, but remarkably salt ; 
the waters of this proved only sufficient for the 
beasts of burden. The name of the city is 
Pistirus. These Grecian and maritime cities 
were to the left of Xerxes as he passed fhem. 

CX. The nations of Thrace, through which 
he marched, are these : the Paeti, Ciconians, 
Bistones, Sapaei, Dersaei, Edonians, and the 
Satrae. The inhabitants of the maritime towns 
followed by sea -. those inland, which I have 
already specified, were, except the Satrae, com- 
pelled to accompany 9 the army by land. 

CXI. The Satrae, as far as I know, never 
were subdued; they alone, of all the Tbracians, 
have continued to my memory, an independent 
nation. They are remarkable for their valour. 
They inhabit lofty mountains covered with 

7 Abdera.] — See note to chapter 168 of book the first; 
I there observed that Abdera produced many illustrious 
characters, yet it is thus stigmatised by Juvenal in his 
tenth Satire. Speaking of Democritus, he says, he was one 

cujus prudentia monstrat ' 

Summos posse viroset magna exempla daturos 
Vervecum in patria, crassoque sub acre nasci. 

Which lines are thus translated by Dryden, rather too 

diffusely. 

Learn from so great a wit, a land of bogs 

With ditches fenced, a heaven fat with fogs, 

May form a spirit fit to sway the state, 

And make the neighb'ring monarchs fear their fate. — T. 

8 Compelled to accompany.] — Thus we find were 
these nations compelled to serve under Cyrus, who were 
betwixt him and Croesus, not as associates, but as pri- 
soners of war. Many of them were reduced from being 
horsemen to serve on foot, and in a way, says Xeno- 
phon, which Cyrus accounted as in the highest degree 
servile, as sliugers. — T. 



348 



HERODOTUS. 



snow, but abounding in all kinds of* trees : upon 
the summit of one of their highest hills, they 
have an oracle of Bacchus. The interpreters 
of these divine oracles are the Bessi: 1 a 
priestess makes the responses, as at Delphi, 
and with the same ambiguity. 

CXI.I. Xerxes continued to advance, and 
passed by two Pierian cities, one called Pha- 
gra, the other Pergamos ; to his right he left 
the mountain Pangaeus, which is of great ex- 
tent and height, and has mines both of gold 
and silver; these are worked by the Pierians 
and Odomanti, and particularly by the Satrae. 

CXTII. Beyond Pangaeus, to the north, are 
the Paeonians, the Doberes, and the Paeoples. 
Xerxes passed all these, keeping a westward 
direction, till he came to the river Strymon, 
and the city of E'ion : Boges, the governor of 
this last place, whom we have before mention- 
ed, was then living. The country round Pan- 
gaeus, is called Phillis, it extends to the west as 
far as the Angitis, which empties itself into 
the Strymon ; to the south it continues till it 
meets the Strymon. To this river the magi 
offered a sacrifice of white horses. 8 

CXIV. After performing these and many 
other religious rites to the Strymon, they pro- 
ceeded through the Edonian district of the Nine 
Ways, to where they found bridges thrown over 
the Strymon : when they heard that this place 
was named the Nine Ways, they buried there 



1 Bessi."] — Ovid makes mention of these Bessi in no 
very nattering terms : 

Vivere quam miserum est inter Bessosque Gelasque. — T. 

2 Sacrifice of ivhite horses.] — The particular manner 
in which they performed these sacrifices, Strabo thus 
describes : 

"When the Persians come to a lake, a river, or a foun- 
tain, they sink a pit, and kill the victim, taking particu- 
lar care that the pure water in the vicinity is not 
stained with blood, which would contaminate it. They 
then place the flesh of the victim upon branches of myr- 
tle or laurel, and burn it with small sticks : during this 
they chaunt hymns, and offer libations of oil mixed with 
milk and honey, which they pour not into the fire, but 
upon the ground. — Their hymns are very long, and 
whilst they are singing them they hold in their hands a 
bundle of short pieces of briar. 
To which may be added the following particulars : 
When the Persians sacrificed they wore garlands, 
which we learn from the first book of Herodotus, and 
the third book of the Cyropaedia of Xenophon. They 
sometimes burnt all, and sometimes only part of the vic- 
tim, feasting on the remainder. In the 16th chapter of 
Leviticus, the English reader may find a general simili- 
tude to the Persian mode of sacrifice, and indeed to that 
of all the Oriental nations. See also on this subject the 
second Dissertation of Hutchinson, prefixed to his Cy- 
ropaedia, and 2 Sam. i. 13, et scq.— T. 



alive nine youths and as many virgins, natives 
of the country. This custom of burying alive 
is common in Persia ; and I have been inform- 
ed that Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, when 
she was of an advanced age, commanded four- 
teen Persian children of illustrious birth to be 
interred alive in honour of that deity, who, as 
they suppose, exists under the earth. 

CXV. Marching still forwards, they left on 
the shore, to the west, a Grecian city called 
Argilus ; this, as well as the country beyond it, 
is called Bisaltia : leaving then to the left the 
gulph, which is near the temple of Neptune, 
they crossed the plain called Sileum, and pass- 
ing the Greek city of Stagirus, came to Acan- 
thos. The people of all these places, of mount 
Pangaeus, together with those whom we have 
enumerated, they carried along with them : they 
who dwelt on the coast went by sea j they who 
lived distant from the sea went by land. The 
line of country through which Xerxes led his 
army, is to the present day held in such extreme 
veneration by the Thracians, that they never 
disturb or cultivate it. 

CXVI. On his arrival at Acanthos, the 
Persian monarch interchanged the rites of hos- 
pitality with the people, and presented each 
with a Median vest : 3 he was prompted to 
this conduct by the particular zeal which they 
discovered towards the war, and from their hav- 
ing completed the work of the canal. 

CXVII. Whilst Xerxes still continued at 
Acanthos, Artachaees, who had superintended 
the works of the canals, died : he was of the 
race of the Achaemenidae, in great favour with 
the king, and the tallest of all the Persians : he 
wanted but four fingers of five royal cubits, 4 
and was also remarkable for his great strength 
of voice. The king was much afflicted at his 
loss, and buried him with great magnificence, 
the whole army being employed in erecting a 
monument to his memory. The Acanthians, 
in compliance with an oracle, invoke him by 
name, and pay him the honours of a hero. 
Xerxes always considered the death of Arta- 
cheees as a great calamity. 

C XVIII. Those Greeks who entertained 
the Persian army, and provided a banquet for 

3 Median vest] — This was invented by Semiramis, the 
wife of Ninus ; it was so very graceful, that the Medes 
adopted it, after they had conquered Asia j the Persians 
followed their example. — LarcJier. 

4 Five royal cubits.]— Supposing our author to mean 
here the Babylonian measure, this, according to the com- 
putation of d'Anville, would be seven feet eight inches 
high.— Lurcher. 



POLYMNIA, 



349 



the king, were reduced to extreme misery, and 
compelled to abandon their country. On ac- 
count of their cities distributed along the con- 
tinent, the Thasians also feasted Xerxes and 
his forces ; Antipater, the son of Orgis, a man 
of great reputation, was selected by his country- 
men to preside on the occasion ; by his account 
it appeared that four hundred talents of silver 
were expended for this purpose. 

CXIX. No less expense devolved upon the 
other cities, as appeared by the accounts deli- 
vered in by the different magistrates. As a 
long previous notice was given, preparations 
were made with suitable industry and magnifi- 
cence. As soon as the royal will was made 
known by the heralds, the inhabitants of the 
several cities divided the corn which they pos- 
sessed, and employed many months in reducing 
it to meal and flour. Some there were, who 
purchased at a great price the finest cattle they 
could procure, for the purpose of fattening them •. 
others, with the same view of entertaining the 
army, provided birds both of the land and the 
water, which they preserved in cages and in 
ponds. Many employed themselves in making 
cups and goblets of gold and silver, with other 
utensils of the table ; these last-mentioned ar- 
ticles were intended only for the king himself, 
and his more immediate attendants ; with re- 
spect to the army in general, it was thought 
sufficient to furnish them with provision. On 
the approach of the main body, a pavilion was 
erected, and properly prepared for the residence 
of the monarch, the rest of the troops remain- 
ed in the open air. From the commencement 
of the feast to its conclusion, the fatigue of 
those who provided it is hardly to be expressed. 
The guests, after satisfying their appetite, pass- 
ed the night on the place ; the next morning, 
after tearing up the pavilion, and plundering its 
contents, they departed,' without leaving any 
thing behind them. 

CXX. Upon this occasion the witty remark 
of Megacreon of Abdera, has been handed 
down to posterity. He advised the Abderites 
of both sexes to go in procession to their tem- 
ples, and there in the attitude of supplicants, 
entreat the gods to continue in future to avert 
from them the half of their calamities. With 
respect to the past, he thought their gratitude 
was due to heaven, because Xerxes did not 
take two repasts in a day. If the Abderites, 
he observed, had been required to furnish a 
dinner as well as a supper, they must either 
have prevented the visit of the king by flight, 



or have been the most miserable of human 
beings. 

CXX I. These people, severe as was the 
burden, fulfilled what had been enjoined them. 
From Acanthos, Xerxes dismissed the com- 
manders of his fleet, requiring them to wait his 
orders at Thcrma. Therma is situated near 
the Thermcean gulf, to which it gives its name. 
He had been taught to suppose this the most 
convenient road ; by the command of Xerxes, 
the army had marched from Doriscus to Acan- 
thos in three separate bodies : one went by the 
sea-coast, moving with the fleet, and was com- 
manded by Mardonius and Masistes ; a second 
proceeded through the midst of the continent, 
under the conduct of Tritantoechmes and Ger- 
gis ; betwixt these went the third detachment 
with whom was Xerxes himself, and who were 
led by Smerdomenes and Megabyzus. 

CXXII. As soon as the royal mandate was 
issued,the navy entered the canal which had been 
sunk at mount Athos, and which was continued 
to the gulf, contiguous to which are the cities 
of Assa, Pidorus, Singus, and Sarga. Taking 
on board a supply of troops from these places, 
the fleet advanced towards the Thernucan gulf, 
and doubling the Toronean promontory of 
Ampelos, passed by the following Grecian 
towns, from which also they took reinforcements 
of vessels and of men — Torona, Galepsus, 
Sermyla, Mecyberna, and Olynthus. All the 
above district is now named Sithonia. 

CXXIII. From the promontory of Am. 
pelos, they proceeded by a short cut to the 
Canastrean cape, the point, which, of all the 
district of Pallene, projects farthest into the 
sea ; here they took with them other supplies 
of men and ships, from Potidiea, Aphytus, 
Neapolis, iEga, Therambus, Scione, IMenda, 
and Sana. These cities are situated in the 
region now called Pallene ; known formerly by 
the name Phlegra. Coasting onwards to the 
station appointed, they supplied themselves 
with troops from the cities in the vicinity of 
Pallene, and the Thermsean gulf. The names 
of these, situate in what is now called the 
Cnossean region, are Lipaxus, Combrea, Lisas, 
Gigonus, Campsa, Smila, and iEnea. From 
this last place, beyond which I shall forbear to 
specify the names of cities, the fleet went in a 
straight direction to the Thermsean gulf, and 
the coast of Mygdonia ; it ultimately arrived at 
Therma, the place appointed, as also at Hin- 
dus and Chalestra, on the river Axing, which 
separates Mygdonia from Bottiffiis. In a 



350 



HERODOTUS. 



narrow neck of this region, leading to the sea, 
are found the cities of Ichnse and Pella. 

CXXIV. The naval forces stationed them- 
selves near the river Axius, the town of Ther- 
ma, and the other neighbouring cities, where 
they waited for the king. Directing his march 
this way, Xerxes, with all his forces, left Acan- 
thos, and proceeded over the continent through 
Pseonia and Crestonia, near the river Chidorus, 
which, taking its rise in Crestonia, flows through 
Mygdonia, and empties itself into a marsh 
which is above the river Axius. 

CXXV. In the course of this march the 
camels, which carried the provisions, were at- 
tacked by lions : in the darkness of the night 
they left their accustomed abode, and without 
molesting man or beast, fell upon the camels 
only. 1 That the lions should attack the camels 
alone, animals they had never before devoured, 



1 The camels only."} — " Herodotus," says Bellanger, 
in a note upon this passage, " was no great naturalist. 
The Arabians, and all those who inhabit the countries 
where are lions and camels, very well know that the 
lion loves the flesh of the camel." — See Milan, History 
of Animals, book xvii. chap. 36. 

Herodotus, it must be confessed, was not remarkably 
well versed in natural history ; but if he had, it must 
always have appeared surprising to him, that lions, who 
had never before seen camels, or tasted their flesh, should 
attack them in preference to other beasts of burden. 
That in Arabia lions should prefer a camel to a horse, 
may seem natural enough ; they know by experience 
the flesh of these two animals, and that of the camels is 
doubtless more to their taste : but what could have given 
them this knowledge in Macedonia ? I confess that this 
would have appeared no less marvellous to me than to 
Herodotus. — Larcher. 

With respect to the lion, many preposterous errors 
anciently prevailed, which modern improvements and 
researches in natural history, have corrected and im- 
proved ; nevertheless the fact here recorded by Herodo- 
tus must ever appear marvellous. It seems in the first 
place, that the region of Europe in which he has fixed 
these lions is too cold for producing those animals, and 
according to every testimony it was then colder than at 
present. 

It is now well known that the lion, however urged by 
hunger, does not attack its prey boldly and in an open 
manner, but insidiously: as the camels were therefore cer- 
tainly on this occasion accompanied by a multitude,it is not 
easy to conceive how they could well be exposed to the 
attacks of the lions. In the next place it is not likely 
that the lions should be allured to the camels by their 
smell, for it is now very well ascertained that the Hon 
has by no means an acute sense of smelling. With re- 
spect to the taste of the lion, it is said that having once 
tasted human blood it prefers it to all other food. Of the 
tiger, which is only a different species of the same genus 
with the lion, both being feles, it is said, but I know not 
from what accuracy of experiment or observation, that 
it prefers the flesh of an African to that of an European, 
the European to the American ; but the assertion may 
be reasonably disputed. — T. 



or even seen, is a fact which I relate with sur- 
prise, and am totally unable to explain. 

CXXVI. These places abound with lions 
and wild bulls, the large horns of which are 
carried to Greece. On the one side the Nes- 
tus, which flows through Abdera, and on the 
other the Achelous, passing through Acarna- 
nia, are the limits beyond which no lions are 
found. 2 In the intermediate region betwixt 
these two places lions are produced ; but no one 
has ever seen them in Europe, beyond the 
Nestus to the east, or beyond the Achelous to 
the west. 

CXXVII. On his arrival at Therma, 
Xerxes halted with his army, which occupied 
the whole of the coast from Therma and Myg- 
donia, as far as the rivers Lydias and Haliac- 
mon, which forming the limits of Bottiaeis and 
Macedonia, meet at last in the same channel. 
Here the Barbarians encamped: of all the rivers 
I have enumerated, the Chidorus, which flows 
from Crestonia, was the only one which did 
not afford sufficient water for the troops. 

C XXVIII. Xerxes, viewing from Ther- 
ma, Olympus and Ossa, Thessalian mountains 
of an extraordinary height, betwixt which was 
a narrow passage where the Peneus poured its 
stream, and where was an entrance to Thessaly, 
he was desirous of sailing to the mouth of this 
river. For the way he had determined to 
march as the safest was through the high coun- 
try of Macedonia, by the Perrhaebi, and the 
town of Gonnus. He instantly however set 
about the accomplishment of his wish. He 
accordingly went on board a Sidonian vessel, 
for on such occasions he always preferred the 
ships of that country; leaving here his land 
forces, he gave the signal for all the fleet to 
prepare, to set sail. Arriving at the mouth of 
the Peneus, he observed it with particular ad- 
miration, and desired to know of his guides if 
it would not be possible to turn the stream, 
and make it empty itself into the sea in some 
other place. 

CXXIX. Thessaly is said to have been 
formerly a marsh, on all sides surrounded by 
lofty mountains ; to the east by Pelion and 



2 Lions are found.'] — Lions are not at all found in 
America, and fewer in Asia than Africa. The natural 
history of the lion may be perused in Buffon with much 
information and entertainment, but more real know- 
ledge concerning this noble animal may perhaps be ob- 
tained from Sparman's Voyage to the Cape of Good 
Hope, than from any other writer on this subject. — T. 



POLYMNIA. 



351 



Ossa, whose bases meet each other ; to the 
north by Olympus, to the west by Pindus, to 
the south by Othrys. The space betwixt these 
is Thessaly, into which depressed region many 
rivers pour their waters, but more particularly 
these five, the Peneus, the Apidanus, the 
Onochonus, the Enipeus, and the Pamisus : 
all these, flowing from the mountains which 
surround Thessaly into the plain, are till then 
distinguished by specific names. They after- 
wards unite in one narrow channel, and are 
poured into the sea. After their union they 
take the name of the Peneus only. It is said, 
that formerly, before this aperture to the sea 
existed, all these rivers, and also the lake Boe- 
beis, had not as now any specific name, but 
that their body of water was as large as at pre- 
sent, and the whole of Thessaly a sea. The 
Thessalians affirm, and not improbably, that 
the valley through which the Peneus flows was 
formed by Neptune. Whoever supposes that 
Neptune causes earthquakes, and that the con- 
sequent chasms are the work of that deity, 
may on viewing this spot easily ascribe it to his 
power: to me, the separation of these moun- 
tains appears to have been the effect of an 
earthquake. 3 

CXXX. Xerxes inquiring of his guides 
whether the Peneus might be conducted to the 
sea by any other channel, received from them, 
who were well acquainted with the situation of 
the country, this reply : " As Thessaly, O king, 
is on every side encircled by mountains, the 
Peneus can have no other communication with 
the sea." " The Thessalians," Xerxes is said 



3 An earthquake.] — The reader may see in Philostra- 
tus, the description of a picture in which Neptune is re- 
presented as in the act of separating the mountains. — 
See also Strabo. The tradition that Ossa and Olympus 
were anciently different parts of the same mountain, ex- 
isted from a very remote period in Greece ; and accord- 
ing to Mr Wood, in his Essay on Homer, is not now ob- 
literated. The valley through which the Peneus flows 
is the celebrated vale of Tempe, the fruitful theme of so 
many poetical effusions in ancient periods, as well as at 
the present. The river Peneus is no where better des- 
cribed than in the following lines of Ovid : 

Est nemus Hsemoniae prserupta quod undique claudit 
Silva, vocant Tempe per quae Peneus ab imo 
Effusu6 Pindo spumosis volvitur undis 
Dejectuque gravis tenues agitantia fumos 
Nublla conducit, summasquc aspergine sjlvas 
Impluit et fonitu plusquam vicina fatigat. 

Mctamorph. i. 668. 

Very few readers will require to be told that Ovid 
made the banks of tho Peneus the scene of his fable of 
Daphne and Apollo.— I*. 



to have answered, u are a sagacious people. 
They have been careful to decline a contest for 
many reasons, and particularly as they must 
have discerned that their country would afford 
an easy conquest to an invader. All that 
would be necessary to deluge the whole of 
Thessaly, except the mountainous parts, would 
be to stop up the mouth of the river, aud thus 
throw back its waters upon the country." 
This observation referred to the sons of Aleuas, 
who were Thessalians, and the first Greeks 
who submitted to the king. He presumed that 
their conduct declared the general sentiments 
of the nation in his favour. After surveying 
the place he returned to Therma. 

CXXXI. He remained a few days in the 
neighbourhood of Pieria, during which interval 
a detachment of the third of his army was em- 
ployed in clearing the Macedonian mountains, 
to facilitate the passage of the troops into the 
country of the Perrhsebi. At the same time the 
messengers who had been sent to require earth 
and water of the Greeks returned, some with 
and some without it. 

C XX XII. Among those who sent it, were 
the Thessalians, the Dolopians, the Enians, the 
Perrhaebi, the Locri, the Magnetes, the Melians, 
the Achseans of Phthiotis, the Thebans, and the 
rest of the people of Boeotia, except the Thes- 
pians and Plateans. Against all these nations 
those Greeks who determined to resist the 
Barbarians entered into a solemn vow' to the 
following effect — that whatever Greeks submit- 
ted to the Persian, without the plea of unavoid- 
able necessity, should on any favourable change 
of their affairs forfeit to the divinity of Delphi 
a tenth part of their property. 

C XXXIII. Xerxes sent no messengers 
either to Athens or to Sparta, for when Darius 
had before sent to those places, the Athenians 
threw his people into their pit of punishment, 5 



4 Solemn row.]— The Greek is era^v ofzio*, literally, 
they cut an oath, because no alliance or agreement was 
ever made without sacrificing a victim Similar to this 
and to be explained in like manner, wa> the ferire fosdoa 
of the Romans. 

5 Pit of punishment.]— -Learned men have disputed 
whether the /3a»a0$«v was the place of pnni-hment at 

Athens or at Sparta. See the Essais de Crttiqa Boll. 

anger, page 63, and the note of Larcher 00 this I 

It was a deep pit, into which criminal- " ere precipitated 
See, in the Stratagemata of Polyomas, an mU» tam ing 
account of the Ingenious and raooeasful contrivance of 
one Aristomenes to escape from thi- horrid pte I 
yaen. book ii. e. 2. similar to thi- «> the punishment 
of precipitation from the Tarj.cian rock, inflicted OB Mate 



352 



HERODOTUS. 



the Lacedaemonians into wells, telling them to 
get the earth and water thence, and carry it to 
their king. The city and country of the 
Athenians was* afterwards laid waste ; but that 
they suffered thus in consequence of their treat- 
ment of the ambassadors, is more than I will 
assert, indeed I can by no means ascribe it to 
that cause. 

CXXXIV. But the vengeance of Talthy- 
bius, 1 who had been the herald of Agamemnon, 
fell upon the Lacedaemonians. There is at 
Sparta a temple of Talthybius, his posterity 
are called Talthybiadae, and are employed, as a 
mark of honour, on all foreign embassies. A 
long time after the incident we have related, 
the entrails of the victims continued at Sparta to 
bear an unfavourable appearance, till the people, 
reduced to despondency, called a general assem- 
bly, in which they inquired by the heralds, if 
any Lacedaemonian would die for his country. s 

prisoners among the Romans. Perhaps it is not unrea- 
sonable to presume that a like kind of punishment pre- 
vailed among the Jews, who, we are told in the gospels, 
hurried our Saviour to the brow of the hill on which the 
city was built, intending to throw him headlong down. 

— r. 

1 Vengeance of Talthybius.'] — The indignation of Tal- 
thybius fell generally upon the republic of Lacedsemon, 
but at Athens upon a particular house, namely, on the 
family of Miltiades, son of Cimon, because he had advis- 
ed the Athenians to put to death the heralds who came 
to Attica. — Pausanias, book iii. chapter 12. 

I can no where find on what account these honours 
were paid to Talthybius and his posterity. The persons 
of heralds the laws of all nations consented to hold sacred, 
but this veneration was paid not to the individual, but 
to the office. The name of Talthybius occurs very sel- 
dom in Homer, and is never introduced with any peculiar 
marks of honour or distinction. — T. 
I 2 Die for his country. ] — A s uperstitious idea prevailed 
among the ancients, that the safety of a whole nation 
might be secured, or the life of an individual be preserv- 
ed, by the voluntary devotion of one or more persons to 
death.— Thus, among the Greeks in the instance before 
us, and in the example of Leonidas, who devoted himself 
at Thermopylae. The Romans were distinguished by the 
same absurd error j the chasm of the forum was suppos- 
ed to close because a Roman knight voluntarily leaped 
into it; and a splendid victory over their adversaries 
was believed to be the consequence of the self-devotion 
of Decius. In succeeding times it became customary for 
individuals to devote and consecrate themselves, their 
fortunes, and their lives, to the service of the emperors. 
The folly began with Augustus, to whom one Pacuvius 
thus devoted himself. That better devotion, the result 
not of superstition but of genuine patriotism, is thus 
well described by Thomson : 

But, ah ! too little known to modern times, 
Be not the noblest passion past unsung, 
That ray peculiar from unbounded love 
Effused, which kindles the heroic soul- 
Devotion to the public. Glorious flame, 
Celestial ardour, in what unknown worlds, 
Profusely scatter'd through the blue immense, 
Hast thou been blessing myriads, since in Rome, 



Upon this Sperthics, 3 son of Aneristus, 
and Bulis, son of Nicolaus, Spartans of 
great accomplishments and distinction, offered 
themselves to undergo whatever punishment 
Xerxes, the son of Darius, should think proper 
to inflict on account of the murder of his am- 
bassadors. These men therefore the Spartans 
sent to the Medes as to certain death. 

CXXXV. The magnanimity of these two 
men, as well as the words which they used, de- 
serve admiration. On their way to Susa they 
came to Hydarnes, a native of Persia, and go- 
vernor of the vanquished places in Asia near 
the sea : he entertained them with much liber- 
ality and kindness, and addressed them as fol- 
lows : " Why, O Lacedaemonians, will you 
reject the friendship of the king ? From me, 
and from my condition, you may learn how well 
he knows to reward merit. He already thinks 
highly of your virtue, and if you will but enter 
into his service, he will doubtless assign to each 
of you, some government in Greece." " Hy- 
darnes," they replied, " your advice with re- 
spect to us is inconsistent : you speak from 
the experience of your own, but with an en- 
tire ignorance of our situation. To you ser- 
vitude is familiar; but how sweet a thing 
liberty is, you have never known, if you had, 
you yourself would have advised us to make all 
possible exertions to preserve it." 4 

C XX XVI. When introduced, on their ar- 
rival at Susa, to the royal presence, they were 
first ordered by the guards to fall prostrate, and 
adore the king, 9 and some force was used to 



Old virtuous Rome, so many deathless names 
From thee their lustre drew ? Since, taught by thee, 
Their poverty put splendour to the blush, 
Pain grew luxurious, and death delight ? T. 

3 Sperthies.J — The name of this Spartan is very va- 
riously written : he is called Spertis, Sperchis, and Sper- 
ches, but it is of no great importance. Suidas by an un- 
pardonable negligence, changes these two Spartans into 
Athenians. They sung, in honour of these two exalted 
characters, a melancholy dirge called Sperches, though 
I doubt not that Bulls was also celebrated in it, as was 
Aristogiton in that of Harmodius. See Theocritus Idyl. 
xv. 96. 98.— Larcher. 

The above mistake in Suidas, wluch Larcher has 
pointed out, Toup, in his Emendations of that author, 
has omitted to notice. — T. 

4 To preserve iY.]— The literal meaning of the Greek is 
as follows : You would advise us to fight for it not only 
with spears but with hatchets : which in a manner ex- 
plains itself ; for to fight with a spear implies fighting 
at a greater distance, and consequently with less danger, 
than was -possible with an axe, the wounds of which 
must be more severe, and less easily avoided. — T. 

5 Adore the king.]— This was the compliment always 
paid to the kings of Persia, when admitted to their pre* 
sence ; but this the Greeks, with the exception of The- 



POLYiMNIA. 



353 



compel them. But tliis they refused to do, 
even if tliey should dash their heads against the 
ground. They were not, they said, accustomed 
to adore a man, nor was it for this purpose that 
they came. After persevering in such conduct, 
they addressed Xerxes himself in these and 
similar expressions : " King of the Medes, we 
are sent by our countrymen to make atone- 
ment for those ambassadors who perished at 
Sparta.'' Xerxes with great magnanimity said 
he would not imitate the example of the Lace- 
daemonians. They in killing his ambassadors 
had violated the laws of nations ; he would not 
be guilty of that with which he reproached 
them, nor, by destroying their messengers, in- 
directly justify their crime. 

CXXXVII. In consequence of this con- 
duct of the Spartans, the indignation of Tal- 
thybius subsided for the present, notwithstand- 
ing the return of Sperthies and Bulis to their 
country. But according to the Lacedaemonian 
account, this displeasure was after a long inter- 
val again conspicuous in the war betwixt the 
people of the Peloponnese and the Athenians. 
For my own part, I see no divine interposi- 
tion" in this business : that the anger of Tal- 
thybius should without ceasing continue to 
operate till the devoted individuals were sent 
from their country, seems just and reasonable ; 
but that it should ultimately fall on the children 
of these men, does not to me look like divine 
vengeance. Nicolaus, the son of Bulis, and 
Aneristus, the son of Sperthies, had taken a 
fishing vessel belonging to the Tirynthians 7 

mistocles and one or two more, uniformly refused to do. 
We learn from Valerius Maximus, that one Timagoras 
an Athenian, having done this, was, by his countrymen, 
condemned to die : thinking the dignity of their city in- 
jured and degraded by this act of meanness. 

Prideaux remarks, that this compliment of prostration 
before him must have been paid the king of Persia by the 
prophets Ezra andNehemiah, or they could not have had 
access to him. — T. 

6 Divine interposition.'] — To impute that to divine in- 
terposition which human sagacity is unable to account 
for or explain, seems the necessary result of ignorance 
combined with superstition. That in a case so remark- 
able as this before ns, Herodotus should disdain to do this, 
does the highest credit to his candour and his wisdom. 
The passage however has greatly perplexed the most 
learned commentators, some thinking thai, the negative 
particle ought to be rejected, others the contrary. I 
would refer the curious reader to Valcnaer's note mi the 
passage, which to me seems very satisfactory, and which 
J have of course adopted. — T. 

7 To the Tirynthians.'] — Thucydides relates the parti- 
culars of this affair, book ii. chapter (>7. From his ac- 
count no divine interposition seems necessary to explain 
what happened to Nicolaus and Aneristus: they were 
two of several who fell into the hands of the Athenians 



full of men : being afterward Kent on some 
public business into Asia by the Lacedaemo- 
nians, they were betrayed by Sitalcee, son of 
Tereus, king of Thrace, and by Nympho- 
dorus, son of Pythus, a man of Abdera, They 
were accordingly captured near Bisantliis on the 
Hellespont, and being carried to Attica, were 
put to death by the Athenians, as was also 
Aristeas, son of Adimantus, a Corinthian. — 
These events happened many years after the 
expedition of Xerxes. 8 

CXXXVIII. This expedition, to return to 
my proper subject, was nominally said to be di - 
reCted against Athens ; but its real object was 
the entire conquest of Greece. The Greeks 
were long prepared for this invasion, but they 
did not all think of it alike. They who had 
made their submission to the Persian, did not 
conceive they had any thing to apprehend from 
the Barbarian's presence, whilst they who had 
resisted his proposals were overwhelmed with 
terror and alarm. The united naval armament 
of Greece was far from able to contend with 
his power ; and a great number of them dis- 
covered more inclination to go over to the 
Medes, than to concur in the general defence. 

CXXXIX. I feel myself impelled in this 
place to deliver an opinion, which though it may 
appear invidious to most men, as it seems to 
me the fact, I shall not suppress. If the Athe- 
nians, through terror of the impending danger, 
had forsaken their country, or if they had staid 
merely to have surrendered themselves to Xer- 
xes, he would certainly have met with no re- 
sistance by sea; if he had remained, without 
contest, master of the sea, the following must 
have been the event of things on the continent : 
—Although they of the Peloponnese had for- 
tified the isthmus by a number of walls, the 
Lacedaemonians must inevitably have been de- 
serted by their allies, not so much from inclina- 
tion as from their being compelled to see their 
cities regularly taken and pillaged by the Bar- 
barian fleet. Thus left alone, after many ef- 
forts of valour, they would have encountered an 



who were then at variance with Sparta. In the begin. 

ning of the war, the Lacedaemonians had put bo death roch 
as they captured by sea, and the Athenians thought them- 
selves at liberty to retaliate. Thucydides m 

ArMeas, one of the captives, \va- in a particular manner 
odious to the Athenians, as they imputed to him inanv 

calamities the) bad recentlj experienced; but I 
no Mich Hiing either of Nicolaus or Aneriatn — I 

s Afterthe expedition of Xerxet.]— 1 hi 
Hlluded to happened in the third year «t the eighty. 
seventh Olympiad, as appears from Thuryd 
2 Y 



354 



HERODOTUS. 



honourable death. Either this must have been 
their lot, or, seeing the other Greeks forming 
alliances with the Medes, they themselves 
would have done the same : thus would Greece 
either way have been reduced under the Per- 
sian yoke. Of what advantage the walls along 
the isthmus could possibly have been, whilst 
the king remained master of the sea, I am un- 
able to discover. Whoever therefore shall 
consider the Athenians as deliverers of Greece, 
will not be far from the truth. The scale to 
which they inclined would necessarily preponde- 
rate. In their anxiety for preserving the liberties 
of their country, they animated the ardour of all 
that part of Greece which was before inclined to 
resist the Medes. They, next to the gods, re- 
pelled the invader ; nor did the Delphic oracles, 
alarming and terrific as they were, induce them 
to abandon Greece ; but they waited to receive 
the invader. 

CXL. The Athenians, desirous to know 
the will of the oracle, sent messengers to Del- 
phi ; who, after the customary ceremonies, en- 
tering the temple, were thus addressed in a 
prophetic spirit by the priestess, whose name 
was Aristonice : 

" Unhappy men, to earth's last limits go ; 
Forsake your homes, and city's lofty brow, 
For neither head nor bodies firm remain, 
Nor hands assist you, nor can feet sustain : 
All, all is lost, the fires spread wide around, 
Mars in his Syrian car and arms is found : 
Not ye alone his furious wrath may fear ; 
Their towers from many shall his vengeance tear. 
And now from hallowed shrines the flames ascend, 
Black blood and sweat their fearful torrents blend. 
Horror prevails ! Ye victims of despair, 
Depart, and for unheard-of ills prepare." 

CXL I. This reply filled the Athenian 
messengers with the deepest affliction : whilst 
they were reflecting on its melancholy import, 
Timon, son of Androbulis, one of the most 
illustrious citizens of Delphi, recommended 
them to assume the dress of supplicants, and a 
second time to consult the oracle. They fol- 
lowed his advice, and expressed their senti- 
ments to the oracle in these terms : " O king, 
return us an answer more auspicious to our 
country ; let our supplicatory dress and atti- 
tude incline you to compassion ; otherwise we 
will not leave your sanctuary, but here remain 
till we die." The second answer 1 of the 
priestess was to this effect : 



1 The second answer.] — This has generally been im- 
puted to the interposition of Theniistocles, who, as Plu- 
tarch informs us, despairing to influence his fellow citi- 
zens by any human arguments, brought to his aid divine 
revelations, prodigies, and oracles, which he employed 
like machines in a theatre. 



" Of Jove, who rules Olympian heights above, 
Not Pallas's self the solemn will can move. 
My awful words attend then once again, 
And firm they shall as adamant remain. 
When all is lost within Cecropian bounds, 
And where Cithseron's sacred bosom sounds, 
Jove to his loved Tritonian maid shall give 
A wall of wood, where you and yours shall live. 
Your numerous foes' approach forbear to stay, 
But fly from horse, and foot, and arms away. 
Thou shalt, immortal Salamis, destroy 
The rising source of many a mother's joy : 
Thou shalt— though Ceres scatter o'er the plain, 
Or keep within disposed, her golden grain." 

CXL 1 1. The messengers, as reasonably 
they might, deeming this reply less severe than 
the former, wrote it down, and returning to 
Athens recited it to the people. Many differ- 
ent, and indeed entirely opposite opinions, 
were delivered concerning the meaning of the 
oracle ; some of the oldest men thought it in- 
tended to declare that the citadel, which for- 
merly was surrounded by a pallisade, should 
not be taken, to which pallisade they referred 
the oracular expression of the wooden wall — 
Others thought that the deity, by a wooden 
wall, meant ships, which theiefore, omitting 
every thing else, it became them to provide. 
But they who inclined to this opinion were 
perplexed by the concluding words of the 
oracle : 

" Thou shalt, immortal Salamis, destroy 
The rising source of many a mother's joy : 
Thou shalt — though Ceres scatter o'er the plain, 
Or keep within disposed, her golden grain 5" 

for the interpreters of the oracle presumed, 
that a defeat would be the consequence of a 
sea engagement near Salamis. 

CXLIII. There was at Athens a man 
lately arrived at the first dignities of the state, 
whose name was Themistocles, the son of 
Neocles ; he would not allow the interpreters 
of the oracles to be entirely right. " If," said 
he, 2 " that prediction had referred to the Athe- 
ians, the deity would not have used terms so 
gentle; The expression would surely have 
been, ' O wretched Salamis,' and not ' O im- 
mortal Salamis,' if the inhabitants had been 



2 If, said he.]— The last- mentioned oracle is thus 
given by Glover in his Athenaid, book i. 334. 

" Ah, still my tongue like adamant is hard ; 

Minerva's towers must perish : Jove severe 

So -wills, yet granting, at his daughter's suit, 

Her people refuge under walls of wood ; 

But shun the myriads of terrific horse, 

Which on your fields an eastern Mars shall bring."— 

She ceased, th' Athenian notes her answer down; 

To one the most intrusted of his train 

He gave the tablet : " Back to Athens fly," 

He said, " the son of Neocles alone, 

By his unbounded faculties, can pierce 

The hidden sense of these mysterious strains." 



**. 



POLYMNIA. 



355 



doomed to perish in the vicinity of that island." 
Every more sagacious person, he thought, must 
allow that the oracle threatened not the Athe- 
nians but the enemy ; he recommended them, 
therefore, to prepare for an engagement by sea, 
the only proper interpretation of the walls of 
wood. This opinion of Themistocles ap- 
peared to the Athenians more judicious than 
that of the interpreters, who were averse to a 
naval engagement ; and who advised their 
countrymen to attempt no resistance, but to 
abandon Attica, and seek another residence. 

CXLIV. Themistocles had on a former 
occasion given proofs of his superior sagacity : 
a considerable sum of money had been col- 
lected in the public treasury, the produce of 
the mines of Laurium. A proposal had been 
made, and approved, that this should be equally 
divided among the citizens of mature age, at 
the rate of ten drachmae a-head ; Themistocles 
dissuaded 3 the Athenians from this measure, 
and prevailed on them to furnish out with it a 
fleet of two hundred vessels, for the war with 
iEgina. It was this war, therefore, which 
operated to the safety of Greece, by obliging 
the Athenians to become sailors. This fleet 
was not applied to the purpose for which it 
was originally intended, but it opportunely 
served for the general benefit of Greece. The 
above ships being already prepared, the Athe- 
nians had only to increase their number : it 
was therefore determined, in a general council, 
held after the declaration of the oracle, that 
they could not better testify their obedience to 
the divinity, than by meeting at sea the Barba- 
rian invader of their country, in conjunction 
with those Greeks who chose to join their arms. 
— Such were the oracles delivered to the 
Athenians. 

CXLV. At this council all the other 
Greeks assisted who were animated with an 
ingenuous ardour with respect to their country. 
After a conference, in which they pledged 
themselves to be faithful to the common in- 
terest, it was first of all determined, that their 
private resentments and hostilities should cease. 
At this period great disturbances existed, but 
more particularly betwixt the people of Athens 



3 Themistocles dissuaded.] — Plutarch, in his life of 
Themistocles, relates the same fact. It was doubtless a 
bold though sagacious measure, and one of those which, 
as it happens to meet the temporary emotion of the peo- 
ple, occasions a man either to be torn in pieces as the 
betrayer, or venerated as the saviour of his country.— T. 



and iEgina. As soon as they heard that Xer- 
xes was at Sardis, at the head of his forces, the 
Athenians resolved to send some emissaries 
into Asia, to watch the motions of the king. 
It was also determined, to send some persons 
to Argos to form with that nation a confede- 
racy against the Persian war : others were 
sent to Sicily, to Gelon, the son of Dinomc- 
nis ; some to Corcyra and Crete, to solicit as- 
sistance for Greece. It was their view, if pos- 
sible, to collect Greece into one united body, 
to counteract a calamity which menaced their 
common safety. The power of Gelon was 
then deemed of so much importance, as to be 
surpassed by no individual state of Greece. 

CXLVI. When all these measures were 
agreed upon, and their private animosities had 
ceased, their first step was to send three spies 4 
to Asia. These men, on their arrival at Sar- 
dis, were seized in the act of examining the 
royal army, and being tortured by the command 
of the generals of the land-forces, were about 
to be put to death. When Xerxes heard of 
this, he expressed himself displeased with the 
proceedings of his officers, and sending some 
of his guards, he commanded them to bring the 
spies to his presence, if they were not already 
dead : the guards arrived in time to preserve 
them, and they were conducted to the royal 
presence. Xerxes after inquiring their busi- 
ness, directed his guards to lead the men round 
his army, 5 and show them all his forces, both 
horse and foot ; when they had fully satisfied 
their curiosity, he suffered them to depart 
without molestation, wherever they thought 
proper. Xerxes was prompted to this conduct, 
by the idea that if the spies were put to death, 
the Greeks would be able to form no concep- 
tion of his power, exceeding even the voice of 
fame ; he imagined also, that the loss of three 
individuals could prove of no serious detriment 
to the enemy. But he concluded, that by the 



4 Three spies."] — The treatment of spies is one of those 
thing's about which nations the most polished and the 
most barbarous have always thought and acted alike. 
To hang a spy the moment he is discovered, without 
any forms of judicial process, is warranted by universal 
consent, and seems justifiable on the common maxims of 
policy. 

The refinement of modern times annexes a consider- 
able degree of infamy to the employment and character 
of a spy, but the enterprise of Diomede and Ulysses, as 
recorded by Homer, seems to prove that this was not 
always the case. — T. 

5 Round his army.] — A similar conduct was pursued 
by Caius Fabricius, with regard to the spies of Pyrrhua, 



350 



HERODOTUS. 



return of these men to Greece, the Greeks, 
hearing of the preparations made against them, 
would not wait his arrival to make their sub- 
missions ; and that consequently he should be 
spared the trouble of marching against them. 

C XL VII. Upon another occasion Xerxes 
appeared to reason in the same manner : when 
he was at Abydos he saw some vessels sailing 
over the Hellespont, which carried corn from 
the Pontus to JEgina and the Peloponnese. 
When his attendants discovered them to be 
enemies, they prepared to pursue them, and 
looked earnestly on the king, as expecting his 
orders to do so. Xerxes inquired where these 
vessels were going ; on being told to the enemy, 
and that they were laden with corn, " Well," 
he replied, " and are we not going to the same 
place, carrying with us corn amongst other ne- 
cessaries ? How, therefore, can these injure us, 
who are carrying provisions for our use. " The 
spies, after surveying all that they desired, re- 
turned to Europe. 

C XL VIII. After their return, those 
Greeks who had associated to resist the Per- 
sian, sent messengers a second time to Argos. 
The Argives give this account of their own 
conduct ;— * They were acquainted, they say, at 
a very early period, with the Barbarian's views 
upon Greece ; and being aware, and indeed 
assured, that they would be called upon by the 
Greeks for their assistance to oppose him, they 
sent to inquire of the oracle at Delphi, what 
line of conduct they might most advantageous- 
ly pursue. They had recently lost six thousand 
of their countrymen, who were slain by the 
Lacedaemonians, under the conduct of Cleo- 
menes, the son of Anaxandrides. The Pythian 
made them this reply : 

" You, whom your neighbours hate, whilst gods 

above, 
Immortal gods, with truest kindness love, 
Keep close within, and well your head defend, 
Which to the limbs shall sure protection lend." 

This was the answer given them by the Py- 
thian, before the arrival of the Grecian envoys. 
When these had delivered their commission to 
the senate of Argos, the Argives expressed 
themselves disposed to enter into a pacific 
treaty with the Lacedaemonians, for a term of 
thirty years, upon condition of having the com- 
mand of half ' of the troops ; they thought that 



1 The command of half .~\ — Diodorus Siculus says, that 
the Argives sent deputies to the general assembly, who, 
on asking for a share of the command, received an answer 
to this effect : that if they thought it harder to submit to 



in justice they might claim the whole, but 
agreed to be satisfied with half. 

CXLIX. This, according to their own ac- 
count, was the answer of the Argive senate, in 
contradiction to the advice of the oracle, not to 
join the Grecian confederacy. Their awe of 
the divinity did not prevent their urging with 
eagerness a treaty for thirty years, in which 
period their children, they presumed, would 
arrive at manhood ; and they feared, if they re- 
fused to make a treaty, and their former mis- 
fortunes should be aggravated by any new 
calamity in the Persian war, they might be 
ultimately reduced under the Lacedaemonian 
yoke. To these proposals of the Argive senate 
the Spartan envoys replied, that with respect 
to the treaty, they would relate their determina- 
tion to their countrymen ; but as to the military 
command, they were authorised to make this 
decisive answer •. That as they had two kings, 
and the Argives but one, 2 the Spartans could 
not deprive either of their two 3 sovereigns of 
his privileges • but there was no reason why the 
Argive prince should not be vested with a joint 
and equal authority. Thus the Argives relate 
that they found themselves unable to submit to 
the Lacedaemonian insolence, choosing rather 
to be subject to the Barbarians, than to the 
tyranny of Sparta. 4 They therefore informed 
the ambassadors, that if they did not quit their 
territories before sunset, they should be regard- 
ed as enemies, 

CL. The above is the Argive account ; an- 
other report, however, is prevalent in Greece : 
■ — Xerxes, it is said, before he commenced hos- 
tilities with Greece, sent a herald to Argos, 
who was instructed thus to address the people : 
" Men of Argos, attend to the words of Xer- 
xes : we are are of opinion that Perses, whom 
we acknowledge to be our ancestor, was the 



the command of a Grecian, than to have a Barbarian 
master, they might as well stay, as they were in quiet : 
if they were ambitious to have the command of Greece, 
they must deserve it by their noble actions. 

2 The Argives but owe.]— Larcher remarks on this 
passage, that it is the only one he has been able to dis- 
cover, which mentions there being a king of Argos. 

3 Either of their two. 2— In book v. chap. 75, we are 
told expressly that the Spartans passed a law, forbidding 
both their kings to be at the same time present with the 
army ; with which assertion the passage before us evi- 
dently militates. 

4 Tyranny of Sparta.]— The Lacedaemonians, says 
Valcnaer, and Cleomenes in particular, had on various 
occasions treated the Argives ill ; these, therefore, with 
the Achaeans, were the only people of the Teloponnese 
who refused to assist them in the Pdoponnesian war. 



POLYMNIA. 



357 



eon of Perseus, whose mother was Danae", and 
of Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus ; thus 
it appears that we derive our origin from you. 5 
It would, therefore, be unnatural either for us 
to carry on war with those from whom we are 
descended, or for you to make us your adver- 
saries, by giving your assistance to others. 
Remain, therefore, in tranquillity at home ; if 
what I meditate prove successful, no nation 
shall receive from me greater honours than 
yours." This proposition appeared to the 
Argives of such serious importance, that they of 
themselves made no application to the Greeks ; 
and when they were called upon for their assis- 
tance, they claimed an equal command, merely 
with the view of remaining quiet, for they knew 
the Lacedaemonians would refuse it. 6 

CLI. The above receives confirmation from 
a circumstance represented in Greece to have 
happened many years afterwards. The Athen- 
ians, upon some occasion or other, sent ambas- 
sadors to Susa, the city of Memnon, 7 amongst 
whom was Callias, the son of Hipponicus : at 
the same place, and time, some Argives were 
present, to inquire of Artaxerxes, the son of 
Xerxes, whether the friendship they had formed 
with his father Xerxes continued still in force, 



5 Our origin from you.] — If the fables of Greece may 
be credited, the royal families of Persia and Argos came 
from the same source. From Danae, the daughter of 
Acrisius and Jupiter, came Perseus, king of Argos; 
Perseus had by Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus, 
Perses, who gave his name to the Persians, before called 
Cephenes. — Lurcher. 

It is truly said by Plato (in Alcibiad. vol. ii. p. 120,) that 
the Heraclidae in Greece, and the Achsememdse among 
the Persians, were of the same stock. On this account 
Herodotus makes Xerxes claim kindred with the Argives 
of Greece, as being equally of the posterity of Perses, 
the same as Perseus, the sun, under which character 
the Persians described the patriarch from whom they 
were descended. Perseus was the same as Mithras, 
whose sacred cavern was styled Perseura. 

Phoebe parens — seu te roseum Titana vocan 
Gentis Acheemeniae ritu, seu praestat Osirin 
Frugiferum : seu Persei sub rupibus antri 
Indignata sequi torquentem cornua Mithram. 

Statius Theb. i. 717. 
The above is from Bryant, vol. ii. 67, 68. — See also, of 
the same work, vol. i. 466, and vol. iii. 388. 

6 Would refuse J*.}— Plutarch in his Essay on the ma- 
lignity of Herodotus, which I have frequently had occa- 
sion to mention, 6ays, that this passage is a remarkable 
instance of our author's malice. " Every body knows," 
says Plutarch, " that the Argives were not unwilling to 
enter into the Grecian confederacy, although they did 
not choose to submit to the tyranny of the Lacedaemo- 
nians." — T. 

7 City of Memnon.]— Built by Tithonus, the father of 
Memnon, and called both by Herodotus and Strabo the 
Memnonian city. 



or whether he regarded them as enemies. 
Artaxerxes replied, that it certainly did con- 
tinue, and that no city had a greater share of 
his regard than Argos. 

CLII. In relating the above, I neither speak 
from my own knowledge, nor give any opinion, 
having no other authority but that of the 
Argives themselves, for saying that Xerxes 
sent a herald to Argos, or that the Argive am- 
bassadors at Susa interrogated Artaxerxes 
concerning his friendship for their country. 
This, however, I know, that if all men were 
to produce in one place 8 their faults, in order 
to exchange them for those of their neighhours, 
the result would be, that after due examination, 
each would willingly return with what he 
brought. — The conduct of the Argives, accord- 
ing to this representation, was not the basest 
possible. But it is incumbent upon me to 
record the different opinions of men, though 
I am not obliged indiscriminately to credit 
them ; and let this my opinion be applied to 
the whole of my history. It is then also as- 
serted, that the Argives first invited the Per- 
sian to invade Greece, imagining, after the 

8 Produce in one place.] — This passage is obscure. 
The meaning of Herodotus seems to be, that if we take 
the representation of the Argives, their guilt was not 
considerable, according to the favourable eye with which 
all men view their own faults. " I know," says he, 
" that all men would rather keep their own faults, than 
take those of others." 

A similar sentiment to this is well expressed by lord 
Chesterfield, in a paper of the World. 

" If, sometimes, our common parent has been a little 
partial, and not kept the scales quite even, if one pre- 
ponderates too much, we throw into the lighter a due 
counterpoise of vanity, which never fails to set all right. 
Hence it happens, that hardly any man would without 
reserve, and in every particular, change with any other." 
Solon, according to Valerius Maximus, book vii. c. 2. 
asserted the same thing concerning human miseries. 
" Solon aiebat si in unum locum cuncti mala sua contu- 
lissent, futurum ut propria deportare domum quam ex 
communi miseriarum acervo portionem suam ferre mal- 
lent." This topic is treated with great humour in 
the Spectator. ;No. 557 and 558. Should there be any 
doubt about the meaning of xoty.a. in this passage, it may 
be observea that Plutarch substitutes tyxtoifwrct. 

Plutarch, after reprobating the manner in which Her- 
odotus speaks of the Argives, adds this comment : 

" What he therefore reports the Ethiopian to have ex- 
claimed, concerning the ointment and the purple, ' De- 
ceitful are the beauties, deceitful the garments of the 
Persians,' may be applied to himself: for deceitful are the 
phrases, deceitful the figures, which Herodotus employs, 
being perplexed, fallacious, and unsound. For as pain- 
ters set off and render more conspicuous the luminous 
parts of their pictures by the aid of shades, so he by his 
denials extends his calumnies, and by his ambiguous 
speeches makes his suspicions take the deeper impres- 
sion."— T. 



358 



HERODOTUS. 



losses they had sustained from the Lacedaemo- 
nians, that they could experience no change for 
the worse. 

CLIII. With the view of forming a treaty 
with Gelon, there arrived in Sicily different 
ambassadors from the several allies, and Sya- 
grus on the part of the Lacedaemonians. An 
ancestor of this Gelon was a citizen of Gela, 1 
of the island of Telso, opposite Triopium when 
the Lindians of Rhodes, 2 and Antiphemus, 



1 Gela.] — The curious reader will find every thing re- 
lating to Gela amply discussed by the learned D'Orville, 
in his Sicula, page 111 to page 131. It seems probable 
that it was built 713 years before Christ. According to 
Diodorus Siculus, Phintias, tyrant of Agrigentum, de- 
stroyed Gela about the 124th Olympiad, and 572 years 
after its first foundation : the inhabitants he removed 
to the town of Phintias, which he built. A medal has 
be eh found in Sicily, on one side of which is aminotaur, 
the well known type of the people of Gela ; on the re- 
verse a wild boar, which is always found on the medals 
cf Phintias. See Larcher *s Table Geographique, vol. vii. 
p. 157.— T. 

2 Rhodes.]— The Rhodians succeeded the Cretans in 
the dominion of the sea ; they styled themselves sons of 
the sea. So Simias, their own historian, says of them, 
as cited by Clemens Alexand. and explained by Bochart, 
via 6a)ioi/rff%;."^See Diodorus Sic. 1. v. Floras calls 

' them Nauticus populus. See Meursius, where we find 
that Rhodes was styled Mari enata, because it merged 
by the decrease of the sea. They applied themselves 
with great success to maritime affairs, and became fa- 
mous for building ships ; they took so much care to keep 
the art to themselves, that it was criminal not only to 

enter, but even to look at their docks See in Eusta- 

thius in Dion, the expression t» \ivlu. ctXcik. The high 
esteem and credit which Rhodes obtained, is apparent 
from the succours which the neighbouring states sent 
her, when almost destroyed by an earthquake. See Poly- 
bius. In Polybius the reader may find an account of the 
wisdom of her politics : one part I cannot omit, namely 
the just value they set on their poor, and their impor- 
tance to the state, and of the care they took of them. 
They established many rules for their maintenance, and 
made ample provision for them all, wisely concluding, 
that the better they were used, the more obedient and 
peaceable they would be, and always ready to attend the 
summons of the public, in recruiting and manning their 
fleets. With the terror of these they long maintained 
the sovereignty of the seas, extending their dominion 
even to Pharos, near Egypt, till Cleopatra, by sub- 
tlety, shook off their yoke. The inhabitants of Pharos 
complaining of the heavy tribute they annually paid, as 
many other islands did, to the Rhodians, she ordered a 
mole to be thrown up to join Pharos to the continent, 
which was surprisingly executed within seven days, and 
thence called Heptastadium. Soon after this the Rhodian 
officers being arrived at Pharos for the payment of the 
tribute, the queen, riding on horeback over the new 
causeway to Pharos, told the Rhodians they did not 
know their own business ; that the tribute was not to 
be paid by the people of the continent, and Pharos was 
no longer an island. Let me add, that the inhabitants of 
Rhodes long maintained their credit in maritime affairs, 
pave their assistance to the unfortunate, curbed and re- 



built Gela, he accompanied them. His posteri- 
ty, in process of time, became the ministers of 
the infernal deities, 3 which honour, Telines, 
one of their ancestors, thus obtained: some 
men of Gela, who in a public tumult had been 
worsted, took refuge at Mactorium, a city be- 
yond Gela. Telines brought back these to 
their allegiance, without any other aid than the 
things sacred to the above deities, but where or 
in what manner he obtained them I am unable 
to explain. It was by their aid that he effected 
the return of the citizens of Gela, having pre- 
viously stipulated that his descendants should 
be the ministers of the above-mentioned deities. 
That Telines should undertake and accomplish 
so difficult an enterprise, seems to me particu- 
larly surprising : it was certainly beyond the 
abilities of any ordinary individual, and could 
only have been executed by a man of very supe- 
rior qualities. He is, nevertheless, reported by 
the people of Sicily to have been a person of 
different character : that is to say, of a delicate 
and effeminate nature. — Thus, however, he at- 
tained his dignities. 

CLIV. Oleander, the son of Pantareus, 
after possessing for seven years the sovereignty 
of Gela, was assassinated by Sabyllus, a citizen 
of the place, and succeeded in his authority by 
his brother Hippocrates. During his reign, 
Gelon, 4 one of the posterity of Telines, of 
whom indeed there were many others, and par- 
ticularly iEnesidemus, son of Pata'icus, of the 
body guard of Hippocrates, was soon, on ac- 
count of his military virtue, promoted to the 
rank of general of the cavalry. He had emi- 
nently distinguished himself in the several dif- 
ferent wars which Hippocrates had prosecuted 
against the Callipolitoa, the Naxians, the peo- 
ple of Zancle and Leontium, not to mention 
those of Syracuse, and many barbarous nations. 
Of all these cities, which I have enumerated, 
that of Syracuse alone escaped the yoke of 

strained the oppressor, and by the institution of the 
knights of Jerusalem, in 1308, enlisted themselves in de- 
fence of Christianity against the encroachments of the in- 
fidels, and gallantly defended their island against the 
Ottoman forces for the space of 200 years. — T. 

3 Infernal deities.] — Ceres and Proserpine. 

4 Gelon.] — He was not, as Dionysius of Halicarnassus 
asserts, the brother of Hippocrates. From belonging to 
the body guard of Hippocrates, he elevated himself to the 
government of Gela, and from thence to that of Syracuse : 
this last he rendered a flourishing town, and so attached 
it to him by his liberality, that when they broke in pieces 
the statues of the tyrants, to coin them into money, when 
Timoleon restored its liberty to Syracuse, those of Gelon 
alone were exempted. — Larcher. 



POLYMNIA, 



359 



Hippocrates. The Syracusans,. indeed, had 
sustained a signal defeat near the river Elorus, 
but the Corinthians and Corcyraeans had sup- 
ported and delivered them, on the express con- 
dition that they should give up to Hippocrates 
the city of Camarine, which they possessed 
from the remotest antiquity. 

CLV. Hippocrates, after reigning the same 
period as his brother Cleander, lost his life be- 
fore the town of Hybla, 5 in a war against the 
Sicilians. Gelon, after having conquered his 
fellow-citizens in a fixed battle, under pretence 
of defending the rights of Euclid and Cleander, 
sons of Hippocrates, whose accession to their 
father's dignity was resisted, obtained the su- 
preme authority of Gela, to the exclusion of 
the lawful heirs. He afterwards obtained pos- 
session of Syracuse, taking the opportunity of 
restoring to their country, from Casmene, those 
of the Syracusans called Gamori, 6 who had been 
expelled by the common people, in conjunction 
with their own slaves the Cillyrians. 7 The 
Syracusans, on his approach, made their sub- 
mission, and delivered up their city. 

CLVI. When Gelon became master of Sy- 
racuse he made light of Gela, his former pos- 
session, and consigned it to the care of his bro- 
ther Hiero. Syracuse, which now was every 
thing to him, became soon a great and power- 
ful city. Gelon removed all its inhabitants 
from Camarine, whom he made citizens of 
Syracuse, after overturning their city. He did 
the same with respect to more than half of the 
people of Gela. He besieged also the people 
of Sicilian Megara ; on their surrender, the 
most wealthy among them, who, on account of 
their activity against him, expected no mercy, 
were removed to Syracuse, and permitted to 



5 Hybla. 2 — There were in Sicily three cities of this 
name, the greater, the middle, and the little Hybla. The 
first of these is now called Paterno, and is at the foot of 
iEtna ; the second is the modern Ragusa : the third is 
Megara. It was before the second Hybla that Hippo- 
crates died. Hybla was also the name of a mountain in 
Sicily, which abounded in thyme, and was celebrated for 
its bees ; it has been sufficiently notorious in poetic de- 
scription. 

I am conscious that, with respect to geographical de- 
scriptions, I have on all occasions been concise, and 
some of my readers may, perhaps, think to a fault. In 
answer to this I can only observe, that the geography of 
Herodotus might be reasonably expected to employ a 
separate volume. — T. 

6 Gamori.2 — The Gamori or Geomori, were properly 
those who, being sent away as a colony, divided the 
lauds among them. 

7 Cillyrians.2 — This name is written differently. Lar- 
cher calls them Cillicyrians. 



enjoy the privileges of citizens. The common 
people of Megara, who not having been instru- 
ments of the war, thought they had nothing to 
apprehend, after being conducted to Syracuse, 
were sold as slaves, to be earned out of Sicily. 
The people of Euboea in Sicily were in like 
manner separated, and experienced the same 
treatment. His motive, in both these in- 
stances, was his fear and dislike of the common 
people : thus he rendered himself a most 
powerful prince. 

CLVH. When the Grecian ambassadors 
arrived at Syracuse, and obtained an audience 
of the king, they addressed him to this effect : 
" The Lacedaemonians, Athenians, and their 
common allies, have deputed us to solicit your 
assistance against the Barbarian. You must 
have heard of his intended invasion of our 
country, that he has thrown bridges over the 
Hellespont, and bringing with him all the 
powers of Asia, is about to burst upon Greece. 
He pretends, that his hostilities are directed 
against Athens alone ; but his real object is the 
entire subjection of Greece. We call on you, 
therefore, whose power is so great, and whose 
Sicilian dominions constitute so material a 
portion of Greece, to assist us in the vindica- 
tion of our common liberty. Greece united 
will form a power formidable enough to resist 
our invaders ; but if some of our countrymen 
betray us, and others withhold their assistance, 
the defenders of Greece will be reduced to an 
insignificant number, and our universal ruin 
may be expected to ensue. Do not imagine 
that the Persian, after vanquishing us, will 
not come to you; it becomes you, there- 
fore, to take every necessary precaution ; by 
assisting us you render your own situation se- 
cure. — An enterprise concerted with wisdom 
seldom fails of success." 

CLVIII. The reply of Gelon was thus 
vehement : " Your address to me, O men of 
Greece," said he, "is insolent in the extreme. 
How can you presume to solicit my aid against 
the Barbarian, who, when I formerly asked 
you for assistance against the Carthaginians, 
and to revenge on the people of ^Egesta the 
death of Dorieus, the son of Anaxandrides, 
offering in return to make those com- 
mercial places free, from whence great ad- 
vantages would have been derived to you, 
on both occasions refused to succour me? 
That all this region, therefore, is not in sub- 
jection to the Barbarians has not depended 
upon you ; the event, however, has been for. 



360 



HERODOTUS. 



tunate to me. But on the approach of war, 
and your own immediate danger, you have re- 
course to Gelon. I shall not imitate your 
contemptuous conduct ; I am ready to send to 
your aid two hundred triremes, twenty thou- 
sand heavy-armed troops, two thousand horse, 
and as many archers, two thousand slingers, 
and an equal number of light-armed cavalry. 
It shall be my care also to provide corn 1 for all 
the forces of Greece during the continuance of 
the war. But I make these offers on the con- 
dition of being appointed to the supreme com- 
mand, otherwise I will neither come myself, 
nor furnish supplies." 

CLIX. Syagrus, unable to contain himself, 
exclaimed aloud : " How would Agamem- 
non, the descendant of Pelops, 2 lament, if he 
could know that the Spartans suffered them- 
selves to be commanded by Gelon, and the 
people of Syracuse ! Upon this subject I will 
hear you no farther : if you have any inten- 
tion of assisting Greece, you must submit to 
be subordinate to the Lacedaemonians ; if you 
refuse this, we decline your aid. 

CLX. When Gelon perceived the particu- 
lar aversion of Syagrus to his proposals, he de- 
livered himself a second time as follows: 
" Stranger of Sparta, when injuries are offered 
to an exalted character, they seldom fail of 
exciting his resentment : yet your conduct, in- 
sulting as it is, shall not induce me to trans- 
gress against decency. If you are tenacious of 
the supreme authority, I may be reasonably 
more so, who am master of more forces, and a 
greater number of ships: but as you find a 
difficulty in acceding to my terms, I will re- 
mit somewhat of my claims. If you command 
the land forces, I will have the conduct of the 

1 Provide corn.'] — The fertility of Sicily, with respect 
to its corn, has from the most remote times been memo- 
rable. In the most flourishing times of Rome it was 
called the granary of the republic. See Cicero in Ver- 
rem, ii. — "Ille M. Cato sapiens cellam penariam rei- 
publicse, nutricem plebis Romanse Siciliam nominavit." 
Modern travellers agree in representing Sicily as emi- 
nently abundant in its crops of corn. 

There is a fragment of Antiphanes preserved in Athe- 
naeus, which may thus be translated* 

" A cook from Elis, a caldron from Argos, wine of 
Phlius, tapestry of Corinth, fish from Sicyon, pipers 
(aiA'/?T^§£?) from iEgium, cheese from Sicily, the per- 
fumes of Athens, and eels of Bceotia." 

So that cheese also was amongst the numerous deli- 
cacies which Sicily supplied. — T. 

2 Agamemnon, the descendant of Pelops.]— See He- 
sychius at the word Tli^oridxt- The descendants of 
Agamemnon were therefore termed Tli\ontiu.i. Miho- 
mboa Ayxu.if/,vovos yivot* 



fleet: or, if you will direct the latter, I will 
command the former. You must be satisfied 
with the one of these conditions, or be con- 
tent to depart without my powerful assist- 
ance." 3 — Such were the propositions of Gelon. 
CLXI. The Athenian envoy, anticipating 
the Lacedaemonian, answered him thus : " King 
j of Syracuse, Greece has sent us to you, not 
j wanting a leader, but a supply of forces. Such 
j is your ambition, that unless you are suffered to 
j command, you will not assist us. When you 
I first intimated your wish to have the supreme 
command of our united forces, we Athen- 
ians listened in silence, well knowing that 
our Lacedaemonian ally would return you an 
answer applicable to us both. As soon as 
you gave up this claim, and were satisfied with 
requiring the command of the fleet alone, I 
then thought it became me to answer you. — 
Know, then, that if the Spartan ambassador 
would grant you this, we would not : if the 
Lacedaemonians refuse the conduct of the fleet, 
it devolves of course to us ; we would not dis- 
pute it with them, but we would yield it to no- 
body else. It would little avail us to possess 
the greater part of the maritime forces of 
Greece, if we could suffer the Syracusans to 
command them. The Athenians are the most 
ancient people of Greece, 4 and we alone have 

3 My powerful assistance.] — iElian in his Various His- 
tory, book ix. chap. 5. relates this anecdote of Hiero and 
Themistocles : 

When Hiero appeared at the Olympic games, and 
would have engaged with his horses in the race, The- 
mistocles prevented him, saying, that he who would not 
engage in the common danger ought not to have a share 
in the common festival. 

The chronology of this fact is adduced by Bentley, as a 
convincing argument against the genuineness of the 
epistles imputed to Themistocles. See Bentley on Pha- 
laris, p. 395.— T. 

4 The most ancient people of Greece.] — The Athenians, 
in support of their antiquity assumed many romantic 
appellations, calling themselves the sons of the earth, 
xOovioi, oivtoxQovtis, yriyiva;, ■x-^oyow, children of clay. 
See Hesychius at the word y/iytvus. Opposing also these 
appellations to the fiction of the Egyptians, concerning 
the generation of man from the slime and mud of the 
river Nile, they afterwards, as an emblem of their own 
fortuitous generation, wore the cicadce, or harvest flies, 
commonly translated grasshoppers, in their hair. Their 
comic poet, who on no occasion spared his countrymen, 
makes of this their emblem a happy but sarcastic use, 
telling them that the cicada, which they pretended to be 
a symbol of themselves, did really exhibit their faithfu* 
picture, with this only difference, that whereas the 
cada only sung upon the boughs for a month or two, 
they sung away their whole lives in hearing causes, (See 
Athenaeus, p. 540.) sauntering through the streets to 
p\ck up the loose grain which fell from the industrious 
farmer, to find out a place where they had nothing to 



POLYMNIA. 



361 



never changed our country, from us was de- 
scended that hero, who, according to Homer, 
-of all those who marched against Troy, was the 
most expert in the arrangement and discipline 
of an army : 5 we relate these things with a be- 
coming sense of our own importance." 

CLXII. " Man of Athens," answered 
Gelon, "it does not appear that you want 
commanders, but troops. Since, therefore, you 
would obtain every thing, and concede nothing, 
hasten your departure, and inform Greece that 
their year will be without its spring." The 
meaning of this expression was, that as the 
spring was the most desirable season of the 
year, so were his forces with respect to those 
of Greece ; Greece, therefore, destitute of his 
alliance, would be as a year without its spring. 

CLXIII. The Grecian ambassadors after 
receiving this answer from Gelon, sailed back 
again. Gelon afterwards, apprehending that 
the Greeks must fall before the Barbarian 
power, and still disdaining, as monarch of 
Sicily, to be subordinate to the Spartans in the 
Peloponnese, adopted the following measure : 
— As soon as he heard that the Persian had 



do. Thi3 claim, however, of the Athenians to antiquity 
was opposed by the Arcadians, who boasted that they 
existed before the moon, and to keep tip this pretence 
they wore lunulas or moons in their shoes, as the Athen- 
ians wore the cicada in their hair, they therefore called 
themselves ■xgtxriK'woi : and Strabo, in his eighth book, 
owns their plea, asserting that the Arcadians were the 
oldest of all the Grecians. — I cannot help thinking that 
the Arcadians were called Silen, before they disputed 
with the Athenians on the subject of antiquity. A prin- 
cipal part of their possessions in Asia were called Sal- 
onuin, and the cheese there made caseus Salonites, words 
not unlike to Silenus and Selenitae. The name also is 
preserved in Silenus, the usual companion of Pan, the 
Arcadian deity. Silenus, as the Greek language pre- 
vailed, might afterwards be changed into Selenus or Sele- 
nita, from the word Selene, then better understood, or 
on purpose to maintain the contest of antiquity, and to 
account for calling themselves Proseleni. — T. 

5 Discipline of an army.] — See book 2d. Homer II. 
Tope's version : 

Full fifty more from Athens stem the main, 

Led by Menestheus through the liquid plain. 

No chief like thee, Menestheus, Greece could yield, 

To marshal armies in the dusty field, 

Th' extended wings of battle to display, 

Or close the embodied host in firm array. 

Nestor alone, improved by length of days, 

For martial conduct bore an equal praise. 

Pope's version is here open to censure. Instead of 
" Greece could yield," the original is, " No mortal man 
was equal to him ;" 

Tea h ovxtti; ti; occoios iTiy^otiuv yivt-r «v»jg 
K.otr/xy.tra.i htrov; re xett etvt^cts uffTthairois . 

The line " close the embodied, &c." the reader will per. 

ceivc is entirely redundant. 



passed the Hellespont, he sent three fifty-oared 
vessels to Delphi, under the conduct of Cad- 
mus, the son of Scythes, of the isle of Cos ; 
he had with him a large sum of money, and a 
commission of a pacific tendency. 6 They were 
to observe the issue of the contest : if the Bar- 
barian proved victorious, they were to give 
him earth and water, in token of the submission 
of those places of which Gelon was prince ; if 
victory fell to the Greeks, they were to return 
home. 

CLXIV. This Cadmus had received from 
his father the sovereignty of Cos ; and though 
his situation was free from every species of 
disquietude, he resigned his authority from the 
mere love of justice, and retired to Sicily. — 
Here, in conjunction with the Samians, he in- 
habited Zancle, the name of which place was 
afterwards changed to Messana. 7 This man 
Gelon selected, being convinced from his pre- 
vious conduct of his inviolable attachment to 
justice. Amongst the other instances of recti- 
tude which he- exhibited, the following is not 
the least worthy of admiration : If he had 
thought proper he might have converted to his 
own use the wealth with which Gelon en- 
trusted him ; but after the victory of the 
Greeks, and the consequent departure of 
Xerxes, he carried all these riches back again 
to Sicily. 

CLXV. The Sicilians affirm, that Gelon 
would still have assisted the Greeks, and sub- 
mitted to serve under the Lacedaemonians, if 
Terillus, the son of Crinippus, who had been 
expelled from Himera, where he had exercised 
the sovereignty, by Theron, son of iEneside- 
mus, had not at this time brought an army 
against him. This army was composed of 
Phenicians, Africans, Iberians, Ligurians, Hel- 
isycians, Sardinians, and Cyrnians, under the 
command of Amilcar, son of Anno, king of 
Carthage, 9 to the amount of three hundred 
thousand men. This person Terillus had con- 
ciliated, partly from the rites of private hospi- 



6 Pacific tendency.] — QiXuvs Xoyevs, literally " friend- 
ly words." 

7 Messana.] — It is by no means certain when this hap- 
pened : the authorities of Herodotus and Thucydides are 
contradicted by that of Pausanias. The reader who may 
wish minutely to investigate this fact, I refer to Larcher's 
long note to Bentley on Phalaris, page 104, who avails 
himself of it to detect the forgery of the epistles ascribed 
to Phalaris ; and lastly to d'Orville's Sicnla. — T. 

8 King of Carth age. ]— Larcher remarks, from Toly. 
aenus and Cornelius Nepos, that the title of King was fre- 
quently given to the Carthaginian generals. 

2 Z 



362 



HERODOTUS. 



tality, but principally by the interposition of 
Anaxilaus, son of Cretineus, king-of Rhegium, 
who had given his children as hostages to Amil- 
car, to induce him to come to Sicily, 1 and re- 
venge the cause of his father-in-law. Anaxi- 
laus had married a daughter of Terillus, whose 
name was Cydippe : Gelon, from these circum- 
stances being unable to assist the Greeks, sent, 
as we have described, a sum of money to Delphi. 

CLX VI. It is related on the same authority, 
that Gelon and Theron conquered the Cartha- 
ginian Amilcar, in Sicily, on the same day, 3 
which was remarkable for the victory of the 
Greeks at Salamis. The father of Amil- 
car, they assert, was a Carthaginian, his 
mother a native of Syracuse ; he had been 
elevated to the throne of Carthage for his per- 
sonal virtues. After being vanquished, as we 
have described, he disappeared, and was never 
seen afterwards, dead or alive, though Gelon 3 
with the most diligent care endeavoured to dis- 
cover him. 

CLXVII. The Carthaginians assert, and 
with some probability, that during the contest 
of the Greeks and Barbarians in Sicily, which, 
as is reported, continued from morning till the 
approach of night, Amilcar remained in his 
camp ; here he offered sacrifice to the gods, 
consuming upon one large pile, the entire bodies 
of numerous victims. 4 As soon as he perceiv- 
ed the retreat of his party, whilst he was in the 
act of pouring a libation, he threw himself into 
the flames, and for ever disappeared. Whether, 
according to the Phenicians, he vanished in 
this, or, as the Carthaginians allege, in some 
other manner, this last people, in all their col- 
onies, and particularly in Carthage, erected 

1 Come to Sicily. .] — Diodoras Sicums relates, that 
Xerxes had made a treaty with the Carthaginians, and 
that it was in consequence of this that the war here men- 
tioned took place in Sicily. 

2 On the same day.] — Diodoras Siculus says the same 
thing', of course these two authors are agreed about the 
year of the battle of Thermopylae, and differ only in a 
few months. Herodotus makes it to have happened in 
the beginning of the first year of the 75th Olympiad ; 
Diodorus Siculus some months afterwards. 

The victory of Gelon did him great honour ; but what 
in my opinion did him more, was, that when he granted 
peace to the Carthaginians, he stipulated that they should 
never again sacrifice children to Saturn. Nevertheless, 
Diodorus Siculus, who mentions this treaty, says nothing 
of this condition : and it appears from this author, that 
the barbarous custom above mentioned still prevailed in 
the time of Agathocles, that is to say, in the 117th Olym- 
piad. — Larcher. 

3 Though Ge/on.~] — If Polyaenusmay be believed, Gelon 
very well knew the fate of Amilcar ; see lib. i. c. 27. 



monuments in his honour, and sacrifice to him 
as a divinity. — Enough perhaps has been said 
on the affairs of Sicily. 

CLXVIII. The conduct of the Corcyreans 
did not correspond with their professions. The 
same emissaries who visited Sicily, went also 
to Corcyra, the people of which place they ad- 
dressed in the terms they had used to Gelon. 
To these they received a promise of immediate 
and powerful assistance : they added, that they 
could by no means be indifferent spectators of 
the ruin of Greece, and they felt themselves 
impelled to give their aid, from the conviction, 
that the next step to the conquest of Greece 
would be their servitude ; they would therefore 

assist to the utmost Such was the flattering 

answer they returned. But when they ought 
to have fulfilled their engagements, having very 
different views, they fitted out a fleet of sixty- 
vessels ; these were put to sea, though not 
without difficulty, and sailing towards the Pelo- 
ponnese, they stationed themselves near Pylos, 
and Taenaros, off the coast of Sparta. Here 
they waited the issue of the contest, never 
imagining that the Greeks would prove victori- 
ous, but taking it for granted that the vast 
power of the Persian would reduce the whole 
of Greece. They acted in this manner to 
justify themselves, in addressing the Persian 
monarch to this effect : " The Greeks, O 
king, have solicited our assistance, who, after 
the Athenians, are second to none in the num- 
ber as well as strength of our ships ; but we did 
not wish to oppose your designs, or to do any 
thing hostile to your wishes." By this lan- 
guage they hoped to obtain more favourable 
conditions ; in which they do not to me appear 
to have been at all unreasonable : they had pre- 
viously concerted their excuse to the Greeks. 
When the Greeks reproached them for with- 
holding the promised succour, they replied that 
they had absolutely fitted out a fleet of sixty 
triremes : but that the north-east winds would 
not suffer them to pass the promontory of 
Malea : and that it was this accident alone, not 
any want of zeal, which prevented their arrival 
at Salamis till after the battle. It was thus 
they attempted to delude the Greeks. 



Not daring to face him openly in the field, he destroyed 
him by a paltry stratagem, when in the act of offering 
sacrifice. — T. 

4 Numerous victims.'] — We find Croesus, in a preced- 
ing book, offering up three thousand chosen victims; see 
book i. chap. 50. — T. 



POLYMNI A. 



363 



CLXIX. The Cretans being iti like man- 
ner solicited by the Grecian envoys to assist 
the common cause, determined to consult the 
oracle at, Delphi about the expediency of such 
a measure : " Inconsiderate as you are," re- 
plied the priestess, " has not Minos given you 
sufficient cause to regret the part you took with 
respect to Menelaus ? The Greeks refused to 
revenge the murder of Minos, 4 at Camicus, 
though you assisted them to punish the rape of a 
Spartan woman by a Barbarian." This answer 
induced the Cretans to refuse their assistance. 

CLXX. It is said that Minos coming to 
Sicania, now called Sicily, in search of Daedalus, 5 



4 Minos.'}— The Cretans had sent some forces to the 
Trojan war, under the conduct of Idomeneus and Merion. 
Idoraeneus was a descendant of Minos, and at his death 
the government of the family of Minos ceased. Minos 
expelled from Crete the Rhadamanes ; see the Dionysiaca 
of Nonnus, cited by Meursius, p. 120. Those who settled 
with Minos at Crete, are the first whom the Grecian 
history records for their power and dominion at sea ; he 
extended his j urisdiction to the coasts of Caria on the 
one hand, and to the cities of Greece on the other ; using 
his power with moderation and justice, and employing it 
against those lawless rovers and pirates who infested the 
neighbouring islands, and in the protection and support 
of the injured and distressed. If he be represented in 
worse colours by some authors, the painting is the hand 
of one who copied from those, whose rapine and oppres- 
sion had provoked and felt his resentment. Minos was 
no less renowned for his arms abroad, than for his policy 
and good government at home, he is said to have framed 
a body of laws, under the direction of Jupiter, for his 
subjects of Crete, and, though this may have the air of a 
romance, invented, as such reports were, to give the 
better sanction to his laws, yet it is confessed, says Stra- 
bo, that Crete in ancient times was so well governed, 
that the best states of Greece, especially the Spartan, did 
not disdain to transcribe many of its laws, and to form 
the plan of their government according to this model. 
Lycurgus retired into Crete, and transcribed its laws. — 
Meursius, p. 162; they related principally to military 
points. A. Gellius records one instance of this agree- 
ment of the military sort, in giving the onset to battle, 
1. i. c. 11. there are many others in Meursius. Besides 
Plato and Ephorus, mentioned by Strabo, we may add 
Xenophon and Polybius, bearing their witness to what 
I have above said of the ancient Cretans' character. As 
it was gained by, so it fell with, the descendants of 
Minos ; for when the Carians had expelled the former, 
and were become masters of the Island, as Diodorus 
Siculus supposes that they did soon after the Trojan war 
(book v. at the end), Crete became a den of tyrants, and 
anest of pirates, as infamous for their thefts ana injustice 
as the Eteocretans had been famous for their opposite 
virtues. — T. 

5 Dcedalus.']— Diodorus Siculus gives the following 
account of Daedalus, book iv. c. 76. 

Daedalus was an Athenian,of the family of Erechtheus ; 
he was eminently skilful as an architect, as a statuary 
and engraver. He had arrived at so great excellence, 
that his posterity boasted of his figures, that they ap- 
peared to see and to move like human beings. He was 



perished by a violent death. 6 Not long after- 
wards, actuated as it were by some divine im- 
pulse, all the Cretans in a body, except the 
Polichnites and the Praesians, passed over with 
a great fleet to Sicania, and for five years laid 
close siege to Camicus, inhabited even to my 
time by the Agrigentines. Unable either to 
take the place or continue the siege, they were 
compelled by famine to retire ; a furious tem- 
pest attacked them off the coast of Iapygia, and 
drove them ashore. As their vessels were 
destroyed, and they were unable to return to 
Crete, they remained there, and built the town 
of Hyria. Instead of Cretans they took the 
name of Messapian Iapyges, 7 and from being 



the first who formed eyes to Ms figures, and represented 
the limbs and arms correctly and distinctly. Before his 
time artists made the eyes of their figures closed, the 
hands suspended close to the sides. His nephew Talos 
was his pupil, whose ingenuity so excited his envy and 
jealousy that he killed him : for this he was condemned 
to death by the Areopagus, but flying to Crete, his tal- 
ents procured him great reputation, and the friendship 
of Minos. This he forfeited from using his art to gratify 
the preposterous passion of Pasiphae, the wife of Minos ; 
whence the story of the birth of the Minotaur. He con- 
sequently fled from hence with his son Icarus, who gave 
his name to the sea where he perished. Daedalus went 
to Sicily, where he was received and entertained by 
Cocalus ; Minos pursued him with a numerous fleet, he 
landed in the territory of Agrigentum, and sent to Coca- 
lus to demand Daedalus. Cocalus invited him to a con- 
ference, promised to give Daedalus up, and offered him 
the rites of hospitality ; after which he suffocated Minos 
in a hot bath. 

It has been disputed, whether with the assistance of 
Daedalus, Minos was not the inventor of the labyrinth. 
The credit of the invention is by Pliny assigned to the 
Egyptian ; Ovid very prettily compares the winding of 
the Cretan labyrinth to the course of the Meander, 1. 
viii. 160. 

Non secus ac liquidus Phrygiis Moeandros in arvis 
Ludit, et amhiguo lapsu refluitque fluitque, 
Occurrensque sibi venturas aspicit undas; 
Et nunc ad fontes, nunc in mare versus apertum 
Incertas exercet aquas, lta Diedalus implet 
Innumeras errore vias, &c. T. 

6 Violent death.'] — Zenobius affirms, that whilst he 
was at the bath, the daughters of Cocalus killed him, by 
pouring boiling pitch upon him. Diodorus Siculus says, 
that Cocalus having permitted him to do what he wished, 
and offering him the rites of hospitality, suffocated him 
in a bath, of which the water was too hot. Pausanias 
says nothing of the kind of death which Minos died ; he 
satisfied himself with saying, that the daughters of Coca- 
lus were so pleased with Daedalus on account of his in- 
genuity, that to oblige him, they resolved to destroy 
Minos. The violent death of this prince caused Sopho- 
cles to write a tragedy, called Minos, as appears from 
Clemens Alexandrinus or Camicoi, as we find in Athe- 
naeus. — hatcher. 

7 Iapyges.~\ — So called from lapyx, the name of the 
son of Daedalus. Iapyx was also the name of the west. 
era wind. See Horace : 

Obstrictis aliis prseter Iapyga 
Ventis. 



364 



HERODOTUS. 



islanders they became inhabitants of the con- 
tinent. From Hyria they sent out several 
colonies ; with these, the Tarentines being 
afterwards engaged in the most destructive hos- 
< ilities, received the severest defeat we ever 
remember to have heard related. The Ta- 
rentines were not on this occasion the only 
sufferers ; the people of Rhegium, who had 
been instigated by Mycithus, son of Choerus, to 
assist the Tarentines, sustained a loss of three 
thousand men ; the particular loss of the Tar- 
entines has not been recorded. Mycithus had 
been one of the domestics of Anaxilaus, and 
had been left to take care of Rhegium : being 
driven thence, he resided afterwards at Tegea 
in Arcadia, and consecrated a great number of 
statues 1 in Olympia. 

CLXXI. My remarks concerning the peo- 
ple of Rhegium and Tarentum, have interrupt- 
ed the thread of my narration. Crete being thus 
left without inhabitants, the Praesians say, that 
various emigrants resorted there, of whom the 
greater number were Greeks. In the third age 
after the death of Minos, happened the Trojan 
war, in which the Cretans were no contempti- 
ble allies to Menelaus. On their return from 
Troy, and as some have asserted as a punish- 
ment for the part they had taken, a severe pes- 
tilence and famine destroyed them and their cat- 
tle ; they who survived, were joined by others 
who migrated to them, and thus was Crete 
a third time peopled. By recalling these in- 
cidents to their remembrance, the Pythian 
checked their inclination to assist the Greeks. 

CLXXII. The Thessalians were from 
the beginning compelled to take the part of the 
Medes, taking care to show their dislike of the 
conduct of the Aleuadse. As soon as they 
heard that the Persian had passed over into 
Europe, they sent deputies to the isthmus, 
where were assembled the public counsellors of 
Greece, deputed from those states which were 

Again, 

Ego quid sit ater 
Adrise novi sinus, et quid alhus 
Peccet Japyx. 

The particulars of the battle, mentioned in the subse- 
quent part of the chapter, may be found at length in 
Diodorus Siculus, book ii. chap. 52. 

1 Great number of statues.] — These are specified in 
Pausanias ; they consisted of the statues of Amphitrite, 
Neptune, and Vesta, by the hand of Glaucus, an Argive : 
there were also Proserpine, Venus, Ganymede, Diana, 
Homer, and Hesiod ; next these were iEsculapius [and 
Hygeia, with Agon. These with many others were 
given by Mycithus, in consequence of a vow made on ac- 
count of his son, who was afflicted with a dangerous dis- 
ease.— T. 



most zealous to defend their country. On their 
arrival the Thessalian deputies thus spake : 
" Men of Greece, it will be necessary to defend 
the Olympic straits, for the common security 
of Thessaly, and of all Greece. We on pur 
parts are ready to assist in this, but you must 
also send a considerable body of forces, which 
if you omit to do, we shall undoubtedly make 
our terms with the Persians. It cannot be 
just that we, who from our situation are more 
immediately exposed to danger, should perish 
alone on your account. If you refuse to assist 
us, you cannot expect us to exert ourselves for 
you. Our inability to resist will justify our 
conduct, and we shall endeavour to provide for 
our own security." 

CLXXIII. The Greeks in consequence 
determined to send a body of infantry by sea to 
defend these straits. As soon as their forces 
were ready they passed the Euripus. Arriving at 
AJus, in Achaia, 8 they disembarked, and pro- 
ceeded towards Thessaly. They advanced to 
Tempe, to the passage which connects the 
lower parts of Macedonia with Thessaly, 
near the river Peneus, betwixt Olympus and 
Ossa ; here they encamped, to the number of 
ten thousand heavy-armed troops, and they 
were joined by the Thessalian horse. The 
Lacedaemonians were led by Eurenetus, son 
of Carenus, one of the Polemarchs, 3 though 
not of the blood-royal. Themistocles, son of 
Neocles, commanded the Athenians. Here 
they remained but a few days ; for Alexander, 
son of Amyntas, the Macedonian, sent to them, 
recommending their retreat, from their total 
inability to make any stand against the land and 
sea forces of the enemy, whose numbers he ex- 
plained. The Greeks thinking the advice rea- 
sonable, and the Macedonian amicable towards 
them, regulated their conduct by it. I am 
rather inclined to impute the part they acted 
to their fears, being informed that there was 
another passage into Thessaly, through the 
country of Perrhsebi, in the higher region of 

2 In Achaia.~\ — Achaia means here Phthiotis, in Thee- 
saly. — See Strabo, b. ix. 

3 One of the Polemarchs.'}— The Polemarch seems to 
have had separate and distinct duties in peace and in 
war ; in peace, as I have elsewhere observed, it was his 
business to superintend the strangers resident in Sparta, 
as well as to see to the maintenance of the children of 
those who died in the public service. 

In war he seems to have been a kind of aid-de-camp 
to the king, and to have communicated his orders to the 
troops. We may presume, from what Herodotus says 
in the conclusion of the paragraph, that the Polemarchs 
were generally of the blood-royal.— T. 



POLYMNIA. 



365 



Macedonia, near the city Gonnos, and through 
this the army of Xerxes did actually pass. 
The Greeks retired to their ships, and returned 
to the isthmus. 

CLXXIV. This expedition to Thessaly 
was undertaken when the king was preparing 
to pass into Europe, and was already at Aby- 
dos. The Thessalians, forsaken by their allies, 
lost no time in treating with the Medes ; they 
entered warmly into the king's affairs, and 
proved themselves remarkably useful. 

CLXXV. The Greeks, after their return 
to the isthmus, in consequence of the advice of 
Alexander, called a council to deliberate how 
and where they should commence hostilities. 
It was ultimately determined to defend the 
straits of Thermopylae, as being not only nar- 
rower than those of Thessaly, but also within 
a less distance. Of that other avenue by 
which the Greeks at Thermopylae were sur- 
prised, they had not the smallest knowledge, 
till, having arrived there, they were shown it 
by the Trachinians. To prevent the approach 
of the Barbarians to Greece, they undertook 
to guard this passage : their fleet they resolved 
to send to Artemisium on the coast of His- 
tiaeotis. These places are so contiguous, that 
a communication betwixt the two armaments 
was extremely easy. 

CLXXVI. The above places may be thus 
described: — Artemisium, 4 beginning from the 
Thracian sea, gradually contracts itself into a 
narrow strait betwixt the island of Sciathus 
and the continent of Magnesia. At the straits 
of Euboea Artemisium meets the coast, upon 
which is a temple of Diana. The entrance in- 
to Greece by the way of Trachis is in its nar- 
rowest part half a plethrum ; compared with 
the rest of the country, the part most con- 
tracted lies before and behind Thermopylae; 5 
behind, near the Alpeni, there is room only 



4 Artemisium.'} — According to this description, Arte- 
misium is the name of the whole sea, from Sepias to the 
Cenaean promontory. 

5 Thermopylce.] — An excellent plan of the straits of 
Thermopylae, as they at present appear, may be seen in 
the charts of the Voyage du Jenne Anacharsis. The 
description which Livy gives of them has been greatly 
admired. — See liber xxxvi. c. 15. 

" Extremos ad orientem montes CEtam vocant ; quo- 
rum quod altissimum est, Caliidromon appollatur, in 
en jus valle ad Maliacum sinum vergonte iter est non la- 
tins quam LX passus. Haec una militaris via est, qua 
traduci exercitus, si non prohibeantur, possint. Ideo 
Pylae, et ab aliis, quia calidac aquae in ipsis faucibus sunt, 
Thermopylae locus appellatur, nobilis Lacedannoniorum 
adversus Fcrsas morte magis memorabili quam pugna." 



for a single carriage ; before, near the liver 
Phoenix, by the town of Anthela, the dimen- 
sions of the passage are the same. To the 
west of Thermopylae is a steep and inaccess- 
ible mountain, which extends as far as (Eta ; 
to the east, it is bounded by the shoals and by 
the sea. In these straits, there are warm baths 
which the natives call Chytri, near which is 
an altar sacred to Hercules. The place was 
formerly defended by a wall and by gates : the 
wall was built by the Phoceans, through fear 
of the Thessalians, who came from Thespro- 
tia, to establish themselves in iEolia, where 
they now reside. The Thessalians endeavour- 
ing to expel them, the Phoceans erected the 
wall to protect them ; and, to make the place 
marshy and impassable, they suffered the above- 
mentioned warm springs to empty themselves, 
using every expedient to prevent the incursions 
of the Thessalians. The wall had in a great 
measure mouldered away from length of 
time : it was repaired, because it was here de- 
termined to repel the Barbarian from Greece. 
In the vicinity is a place called Alpeni, which 
the Greeks made a repository for their pro- 
visions. 

CLXXVII. The Greeks from every con- 
sideration deemed this place the most eligible. 
After much cautious inspection and delibera- 
tion, they concluded that the Barbarians could 
not here avail themselves either of their num- 
bers or their cavalry ; here therefore they deter- 
mined to receive the disturber of their coun- 
try. As soon as they were informed of his 
arrival in Pieria, they left the isthmus ; the 
land forces proceeding to Thermopylae, the 
fleet to Artemisium. 

CLXXVIII. Whilst the Greeks, accord- 
ing to the resolutions of their council, resorted 
to their several stations, the Delphians, anxious 
for themselves and for Greece, consulted the 
oracle. They were directed, in reply, to ad- 
dress themselves to the winds, for they would 
prove the best allies of Greece. The Del- 
phians lost no time in communicating this 
answer to those Greeks who were zealous for 
their liberty, and who greatly dreading the 
Barbarian, thought it deserved their everlasting 
gratitude. An altar was immediately erected, 

The gates of public buildings were called by the Greeks 
Ov^cci, the gates of cities Wkot.i. —See Suidas at the word 
<TuXoe,i. See also Perizonius's note to /Elian, book iii. 
c. 25. 

"The narrow entrance of Greece," says Mr Gibbon, 
describing the march of Alaric into Greece, " was pro- 
bably enlarged l>y each successive ravisher.' — T. 



866 



HERODOTUS. 



and sacrifice offered to the winds in Thyia, 
where is a temple in honour of Thyia, daughter 
of Cephissus, 2 from whom the place has its 
name. In consequence of the above oracle, 
the Delphians to this day supplicate the winds. 

CLXXIX. The fleet of Xerxes moving 
from Therma, despatched ten of their swiftest 
sailing vessels to Sciathus, where were three 
guardships of the Greeks, of Troezene, iEgina, 
and Athens. These, on sight of the Barba- 
rian vessels, immediately fled. 

CLXXX. The Barbarians, after a pursuit, 
took the Troezenian vessel commanded by 
Praxinus. The most valiant of the crew they 
sacrificed on the prow of their ship, thinking it 
a favourable omen that their first Greek cap- 
ture was of no mean distinction. The name 
of the man they slew was Leon, and to his 
name perhaps he owed his fate. 

CLXXXI. The vessel of iEgina occasion- 
ed the enemy more trouble ; it was commanded 
by Asonides, and among its warriors was 
Pythes, 2 son of Ischenous, who on that day 
greatly distinguished himself. "When his ship 
was taken he persevered in his resistance, till 
he was cut in pieces : at length he fell, but, as 
he discovered some signs of life, the Persians, 
in admiration of his valour, made every possi- 
ble effort to preserve him, bathing his wounds 
with myrrh, and applying to them bandages of 
cotton. 3 On their return to their camp, they 



1 Thyia, daughter of Cephissus."]— Lurcher quotes 
from Pausanias the following passage. 

*' Others say that Castalius, a native of the country, 
had a daughter named Thyia ; she was priestess of 
Bacchus, and was the first who celebrated orgies in hon- 
our of that god. From this time, all those were called 
Thyiades, who became frantic in honour of this god. 
They say also that Delphus was the son of that Thyia by 
Apollo ; others again say, that the mother of Delphus 
was Melaena, the daughter of Cephissus." 

Strabo and Plutarch discerned a great affinity and like- 
ness between the frantic rites of Cybele, the orgia of 
Bacchus, and the mysteries of Pan. — T. 

2 Py flies. - ] — Bellanger in a long note endeavours -to 
prove that it should be Pytheas, and not Pythes. To all 
his arguments I am satisfied to oppose the learned autho- 
rity of Longinus, who writes the nominative case Pythes. 
— Larcher. 

3 Bandages of cotton.]— I have proved in another 
place that Byssus was cotton. A very learned man has 
objected to me, that as the tree which produces cotton 
was not cultivated in Egypt, in the time of Prosper Al- 
pinus, except in gardens, it must necessarily in the time 
of Herodotus, have been still more uncommon ; which 
induces him to believe,with father Hardouin, that it is a 
species of fine linen. This does not to me seem conclu- 
sive. It may be reasonably supposed that the floods may 
in a great degree have destroyed that plant, and particu- 
larly since Egypt is become barbarous (devenue barbare.) 



exhibited him to the whole army 4 as a man de- 
serving universal esteem ; whilst they treated 
the rest df the crew as vile slaves. 

CLXXXII. Two of the vessels being thus 
taken, the third, commanded by Phormus, an 
Athenian, in its endeavour to escape, went 
ashore at the mouth of the Peneus. The Bar- 
barians took the ship but not its crew. The 
Athenians got on shore, and proceeding through 
Thessaly, arrived safe at Athens. The Greeks 
stationed at Artemisium were made acquaint- 
ed with the above event by signals of fire from 
Sciathus. They instantly retired in alarm to 
Chalcis, with the view of guarding the Euripus. 
They did not however omit to place daily cen- 
tinels on the heights of Eubcea. 

CL XX XIII. Three of ten Barbarian ves- 
sels sailed to the rock called Myrmex, betwixt 
Sciathus and Magnesia. Here they erected a 
column, with stones which they brought with 
them for that purpose. They spent eleven 
days on this cruise, after the king's departure 
from Therma, being conducted safe with res- 
pect to this rock by Pammon the Scyrian. 
Sailing from the above place, they in one day 
passed along the coast of Magnesia to Sepias, 
on the shore which lies betwixt the town of 
Casthanaea and the coast of Siepas. 



This may be one cause of its scarcity in the time of Pros- 
per Alpinus, and does not prove to me that it was scarce 
in the time of Herodotus, or even before his time. Ac- 
cording to my interpretation, the Persians bound the 
wounds of Pythes with cotton ; we in similar cases use 
lint : but the Egyptians at this day use lint of cotton for 
wounds and sores. — Larcher. 

I do not know whether what I have to offer, in contra- 
diction to M. Larcher's opinion on this subject, may be 
thought satisfactory, but I think that they merit the at- 
tention of the English reader. I have before observed, 
that the finest linen of Egypt was of a very coarse nature, 
of whatever it was composed; and I find in Ezekiel, 
xxvii. 7. the following verse : 

BT2202 ^st« froifuXiees ES AirriTTOT tytviro <rot 

CTgCafJCr/if TOV TlQlQltVOll (TOl So%ClV, 7LGU XiQt(Z{X,'kUV ffi VOCXivdov 

xtx-i fro%(pv%cc.v ex ton v%ttm TZXlitrxi, xmi lyivi-ro vtqifioXctioc, 
ffov. Which our translators have thus rendered : 

Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt, was that 
which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail ; blue and pur- 
ple from the isles of Elisha was that which covered thee. 

That Bvtriros is properly expressed by the word linen, 
I believe ; but why it should be rendered fine linen, I 
am at a loss to imagine. We are expressly told that it 
was used for sail-cloth, and was probably of a substance 
equally coarse with that mentioned by Virgil : 

Usum in castrorum aut miseris velamina nautis. T. 

4 They exhibited him to the whole army.~\ — See Seneca 
de Ira : 

" At mehercules vir magnus et Justus, fortissimum 
quemque ex hostibus suis, et pro libertate ac salute pa- 
triae pertinacissimum, suspicit." 



POLYMNIA. 



367 



CLXXXIV. Thus far, and to Thermo- 
pylae, the army of Xerxes met with no misfor- 
tune. The number of the vessels which left 
Asia amounted, if my conjectures have not de- 
ceived me, to twelve hundred and seven. The 
complement of the crews by which they were 
originally 5 manned, was two hundred and forty- 
one thousand four hundred, composed of the dif- 
ferent auxiliaries, and allowing two hundred men 
to each vessel : to these, independent of their 
own proper crews, are to be added thirty of 
either Persians, Medes, or Sacae. The whole 
number of these last was thirty-six thousand 
two hundred and ten ; to the above are also to 
be added those who were on board the vessels 
of fifty oars, to which we may allow at the rate 
of eighty men to each. The whole number 
therefore of these will be found to have been 
three thousand, and of the men two hundred 
and forty thousand. Thus the fleet which left 
Asia was composed of five hundred seventeen 
thousand six hundred and ten men. The in- 
fantry consisted of seventeen hundred thousand 
men ; the number of the cavalry was eighty 
thousand. The Arabians with their camels, 
and the Africans in their chariots, were twenty 
thousand more. The above was the armament 
which left Asia; to make no mention of the 
menial attendants, the transports m which carried 
the provisions, and their crews. 

CLXXXV. To these are still to be added 
all those troops which were brought from Eu- 
rope ; of the precise number of whreh we can 
only speak from opinion. The Greeks of 
Thrace, and of the islands contiguous, furnish- 
ed one hundred and twenty vessels, the crews 
of which amounted to twenty-four thousand 
men ; a body of land forces was also provided 
by the Thracians, Paeonians, the Eordi, Bot- 
tiaeans," Chalcidians, Brygians, Pierians, Ma- 
cedonians, Perrhaebians, Enienes, Dolopes, 
Magnesians, Achaeans, and the other people 



5 Originally.] — That is, I suppose, without the troops 
which the king added to his armament in progress from 
Asia to Europe. 

6 Botticeans.] — The Bottiaeans were of Athenian ori- 
gin, and, according to Aristotle, from those children 
whom the Athenians sent to Minos in Crete by way of 
tribute. These children grew old in that island, gaining 
their livelihood by the labour of their hands. The Cre- 
tans, in compliance with some vow, sent to Delphi the 
first-fruits of their citizens, to whom they added these 
descendants of the Athenians. As they could not subsist 
there, they went to Italy, and established themselves in 
lapygiaj from hence they went to Thrace, where they 
took the name of Bottiaeans.— Larcher. 



who inhabit the maritime parts of Thrace. The 
amount of all these was I believe three hun- 
dred thousand men. These collectively, added 
to the Asiatic forces, make two millions, six 
hundred forty-one thousand six hundred and 
ten fighting men. 

CLXXX VI. Great as the number of these 
forces was, the number of the menial attendants, 
of the crews on board the transports carrying 
the provisions, and of the other vessels follow- 
ing the fleet, was I believe still greater. I will 
however suppose them equal. Thus it will ap- 
pear, that Xerxes, son of Darius, conducted to 
Sepias and to Thermopylae an army consisting 
of five millions two hundred and eighty-three 
thousand two hundred and twenty men. 

CLXXX VII. The above was the aggre- 
gate of the troops of Xerxes ; as to the women 
who prepared the bread, the concubines and 
eunuchs, no one has ever attempted to ascertain 
their number. The baggage- waggons also, the 
beasts of burden, and the Indian dogs, which 
accompanied the army, defied all computation. 
We can hardly be surprised that the waters ot 
some rivers were exhausted : but we may rea- 
sonably wonder how provision could be sup- 
plied to so vast a multitude. According to a 
calculation made by myself, if each of the above 
number had only a choenix of corn a day, there 
would every day be consumed 7 ten thousand 
three hundred and forty medimni. 8 Neither 
does this computation comprehend the quantity 
allowed to the women, eunuchs, cattle, and 
dogs. Amongst all these myriads of men, with 
respect to grace and dignity of person, 9 no one 



7 Every day be consic?ned.]— Maitland, who I believe 
is generally allowed to be a faithful and accurate his- 
torian, furnishes us with a table of the quantity of cattle 
consumed annually in London, above thirty years ago, 
when that city was far less populous than it is at pre- 
sent : 

Beeves . . . . 96,244 

Calves .... 194,7(5C 

Hogs .... 186,932 

Pigs ..... 52,000 
Sheep and lambs . . . 711,123 

The most inquisitive calculators seem now agreed in 

allowing, upon an average, to the metropolis a million 

of inhabitants.— T. 

8 Medimni.]— There were forty-eight choenices in one 
medimnus ; according therefore to the calculation of He- 
rodotus, there ought to have been 5,296,320 men. There 
is of course a mistake either in the number of medimni 
or of the troops. 

9 Grace and dignity of person.]— 

Through all the nations which adored his pride 
Or fear'd his power, the monarch now was pass'd; 
Nor yet among these millions could be found 



368 



HERODOTUS. 



better deserved the supreme command than 
Xerxes himself. 

CLXXXVIII. The vessels of the fleet, 
after their arrival on the coast of Magnesia, 
betwixt the town of Casthanaea and the shores 
of Sepias, there stationed themselves, the fore- 
most drawing close to land, the others lying 
on their anchors behind. As the shore was of 
no great extent, the fleet was ranged in eight 
regular divisions, with their heads towards the 
main sea, in which situation they passed the 
night. On the approach of day, the sky and 
the sea, which had before been serene, were 
violently disturbed : a furious storm arose, at- 
tended with a violent squall of wind from the 
east, 1 which the inhabitants of these parts call 



One who in beauteous feature might compare, 
Or towering size, with Xerxes. O possess'd 
Of all but virtue, doom'd to show how mean, 
How weak, without her is unbounded power, 
The charm of beauty, and the blaze of state ; 
How insecure of happiness, how vain! Glover. 

1 From the East.'}— Apeliotes, called also Solanus and 
Subsolanus. The ancients originally used only the four 
cardinal winds ; they afterwards added four more. The 
Romans increased them to twenty-four, and the moderns 
have added to the four cardinal, twenty-eight collateral 
winds. The annexed table may probably be useful to 
many of my readers. 

Names of the winds, and points of the compass. 
English. Latin and Greek. 

1 North 1 Septentrio or Boreas. 

2 North by east 2 Hyperboreas, Hypaquilo,Gal- 

3 North, north-east 3 Aquilo. [licus. 

4 North east by north 4 Mesoboreas, Mesaquilo, Su- 

pernas. 

5 North East 5 Arctapeliotes, Borapelio- 

6 North east by east 6 Hypoceesias. [tes, Gr^cus. 

7 East north east 7 Csesias, Hellespontius. 

8 East by north 8 Mesocaesias, [otes. 
S East 9 Solanus, Subsolanus, Apelt- 

10 East by south 10 Hypeurus, or Hypereurus. 

11 East south east 11 Eur us or Volturnus. 

12 South east by east 12 Meseurus. 

13 South East 13 Notapeliotes, Euraster. 

14 South east by south 14 Hypophoenix. 

15 South south east 15 Phoenix, Phcenicias, Leucon- 

otus, Gangeticus. 

16 South by east 16 Mesophcenix. 

17 South 17 Auster, Notus, Meridies. 

18 South by west 18 Hypolibonotus, Alsanus. 

19 South south west 19 Libonotus, Notolybicus, Aus- 

20 South west by south 20 Mesolibonotus. [tro- Africus. 

21 South West 21 Notozephyrus, Notolibycus, 

Africus. 

22 South west by west 22 Hypolibs, Hypafricus, Sub- 

23 West south west 23 Libs. [vesperus. 

24 West by south 24 Mesolibs, Mesozephyrus. 

25 West 25 Zephyrus, Favonius, Occi- 

DENS. 

26 West by north 26 Hypargestes, Hypocorus. 

27 West north west 27 Argestes,Cauru3,Corus,Iapyx. 

28 North west by west 28 Mesargestes, Mesocorus. 

29 North West 29 Zephyro-Boreas, Boroliby- 

cus, Olympias. 



an Hellespontian wind. They who foresaw 
that the tempest would still increase, and 
whose situation was favourable, prevented 
the effects of the storm, by drawing their 
vessels ashore, and with them preserved their 
own persons : of those whom the hurricane 
surprised farther out at sea, some were driven 
to the straits of Pelion, termed the Ipnoi, 
others went on shore : some were dashed 
against the promontory of Sepias, others carried 
to Meliboea and Casthanaea, so severe was the 
tempest. 

CLXXX1X. It is asserted that the Athe- 
nians being advised by some oracle to solicit the 
assistance of their son-in-law,invoked in a solemn 
manner the aid of Boreas. 2 Boreas, according 
to the tradition of the Greeks, married Orithya, 3 
an Athenian female, daughter of Erectheus : 
from this, if fame may be believed, the Athe- 
nians were induced to consider Boreas as their 
son-in-law; and during their station off the 
Euboean Chalcis to watch the motions of the 
enemy, they sacrificed to Boreas and Orithya, 
invoking their interposition to destroy the 
Barbarian fleet, as they had before done near 
mount Athos. I will not presume to say, that 
in consequence of their supplications Boreas 
dispersed the Barbarian fleet ; but the Athe- 
nians do not scruple to affirm, that Boreas, who 
had before been favourable to them, repeated his 
efforts to assist them on this occasion. — They 
afterwards erected a shrine to Boreas on the 
banks of the Ilissus. 

30 North west by north 30 Hypocircius, Hypothrascias, 

31 North north west 31 Circius, Thrascias. QScirem. 

32 North by west 32 Mesocircius. 

2 Boreas.] — Astraeus had by Aurora four sons, Ar- 
gestes, Zephyrus, Boreas, and Notus. Some have taken 
Boreas for a wind, others for a prince of Thrace. This 
Boreas went to Thrace in Attica, from whence he car- 
ried Orithya, daughter of Erectheus. By tlus marriage 
he became son-in-law to Erectheus, and the Athenians 
consequently considered him as their ally, calling him 
their son-in-law also. — Larcher. 

3 Boreas — Orithya.] — Of this ancient fable of Boreas 
and Orithya, Milton has made a most beautiful use in 
one of Ms minor poems. It was written when he was 
only seventeen, on the death of a fair infant dying of a 
cough : 

For since grim A quilo the charioteer 

By boisterous rape th' Athenian damsel got, 

He thought it touched his deity full near, 

If likewise he some fair one wedded not, 

Thereby to wipe away th' infamous blot, 

Of long-uncoupled bed and childless eld, 

Which 'mongst the wanton gods a foul reproach was held. 
Consult also Ovid, Metamorph. vi. 9. 
According to Apollodorus, lib. iii. Boreas ravished the 
daughter of Erectheus, as she crossed over the river 
Ilissus. That is, says Richardson, she was drowned in 
a high wind crossing that river. 



P O L Y M N I A. 



369 



CXC In this storm, according to the lowest 
calculation, four hundred vessels were totally 
lost, with an infinite number of men, and a pro- 
digious treasure. Aminocles, son of Cratinus, 
a Magnesian, who had an estate near Sepias, 
reaped afterwards very considerable advantage 
from this tempest ; many vessels of gold and 
silver were thrown by the tides upon his lands ; 
he became master also of various Persian 
treasures, and an immense quantity of gold. 
Although this incident rendered him affluent, 
he was in other respects unfortunate ; he had 
by some calamity been deprived of his children. 4 

CXCI. The loss of the provision-trans- 
ports, and of the other smaller vessels, was too 
great to be ascertained. The naval command- 
ers, apprehending that the Thessalians would 
avail themselves of this opportunity to attack 
them, intrenched themselves within a buttress 
made of the wrecks of the vessels. For three 
days the storm was unabated ; on the fourth the 
magi appeased its violence by human victims, 
and incantations to the wind, as well as by 
sacrificing to Thetis and the Nereids, unless 
perhaps the tempest ceased of itself. They 
sacrificed to Thetis, having learned from the 
Ionians, that it was from this coast she had 
been carried away by Peleus, and that all the 
district of Sepias 5 was sacred to her in com- 
mon with the other Nereids. It is certain that 
on the fourth day the tempest e ceased. 

CXCII. Their sentinels, who every day 
were stationed on the heights of Euboea, did 
not fail to acquaint the Greeks with all the cir- 
cumstances of the storm on the morning which 
followed. As soon as they received this in- 
telligence, after paying their vows, and offering 
libations to Neptune Servator, they hastily 

4 Of his children.] — This passage has occasioned great 
perplexity ; but Palmerius, in his Exercitationes, has re- 
moved every difficulty, and satisfactorily done away the 
effects of Plutarch's perverse misconception. Plutarch 
abuses Herodotus for introducing this circumstance of 
the affluence of Aminocles, and the means by which he 
obtained it, merely for an opportunity of saying that he 
had killed his son. — T. 

5 Sepias.] — This coast was sacred to Thetis, because 
that goddess, desirous of eluding the pursuit of Peleus, 
changed herself in this place into a kind of sea-fish, which 
the Greeks call "Z'txix (Sepia.) This story gave the name 
of Sepias to this coast and promontory. — Larcher. 

6 The tempest.] — Twenty-four miles to the south-east 
of Larissa is Volo, said to be Pagasse, where the poets 
say the ship Argo was built. Near it is Aphetse, from 
which place they say the Argonauts sailed. The south- 
east corner of this land is the old promontory Sepias, 
where five hundred sail of Xerxes' fleet were ship- 
wrecked in a storm.— Pococke. 



returned to Artemisium, hoping to find but 
few of the enemy's vessels. Thus a second 
time they fixed their station at Artemisium, 
near the temple of Neptune surnamed Serva- 
tor, which appellation, given on the above oc- 
casion, is still retained. 

CXCIII. The Barbarians, as soon as they 
perceived the wind subside and the sea calm, 
again ventured from the shore. Coasting along, 
they doubled the Magnesian promontory, and 
made their way directly to the gulf leading to 
Pagasae. It was in this gulf of Magnesia that 
Hercules, going on shore from the Argo 7 to 
procure water, was deserted by Jason and his 
companions, who were bound to iEa of Col- 
chis to obtain the golden fleece. Having 
taken in water, they sailed from hence ; in 
commemoration of which incident, the place 
afterwards took the name of the Aphetse. 

CXCIV. Here also it was that the fleet of 
Xerxes came to an anchor. Fifteen of these 
being at a considerable distance from their 
companions, discovered the vessels of the 
Greeks at Artemisium, and mistaking them 
for friends, sailed into the midst of them. The 
leader of these ships was Sardoces, son of 
Thamasias, the governor of Cyma, in iEolia. 
This man Darius had formerly condemned to 
the punishment of the cross ; he had been 
one of the royal judges, and convicted of cor- 
ruption in his office. He was already on the 
cross, when the king, reflecting that his ser- 
vices to the royal family exceeded his offences, 
and that he himself had in the present instance 
acted with more impetuosity than prudence, 
commanded him to be taken down. Thus he 
escaped the punishment to which Darius had 
condemned him ; his escape now from the 
Greeks was altogether impossible ; they saw 
him sailing towards them, and perceiving his 
error attacked and took him and his vessels. 

CXCV. In one of these vessels was Ari- 
dolis, prince of the Alabandians of Caria ; in 
another, Penthylus, son of Demonous, a Pa- 
phian general. This latter left Paphos with 
twelve vessels, eleven of which were lost in the 
storm off Sepias ; he himself, with the twelfth, 
fell into the enemy's hands, at Artemisium. 
The Greeks, having obtained such informa- 
tion as they wished concerning the forces of 
Xerxes, sent their prisoners bound to the isth- 
mus of Corinth. 



7 Argo.]— See book iv. c. 179. Note Bryant, ii. 49 0, 
491. 

3 A 



370 



HERODOTUS. 



CXCVI. Except the above fifteen vessels, j 
commanded by Sandoces, the whole of the Bar- 
barian fleet arrived at Aphetse. Xerxes 
with his land forces, marching through Thes- 
saly and Achaia, came on the third day to the 
territories of the Melians. "Whilst he was in 
Thessaly he made a trial of his cavalry against 
those of the Thessalians, which he had heard 
were the best in Greece ; but in this contest 
the inferiority of the Greeks ' was evidently 
conspicuous. The Onochonus was the only 
river in Thessaly which did not afford sufficient 
water for the army. Of those of Achaia, the 
Apidanus, the greatest of them all, hardly 
sufficed. 

CXCVII. Whilst Xerxes was proceeding 
to Alos, an Achaian city, his guides, anxious 
to tell him every thing, related what was re- 
ported by the natives concerning the temple of 
Jupiter Laphystius. 3 It was said that Atha- 



1 The inferiority of the Greeks."] — The best cavalry in 
the world attended Xerxes on this expedition, namely 
those of Cappadocia and Paphlagonia. Hecatonymus 
tells Xenophon, in the fifth book of the Anabasis, that 
the cavalry of the Cappadocians and Paphlagonians was 
better and more expert in martial exercises than any 
other which the king of Persia had. That part of C ap- 
padocia which Herodotus calls Cilicia paid as a tribute 
to the kings of Persia a horse for every day in the year. 
Strabo says, that Cappadocia sent 1500 hundred horses 
annually. The boast of Hecatonymus to Xenophon 
was by no means vain ; the same preference was given 
them by others, and excellent commanders. Plutarch 
informs us, that on these Crassus the Roman general 
chiefly relied ; and with these surprising feats of gallan- 
try were performed in the Parthian war. Lueullus also 
had these in his army at the siege of Tigranocerta ; and 
in the battle with Tigranes made choice of them and 
the Tliracian horse to attack the Cataphracts, the choicest 
of the enemy's cavalry, and to drive them from the 
ground. Tigranes is said to have opposed Lueullus with 
an army of 55,000 horse ; and many other instances may 
be adduced to show that the chief strength of these 
northern powers consisted in their cavalry. 

The curious reader may compare Plutarch's account 
of the army of Tigranes with that which Ezekiel gives 
of the army of Magog. 

Claudian, in Laud. Serense, tells us it was customary 
to have a breed from a Phrygian mare by a Cappadocian 
horse : 



Delectus equorum- 



Quos Phrygiae matres Agrteaque gramina pasts 
Semine Cappadocum sacris prsesepidus edunt.— T. 

2 Jupiter Laphystius.]— It was to this deity that 
Phrixus sacrificed the ram upon which he was saved ; 
and even to this day, says the Scholiast to Apollonius 
Rhodius, one of the descendants of Phrixus enters the 
prytaneum according to the established law, and offers 
sacrifices to this god. At twenty stadia from Ceroneus 
was mount Laphystius, where was a mound consecrated 
to Jupiter Laphystius ♦ there is still seen in this place a 
marble statue of this god. Phrixus and Helle being on 
the point of being sacrificed in this place by Athamas, 



mas, the son of iEolus, in concert with Ino, 
contrived the death of Phrixus. The Achaians, 
following the command of the oracle, forbade 
the eldest of the descendants of Athamas ever 
to enter their prytaneum, called by them Leitus. 
They were very vigilant in seeing this restric- 
tion observed, and whoever was detected with- 
in the proscribed limits could only leave them 
to be sacrificed. There were several who in 
terror escaped into another country, when they 
were on the point of being sacrificed. If they 
ever afterwards returned, they were, if discov- 
ered, instantly sent to the prytaneum. To the 
above, the guides of Xerxes added the descrip- 
tion of the sacrifice, the ceremony of binding 
the victim with ribands, with all other circum- 
stances. The posterity of Cytissorus, the son 
of Phrixus, are subject to the above, because 
Cytissorus himself, in his way from iEa of 
Colchis, delivered Athamas from the hands of 
the Achaians, who by the direction of the 
oracle were about to offer him as an expiatory 
sacrifice. On this account, the anger of the 
divinity fell upon the posterity of Cytissorus. 
In consequence of hearing the above narrative, 
Xerxes, when he approached the precincts of 
the grove, cautiously avoided it himself, and 
commanded all his army 3 to do the same. He 
showed the same veneration for the residence 
of the posterity of Athamas. 

CXCVIH. Such were the incidents which 
occurred in Thessaly and Achaia. From hence 
Xerxes advanced to Melis, near a bay of the 
sea, where the ebbing and flowing of the tide 
may be seen every day. Near this bay is an 
extensive plain, wide in one part, and contract- 
ed in another : round this plain are certain lofty 
and inaccessible mountains, called the Trachi- 
nian rocks, and enclosing the whole region of 
Melis. Leaving Achaia, the first city near this 



they say that Jupiter sent them a ram whose fleece was 
gold, upon which they saved themselves. 
_ Jupiter surnamed Laphystius was, according to Kuh- 
nius, the protector of fugitives. — Larcher. 

3 All his army.] — See on this subject Bryant, vol. ii. 
40, 41, &c. — This writer supposes, and his opinion is con- 
firmed by Suidas, that the prytaneion is derived from 
frv^, fire : the words of Suidas are these : ^^vt»vuov, av$os 
rctfAUov tv8<x> v)v otir/Bio-rov vug. The Scholiast upon Thu- 
cydides talks to the same purpose : «AXo< Ss acto-iv on ro 
irgvravuov trvgos viv rtx,f/,aov tvdoc rjv ourfiicrrov 5rw§- Others 
tell us that the prutaneion was of old called puros ta- 
meion, from pur, because it was the repository of a perpe- 
tual fire. These places were temples, and at the same 
time courts of justice; hence we find that in the pryta- 
neion of Athens the laws of Solon were engraved. These 
laws were inscribed upon wooden cylinders, some of 
which remained to the time of Plutarch, &c— Bryant. 



POLYMNIA, 



371 



bay if? Anticyra. This is washed by the river 
Sperehius, which, rising in the country of the 
Enienes, here empties itself into the sea. At 
the distance of twenty furlongs is another river, 
called Dyras, which is said to have risen spon- 
taneously from the earth, to succour Hercules 
when he was burning. A third river, called 
Melas, flows at the distance of twenty furlongs 
more. 

CXCIX. Within five furlongs of this last 
river stands the town of Trachis. In this part 
the country is the widest, extending from the 
mountains to the sea, and comprehending a 
space of twenty-two thousand plethra. In the 
mountainous tract which incloses Trachinia 
there is an opening to the west of Trachis, 
through which the Asopus winds round the 
base of the mountain. 

C C. To the west of this another small stream 
is found, named the Phoenix ; it rises in these 
mountains, and empties itself into the Asopus. 
The most contracted part of the country is that 
which lies nearest the Phoenix, where the road 
will only admit one carriage to pass. From the 
Phoenix to Thermopylae are fifteen furlongs : 
betwixt the Phoenix and Thermopylae is a vil- 
lage named Anthela, passing which the Asopus 
meets the sea. The country contiguous to 
Anthela is spacious ; here may be seen a tem- 
ple of Ceres Amphictyonis, the seats of the 
Amphictyons, 4 and a shrine of Amphictyon 
himself. 

CCI. Xerxes encamped in Trachinia at 
Melis; the Greeks in the Straits. These 
straits the Greeks in general call Thermopylae ; 
the people of the country Pylae only. Here 
then were the two armies stationed, Xerxes 
occupying all the northern region as far as 
Trachinia, the Greeks that of the south. 

CCIL The Grecian army, 5 which here 



4 Amphictyons. ."] — See book v. c. 62, note. What I 
have there omitted concerning the Amphictyons, their 
office, and character, may be found amply discussed in 
Gillies's History of Greece, and faithfully represented in 
Rees's edition of Chambers's Dictionary, as well as by 
Larcher.— T. 

5 The Grecian army. ] — Beneath is the number of 
Greeks who appeared on this occasion, according- to the 
different representations of Herodotus, Pausanias, and 
Diodorus Sicuius : 

Herodotus. Pausanias. Diodorus. 



Spartans . . 300 

Tegeatae . . 500 

Mantineans . 500 

Orchomenians 120 

Arcadians . 1,000 

Corinthians . 400 



300 . . . .300 
500 Lacedaemonians . 700 
500 The other nations of 
120 the Peloponnese 3,000 
1,000 
400 



waited the approach of the Persian, was com 
, posed of three hundred Spartans in complete 
armour ; five hundred Tegeatae, and as many 
; Mantineans ; one hundred and twenty men 
j from Orchomenus of Arcadia, a thousand men 
from the rest of Arcadia, four hundred Corin- 
thians,* two hundred from Phlius, and eighty 
from Mycenae. The above came from the 
Peloponnese : from Boeotia there were seven 
hundred Thespians and four hundred Thebans. 
CCIII. In addition to the above, the aid of 
all the Opuntian Locrians had been solicited, 
together with a thousand Phoceans. To ob- 
I tain the assistance of these, the Greeks had 
| previously sent emissaries among them, saying, 
j that they were the forerunners only of another 
I and more numerous body, whose arrival was 
every day expected. They added, that the de- 
, fence of the sea was confided to the people of 
! Athens and iEgina, in conjunction with the 
rest of the fleet ; that there was no occasion 
for alarm, as the invader of Greece was not a 
god, but a mere human being ; that there never 
. was nor could be any mortal superior to the 
; vicissitudes of fortune ; that the most exalted 
characters were exposed to the greatest evils ; 
he therefore, a mortal, now advancing to at- 
tack them, would suffer for his temerity. 
I These arguments proved effectual, and they 



Phlyontians 
Micenians 



Total 



200 
80 



200 
80 



3,100 3,100 



4,000 



The above came from the Peloponnese ; those wh o 
came from the other parts of Greece, according to the 
authors above-mentioned — 

Thespians . 700 . 700 Milesians 1,000 

Thebans . 400 .400 ... 400 

Phoceans . 1,000 . 1,000 . . . 1,000 

Opuntian Locrians . . 6,000 . , . 1,000 

5,200 11,200 . . , 7,400 

6 Would suffer.]— The expedition of Xerxes to Greece, 
i and his calamitous return, as described by Herodotus, 
I may be well expressed by the words with wliich Ezekiel 
I describes Gog's army and its destruction. — See chapter 
! xxxviii. and xxxix. 
t " Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt 

be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, 

and many people with thee : 
I " Persia, ^Ethiopia, and Libya with them, all of them 

with shield and helmet. 
[ " But I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy 

jaws, I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part 

of thee : and I will smite thy bow o\it of thy left hand ; 

and will cause thy arrows to fall out of thy right hand. 
! " Thou shalt fall upon the mountains, thou and all thy 
i bands, and the people that is with thee. I will give thee 
j unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts 
! of the field, to be devoured."— T. 



372 



HERODOTUS. 



accordingly marched to Trachis to join their 
allies. 

C CI V. These troops were commanded by 
different officers of their respective countries ; 
but the man most regarded, and who was in- 
trusted with the chief command, was Leonidas 
of Sparta. His ancestors were, Anaxandrides, 
Leon, Eurycratides, Anaxander, Eurycrates, 
Polydorus, Alcamenes, Teleclus, Archelaus, 
Agesilaus, Doryssus, Leobotes, Echestratus, 
Agis, Eurysthenes, Aristodemus, Aristoma- 
chus, Cleodseus, Hyllus, and Hercules. 

CCV. An accident had placed him on the 
throne of Sparta ; for, as he had two brothers 
older than himself, Cleomenes and Dorieus, he 
had entertained no thoughts of the government ; 
but Cleomenes dying without male issue, and 
Dorieus not surviving (for he ended his days 
in Sicily) the crown came to Leonidas, who 
was older than Cleombrotus, the youngest of 
the sons of Anaxandrides, and who had mar- 
ried the daughter of Cleomenes. On the pre- 
sent occasion he took with him to Thermopylae 
a body of three hundred chosen men, all of 
whom had children. 1 To these he added those 
Theban troops 2 whose number I have before 
mentioned, and who were conducted by Leon- 
tiades, son of Eurymachus. Leonidas had 
selected the Thebans to accompany him, be- 
cause a suspicion generally prevailed that they 
were secretly attached to the Medes. These 
therefore he summoned to attend him, to as- 
certain whether they would actually contribute 
their aid, or openly withdraw themselves from 
the Grecian league. With sentiments perfect- 
ly hostile, they nevertheless sent the assistance 
required. 

CCVI. The march of this body under Leo- 
nidas was accelerated by the Spartans, that their 
example might stimulate their allies to action, 
and that they might not make their delay a pre- 
tence for going over to the Medes. The ce- 
lebration of the Carnian festival 3 protracted 

1 All of whom had children.}-* 

Three hundred more complete th' intrepid band, 

Illustrious fathers all of generous sons, 

The future guardians of Laconia's state.— Leonidas. 

2 Theban troops.'} — Plutarch upbraids Herodotus for 
thus slandering the Thebans : and Diodorus says, that 
Thebes was divided into two parties, one of which sent 
four hundred men to Thermopylae. — T. 

3 Carnian festival.} — This was continued for seven 
days at Sparta in honour of Apollo. Various reasons are 
assigned for its institution ; the most plausible is that 
found in the Scholiast to Theocritus, which tells us that 
they were celebrated by the people of the Peloponnese, 
to commemorate the cessation of some pestilence.-— 2\ 



the march of their main body ; but it was their 
intention to follow with all imaginable expedi- 
tion, leaving only a small detachment for the 
defence of Sparta. The rest of the allies were 
actuated by similar motives, for the Olympic 
games happened to recur at this period j and as 
they did not expect an engagement would im- 
mediately take place at Thermopylae, they sent 
only a detachment before them. . 

CCVII. Such were the motives of the con- 
federate body. The Greeks who were already 
assembled at Thermopylae were seized with so 
much terror on the approach of the Persian, 
that they consulted about a retreat. Those of 
the Peloponnese were in general of opinion 
that they should return and guard the isthmus ; 
but as the Phoceans and Locrians were exceed- 
ingly averse to this measure, Leonidas prevail- 
ed on them to continue on their post. He re- 
solved however to send messengers round to all 
the states, requiring supplies, stating that their 
number was much too small to oppose the 
Medes with any effect. 

CCVIII. Whilst they thus deliberated, 
Xerxes sent a horseman to examine their num- 
ber and their motions. He had before heard 
in Thessaly, that, a small band was collected at 
this passage, that they were led by Lacedaemo- 
nians, and by Leonidas of the race of Hercules. 
The person employed performed his duty : all 
those who were without the intrenchment he 
was able to reconnoitre : those who were with- 
in for the purpose of defending it eluded his 
observation. The Lacedaemonians were at 
that period stationed without ; 4 of these some 
were peforming gymnastic exercises, whilst 
others were employed in combing their hair. 
He was greatly astonished, but he leisurely sur- 
veyed their number and employments, and re- 
turned without molestation, for they despised 
him too much to pursue him. — He related to 
Xerxes all that he had seen. 

CCIX. Xerxes, on hearing the above, was 
little aware of what was really the case, that 
this people were preparing themselves either to 
conquer or to die. The thing appeared to him 



4 Stationed without, &c] — 

By chance 
The Spartans then composed th' external guard ; 
They, in a martial exercise employ'd, 
Heed not the monarch and his gaudy train, 
But poise the spear portended as in fight, 
Or lift their adverse shields in single strife, 
Or trooping forward rush, retreat, and wheel 
In ranks unbroken, and with equal feet : 
While others calm beneath their polish'd helms 
Draw down their hair, whose length of sable curls 
O'erspread their necks with terror. Leonidas. 



POLYMNIA, 



373 



so ridiculous, that he sent for Demaratus, the 
son of Ariston, who was then with the army. 
On his appearing, the king questioned him on 
this behaviour of the Spartans, expressing his 
desire to know what it might intimate. " I 
have before, Sir," said. Demaratus, "spoken to 
you of this people at the commencement of this 
expedition ; and as I remember, when I related 
to you what I knew you would have occasion 
to observe, you treated me with contempt. I 
am conscious of the danger of declaring the 
truth, in opposition to your prejudices ; but I 
will nevertheless do this. It is the determina- 
tion of these men to dispute this pass with us, 
and they are preparing themselves accordingly. 
It is their custom before any enterprise of dan- 
ger, to adorn their hair. 5 Of this you may be 
assured, that if you vanquish these, and their 
countrymen in Sparta, no other nation will 
presume to take up arms against you : you 
are now advancing to attack a people whose 
realms and city are the fairest, and whose troops 
are the bravest of Greece." These words 
seemed to Xerxes preposterous enough; but 
he demanded a second time, how so small a 
number could contend with his army. " Sir," 
said he, " I will submit to suffer the punish- 
ment of falsehood, if what I say does not 
happen." 

CCX. Xerxes was still incredulous, he ac- 
cordingly kept his position without any move- 
ment for four days, in expectation of seeing them 
retreat. On the fifth day, observing that they 
continued on their post, merely as he supposed 
from the most impudent rashness, he became 
much exasperated, and sent against them a de- 
tachment of Medes and Cissians, with a com- 
mand to bring them alive to his presence. The 
Medes in consequence attacked them, and lost 
a considerable number. A reinforcement ar- 
rived ; but though the onset was severe, no im- 
pression was made. It now became universally 



5 Adorn their 7iair.']— Long hair distinguished the 
free man from the slave; and, according- to Plutarch, 
Lycurgus was accustomed to say, that long hair added 
grace to handsome men, and made those who were ugly 
more terrific. The following are some of the most ani- 
mated lines in Leonidas : 

To whom the Spartan : O imperial lord, 

Such is their custom, to adorn their heads 

When full determined to encounter death. 

Bring down thy nations in resplendent steel ; 

Arm, if thou canst, the general race of man, 

All who possess the regions unexplored 

Beyond the Ganges, all whose wand'ring steps 

Above the Caspian range, the Scythian wild, 

With those who drink Uie secret fount of Nile; 

Yet to Laconian bosoms shall dismay 

Remain a stranger. T 



conspicuous, and no less so to the king himself, 
that he had many troops, but few men. 6 — The 
above engagement continued all day. 

CCXI. The Medes, after being very roughly 
treated, retired, and were succeeded by the 
band of Persians called by the king " the immor- 
tal," and commanded by Hydarnes. These it 
was supposed would succeed without the small- 
est difficulty. They commenced the attack, 
but made no greater impression than the 
Medes ; their superior numbers were of no ad- 
vantage, on account of the narrowness of the 
place ; and their spears also were shorter than 
those of the Greeks. The Lacedaemonians 
fought in a manner which deserves to be re- 
corded ; their own excellent discipline, and the 
unskilfulness of their adversaries, were in 
many instances remarkable, and not the least 
so when in close ranks they affected to retreat. 
The Barbarians seeing them retire, pursued 
them with a great and clamorous shout ; but 
on their near approach the Greeks faced about 
to receive them. The loss of the Persians 
was prodigious, and a few also of the Spartans 
fell. The Persians, after successive efforts 
made with great bodies of their troops to gain 
the pass, were unable to accomplish it, and 
obliged to retire. 

CCXII. It is said of Xerxes himself, that, 
being a spectator of the contest, he was so 
greatly alarmed for the safety of his men, that 
he leaped thrice from his throne. On the fol- 
lowing day the Barbarians succeeded no better 
than before. They went to the onset as against 
a contemptible number, whose wounds they 
supposed would hardly permit them to renew 
the combat : but the Greeks, drawn up in regu- 
lar divisions, fought each nation on its respec- 
tive post, except the Phoceans, who were sta- 
tioned on the summit of the mountain to defend 
the pass. The Persians, experiencing a repe- 
tition of the same treatment, a second time 
retired. 

CCXIII. Whilst the king was exceedingly 
perplexed what conduct to pursue in the pre- 
sent emergence, Ephialtes, the son of Euryde- 
mus, a Melian, demanded an audience : he ex- 
pected to receive some great recompense for 
showing him the path which led over the moun- 
tain to Thermopylae ; and he, indeed, it was who 

6 Many troops, but few men.~\— According to Plutarch, 
Leonidas being asked how he dared to encounter so pro- 
digious a multitude with so few men, replied : " If you 
reckon by number, all Greece is not able to oppose a 
small part of that army ; but if by courage, the number 
I have with me is sufficient."— T. 



374 



HERODOTUS. 



thus rendered ineffectual the valour of those 
Greeks who perished on this station. This 
man, through fear of the Lacedaemonians, fled 
afterwards into Thessaly ; but the Pylagorae, 1 
calling a council of the Amphictyons at Pylaea 
for this express purpose, set a price upon his 
head, and he was afterwards slain by Athen- 
ades, a Trachinian, at Anticyra, to which place 
he had returned. Athenades was induced to 
put him to death for some other reason, which 
I shall afterwards 8 explain ; he nevertheless re- 
ceived the reward offered by the Lacedaemon- 
ians : — this however was the end of Ephialtes. 

CCXIV. On this subject there is also a 
different report, for it is said that Onetes, 
son of Phanagoras, a Carystian, and Corydalus 
of Anticyra, were the men who informed the 
king of this path, and conducted the Persians 
round the mountain. This with me obtains 
no credit, for nothing is better known than 
that the Pylagorae did not set a price upon the 
heads of Onetes or Corydalus, but upon that 
of Ephialtes the Trachinian, 3 after, as may be 
presumed, a due investigation of the matter. It 
is also certain, that Ephialtes, conscious of his 
crime, endeavoured to save himself by flight : 
Onetes, being a Melian, might perhaps, if tol- 
erably acquainted with the country, have known 
this passage ; but it was certainly Ephialtes 
who showed it to the Persians, and to him 
without scruple I impute the crime. 

CCXV. The intelligence of Ephialtes gave 
the king infinite satisfaction, and he instantly 
detached Hydarnes, with the forces under his 
command, to avail himself of it. They left 
the camp at the first approach of evening ; the 
Melians, the natives of the country, discovered 
this path, and by it conducted the Thessalians 
against the Phoceans, who had defended it by 
an entrenchment, and deemed themselves se- 

1 Pylagorce.]— Many are involved in a mistake, by 
confounding- the Pylagorae with the Amphictyons. They 
were not synonymous, for though all the Pylagorse were 
Amphictyons, all the Amphictyons were not Pylagorse. 
— See Potter's Archcsologia Grceca, lib. i. c. 16. 

2 I shall afterwards.]— But Herodotus no where does 
this ; whether therefore he forgot it, or whether it ap- 
peared in some of his writings which are lost, cannot be 
ascertained. — See P. Wesselingi Dissertatio Herodotsea, 
p. 14. 

" Verum nihil hujus nee libro viii. neque nono. Plures 
ne ergo ix. libris absolvit inquis de Athenada ? An ex- 
cidit ex superstitibus ejus memoria ? non dixero. Obli- 
tusne est ac Athenada addere? Fieri potest. Operi 
longo fas est obrepere somnum." 

3 Trachinian.'}— In the preceding chapter Herodotus 
calls him a Melian ; but this amounts to the same tiling, 
as Trachinia made part of Melis. 



cure. It had never however proved of any 
advantage to the Melians. 

CCXVI. The path of which we are speak- 
ing commences at the river Asopus. This 
stream flows through an aperture of the moun- 
tain called Anopae, which is also the name of 
the path. This is continued through the whole 
length of the mountain, and terminates near the 
town of Alpenus. This is the first city of the 
Locrians, on the side next the Melians, near 
the rock called Melampygus, 4 by the residence 
of the Cercopes, 5 It is narrowest at this point. 

CCXVII. Following this track which I have 
described, the Persians passed the Asopus, and 
marched all night, keeping the CEtean moun- 
tains on the right, and the Trachinian on the 
left. At the dawn of morning they found 
themselves at the summit, where, as I have be- 
fore described, a band of a thousand Phoceans 
in arms were stationed, both to defend their 
own country and this pass. The passage be- 
neath was defended by those whom I have 
mentioned ; of this above, the Phoceans had 
voluntarily promised Leonidas to undertake the 
charge. 

CCXVIII. The approach of the Persians 
was discovered to the Phoceans in this manner : 
whilst they were ascending the mountain they 
were totally concealed by the thick groves of 
oak ; but from the stillness of the air they were 
discovered by the noise they made by tramp- 
ling on the leaves, a thing which might natu- 
rally happen. The Phoceans ran to arms, and 

4 Melampygus.] — See Suidas, at the article MiXot^vyov 
rvx/ue. The Melampygi were two brothers, and remark, 
able for their extreme insolence; their mother cautioned 
them against meeting a man who had "black buttocks." 
Hercules meeting them, bound them together, and sus- 
pended them from a post, with their heads downwards. 
Afterward seeing them laugh, he inquired the reason ; 
they told him that their mother bade them beware of 
meeting a man with "black buttocks." Hercules on 
hearing this laughed too, and let them go. Those who 
had " white buttocks" (Xtvxowyovs) were ridiculed by 
the comic poets as effeminate.— See Aristophanes Lysis- 
trate. 

Larcher tells a story somewhat different, from the 
Adagia of Zenobius.— T. 

5 Cercopes.]— These people were robbers. Homer is 
said to have written a poem on them, mentioned by Sui- 
das at the word 'O[*y°o;, and by Proclus in his life of 
Homer. Probably the expression extended to all sorts 
of robbers, of whom there were doubtless many in such 
a place as (Eta. Plutarch mentions them as a ridiculous 
people, making Agis say to Alexander, " I am not a 
little surprised that all you great men who are descend- 
ed from Jupiter take a strange delight in flatterers and 
buffoons; Hercules had Ins Cercopians, Bacchus his 
Silenians about him ; so I see your majesty is pleased to 

| have a regard for such characters. "—Larcher. 



POLYMNIA. 



375 



in a moment the Barbarians appeared, who 
seeing a number of men precipitately arming 
themselves, were at first struck with astonish- 
ment. They did not expect an adversary ; and 
they had fallen in amongst armed troops. 
Hydarnes, apprehending that the Phoceans 
might prove to be Lacedaemonians, inquired of 
Ephialtes who they were. When he was in- 
formed, he drew up the Persians in order of 
battle. The Phoceans, not able to sustain the 
heavy flight of arrows, retreated up the moun- 
tain, 6 imagining themselves the objects of this 
attack, and expecting certain destruction : but 
the troops with Hydarnes and Ephialtes did 
not think it worth their while to pursue them, 
and descended rapidly the opposite side of the 
mountain. 

CCXIX. To those Greeks stationed in 
the straits of Thermopylae Megistias the sooth- 
sayer had previously, from inspection of the 
entrails, predicted that death awaited them in 
the morning. Some deserters 7 had also in- 
formed them of the circuit the Persians had 
taken ; and this intelligence was in the course 
of the night circulated through the camp. All 
this was confirmed by their sentinels, who early 
in the morning fled down the sides of the 
mountain. In this predicament, the Greeks 
called a council, who were greatly divided in 
their opinions : some were for remaining on 
their station, others advised a retreat. In con- 
sequence of their not agreeing, many of them 
dispersed to their respective cities ; a part re- 
solved to continue with Leonidas. 

CCXX. It is said, that those who retired 
only did so in compliance with the wishes of 
Leonidas, who was desirous to preserve them : 
but he thought that he himself, with his Spar- 
tans, could not without the greatest ignominy 
forsake the post they had come to defend. I 
am myself inclined to believe that Leonidas, 
seeing his allies not only reluctant, but totally 
averse to resist the danger which menaced 



6 Up the mountain.] — Mr Glover has been very mi- 
nute and faithful in his representation of the places where 
this noble scene was exhibited : 

The Phocian chief, 
Whate'er the cause, relinquishing his post, 
Was to a neighbouring eminence removed, 
Though by the foe neglected or contemned. 

7 Deserters.'} — Diodorus Sicuhis mentions but one : 
" There was in the army," says he, " one Tyrastiades 
of Cyme ; as he was a man of honour and probity, he fled 
from the camp by night, and going to Leonidas and his 
party, discovered to them the designs of Ephialtes."— 
Larcher. 



them, consented to their retreat. His own re- 
turn he considered as dishonourable, whilst he 
was convinced, that his defending his post 
would equally secure his own fame, and the 
good of Sparta. In the very beginning of these 
disturbances, the Spartans having consulted the 
oracle, were informed that either their king 
must die, or Sparta be vanquished by the Bar- 
barians. The oracle was communicated in 
hexameter verses, and was to this effect : 

" To you who dwell in Sparta's ample walls, 

Behold, a dire alternative befalls ; — 

Your glorious city must in ruins lie, 

Or slain by Persian arms, a king must die, 

A king descended from Herculean blood. 

For, lo ! he comes, and cannot be withstood ; 

Nor bulls, nor lions, can dispute the field, 

'Tis Jove's own force, and this or that must yield." 

I am unwilling to presume of the allies that de- 
parted, that differing in opinion from their 
leader, they dishonourably deserted. I should 
also suppose that the conduct of Leonidas was 
the result of his revolving the oracle 8 in his 
mind, and of his great desire to secure to the 
Spartans alone the glory of this memorable ac- 
tion. 

CCXXI. To me it is no small testimony 
of the truth of the above, that amongst those 
whom Leonidas dismissed was Megistias him- 
self. He was of Acarnania, and, as some 
affirm, descended from Melampus ; he accom- 
panied Leonidas on this expedition, and from 
the entrails had predicted what would happen : 
he refused however to leave his friends, and sa- 
tisfied himself with sending away his only son, 
who had followed his father on this occasion. 

CCXXII. Obedient to the direction of 
their leader, the confederates retired. The 
Thespians and Thebans 9 alone remained with 
the Spartans, the Thebans indeed very reluc- 



8 The oracle.'}— Plutarch is very severe upon Hero- 
dotus for his manner of representing these circumstan- 
ces ; some of which he says our author has done falsely, 
others maliciously. This however does not seem to 
have been the case. 

Glover makes Leonidas exclaim, on hearing that the 
enemy had circumvented them, 

I now behold the oracle fulfill'd 

Then art thou near, thou glorious sacred hour 
Which shall my country's liberty secure ? 
Thrice hail, thou solemn period ; thee the tongues 
Of virtue, fame, and freedom, shall proclaim, 
Shall celebrate in ages yet unborn ! T. 

9 T/iespians and Thebans.] — Diodorus Siculus speaks 
only of the Thespians. Pausanias says that the people 
of Mycene sent eighty men to Thermopylae, who had 
part in this glorious day j and in another place he says*, 
that all the allies retired before the battle, except the 
Thespians and people of Mycene.— Larcher. 



376 



HERODOTUS. 



tantly, but they were detained by Leonidas as 
hostages. The Thespians were very zealous 
in the cause, and refusing to abandon their 
friends, perished with them. The leader of 
the Thespians was Demophilus son of Diodro- 
mas. 

CCXXIII. Xerxes early in the morning 
offered a solemn libation, then waiting till that 
period of the day 5 when the forum is fullest of 
people, he advanced from his camp ; to the 
above measure he had been advised by Ephial- 
tes. The descent from the mountain is of 
much shorter extent than the circuitous ascent. 
The Barbarians with Xerxes approached ; 
Leonidas and his Greeks proceeded as to in- 
evitable death a much greater space from the 
defile than they had yet done. Till now they 
had defended themselves behind their intrench- 
ment, fighting in the most contracted part of 
the passage ; but on this day they engaged on 
a wider space, and a multitude of their op- 
ponents fell. Behind each troop officers were 
stationed with whips in their hands, compelling 
with blows their men to advance. Many of 
them fell into the sea, where they perished ; 
many were trodden under foot by their own 
troops, without exciting the smallest pity or 
regard. The Greeks, conscious that their de- 
struction was at hand from those who had 
taken the circuit of the mountain, exerted 
themselves with the most desperate valour 
against the Barbarian assailants. 

CCXXIV. Their spears being broken in 
pieces, they had recourse to their swords. 2 
Leonidas fell in the engagement, having greatly 
signalized himself; and with him many Spar- 
tans of distinction, as well as others of inferior 
note. I am acquainted with the names of all 
the three hundred. Many illustrious Persians 
also were slain, among whom were Abrocomes 
and Hyperanthes, sons of Darius, by Phrata- 
guna, the daughter of Artanes. Artanes was 
the brother of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, 
and grandson of Arsamis. Having married 
his daughter to Darius, as she was an only 
child, all his wealth went with her. 

CCXXV. These two brothers of Xerxes 
fell as they were contending for the body of 



1 That period of the day.'} — I have before explained 
this circumstance Avith respect to the mode of computing 
time. 

2 Their swords.'} — The soldiers of the Lacedaemonians 
wore a red uniform ; and Suidas says, that it was because 
the blood of those who were wounded would thus be less 
conspicuous.— T. 



J Leonidas : 3 here the conflict was the most se- 
vere, till at length the Greeks by their superior 
valour four times repelled the Persians, and 
drew aside the body of their prince. In this 
situation they continued till Ephialtes and his 
party approached. As soon as the Greeks 
perceived them at hand, the scene was changed, 
and they retreated to the narrowest part of the 
pass. Having repassed their intrenchment, 
they posted themselves, all except the Thebans, 
in a compact body, upon a hill, which is at the 
entrance of the straits, and where a lion of 
stone 4 has been erected in honour of Leonidas. 
In this situation, they who had swords left, 
used them against the enemy, the rest exerted 
themselves with their hands and their teeth. 5 



3 Body of Leonidas.] — One of the noblest descriptions 
in Homer is that of the battle for the body of Patrcclus ; 
and we learn from various examples, that the ancients 
were remarkably tenacious on this head, deeming it the 
greatest baseness to forsake the dead bodies of their 
friends. Plutarch, in Ms parallels between the Romans 
and Greeks, thus describes the death of Leonidas : 

" Whilst they were at dinner, the Barbarians fell upon 
them : upon which Leonidas desired them to eat heart- 
ily, for they were to sup with Pluto. Leonidas charged 
at the head of his troops, and after receiving a multitude 
of wounds, got up to Xerxes himself, and snatched the 
crown from Ms head. He lost his Me in the attempt ; 
and Xerxes causing Ms body to be opened found his 
heart hairy. So says Aristides, m the first book of Ms 
Persian Mstory." TMs fiction seems to have been taken 
from the Xatriov xy,% of Homer. 

4 Lion of stone.] — Two epigrams on this subject may 
be found in the Analecta Veterum Poet. Graec. v. i. 132, 
v. ii. 162. The bones of Leomdas Avere carried back to 
Sparta, by Pausanias, forty years after his death j they 
were placed M a monument opposite the theatre j every 
year they pronounced in this place a funeral oration, and 
celebrated games, at wMch Spartans only were suffered 
to contend — La?-c7ier. 

5 Their teeth.]—" What are we to tMnk of this hyper- 
bole ?" says Longmus. ".What probability is there that 
men should defend themselves with their hands and teeth 
against armed troops ? This nevertheless is not incred- 
ible, for the thing does not appear to be sought out for 
an hyperbole, but the hyperbole seems to arise from the 
subject." 

This circumstance wMch appeared hyperbolical to 
Longinus does not to me; this mode of fighting was com- 
mon among the Lacedaeinomans ; when they had no 
arms, they availed themselves of their nails and teeth : 
Cicero had been a witness of tMs. — See the Tusculan 
Questions, book v. chap. 27th. 

Diodorus Siculus relates the battle of Thermopylae 
somewhat differently ; he tells us that Leomdas, when 
he knew that he was circumvented, made a bold attempt 
by night to penetrate to the tent of Xerxes : but this the 
Persian Mng had forsaken on the first alarm. The 
Greeks however proceeded in search of hmi from one 
side to the other, and slew a prodigious multitude. 
When morning approached, the Persians perceiving tho 
Greeks so few in number, held them in contempt ; but 
they still did not dare to attack them in front : encom- 



P O L Y M N I A. 



377 



The Barbarians rushing upon them, some in 
front, after overturning their wall, others sur- 
rounding and pressing them in all directions, 
finally overpowered them. 

CCXXYI. Such was the conduct of the 
Lacedaemonians and Thespians; but none of 
them distinguished themselves so much as 
Dieneces the Spartan. A speech of his is re- 
corded, which he made before they came to any 
engagement. A certain Trachinian having 
observed, that the Barbarians would send forth 
such a shower of arrows that their multitude 
would obscure the sun : he replied, like a man 
ignorant of fear, and despising the numbers of 
the Medes, " our Trachinian friend promises 
us great advantages ; if the Medes obscure 
the sun's light, we shall fight with them in the 
shade, and be protected from the heat." Many 
other sayings have been handed down as mon- 
uments of this man's fame. 

CC XXVII. Next to him, the most dis- 
tinguished of the Spartans were Alpheus, and 
Maron, two brothers, the sons of Orsiphantus ; 
of the Thespians, the most conspicuous was 
Dithyrambus, son of Harmatidas. 

CCXXVIII. All these were interred in 
the place where they fell, together with such of 
the confederates as were slain before the sepa- 
ration of the forces by Leonidas. Upon their 
tomb was this inscription : 

" Here once, from Pelops' sea-girt region brought, 
Four thousand men three hostile millions fought." 

This was applied to them all collectively. The 
Spartans were thus distinguished : 

" Go, stranger, and to list'ning Spartans tell, 
That here, obedient to their laws, we fell." 

There was one also appropriated to the prophet 
Megistias : 

passing them on both sides, and behind, they slew them 
all with their spears. Such was the end of Leonidas and 
his party. 

Mr Glover, in his English poem of Leonidas, has fol- 
lowed the account of Diodorus ; he differs however from 
both historians, in making the king of Sparta fall the 
last ; his description is sufficiently animated to be insert- 
ed in this place : 

The Spartan king 

Now stands alone. In heaps his slaughter'd friends 

All stretch'd around him lie. The distant foes 

Shower on his head innumerable darts; 

From various sluices gush the vital floods ; 

They stain his fainting limbs ; nor yet with pain 

His brow is clouded ; but those beauteous wounds, 

The sacred pledges of his own renown, 

And Sparta's safety, in serenest joy 

His closing eye contemplates. Fame can twine 

No brighter laurels round his glorious head ; 

His virtue more to labour fate forbids, 

An,l lays him now in honourable rest, 

To seal his country's liberty by death. 



" By Medes cut off beside Sperchius' wave, 
The seer Megistias fills this glorious grave : 
Who stood the fate he well foresaw to meet, 
And, link'd with Sparta's leaders, scorn 'd retreat." 

All these ornaments and inscriptions, that of 
Megistias alone excepted, were here placed by 
the Amphictyons. Simonides son of Leopre- 
pis, 6 inscribed the one to the honour of Megis- 
tias, from the ties of private hospitality. 

CCXXIX. Of these three hundred, there 
were two named Eurytus and Aristodemus ; 
both of them, consistently with the discipline 
of their country, might have secured themselves 
by retiring to Sparta, for Leonidas had per- 
mitted them to leave the camp ; but they con- 
tinued at Alpenus, being both afflicted by a 
violent disorder of the eyes : or, if they had 
not thought proper to return home, they had 
the alternative of meeting death in the field 
with their fellow-soldiers. In this situation, 
they differed in opinion what conduct to pur- 
sue. Eurytus having heard of the circuit made 
by the Persians, called for his arms, and put- 
ting them on, commanded his helot to conduct 
him to the battle. The slave did so, and im- 
mediately fled, whilst his master died fighting 
valiantly. Aristodemus pusillanimously staid 
where he was. If either Aristodemus, being 
individually diseased, had retired home, or if 
they had returned together, I cannot think that 
the Spartans could have shown any resentment 
against them ; but as one of them died in the 
field, which the other, who was precisely in the 
same circumstances, refused to do, it was im- 
possible not to be greatly incensed against 
Aristodemus. 

CCXXX. The safe return of Aristodemus 
to Sparta is by some thus related and explained. 
There are others who assert, that he was 
despatched on some business from the army, 
and might, if he had pleased, have been present 
at the battle, but that he saved himself by 
lingering on the way. They add, that his com- 
panion, employed on the same business, re- 
turned to the battle, and there fell. 

CCXXXI. Aristodemus, on his return, 
was branded with disgrace and infamy ; no one 
would speak with him ; no one would supply 
him with fire ; and the opprobrious term of 
trembler 7 was annexed to his name ; but he 



6 Simonides son of LeoprepisJ—See note to book v. c. 
102. The Simonides here mentioned composed several 
works, the titles of which may be seen in the Bibliotheca 
Graeca of Fabricius, v. i. p. 505. 

1 Tre7nbler.]—Ke who trembled, b r^ttrxs; it might 

3B 



378 



HERODOTUS. 



afterwards at the battle of Platea effectually 
atoned for his former conduct. 

CC XXXII. It is also said that another of 
the three hundred survived ; his name was 
Pantites, and he had been sent on some busi- 
ness to Thessaly. Returning to Sparta, he 
felt himself in disgrace, and put an end to his 
life. 

CCXXXIII. The Thebans, under the 
command of Leontiades, hitherto constrained 
by force, had fought with the Greeks against 
the Persians ; but as soon as they saw that the 
Persians were victorious, when Leonidas and 
his party retired to the hill, they separated 
themselves from the Greeks. In the attitude 
of suppliants they approached the Barbarians, 
assuring them what was really the truth, that 
they were attached to the Medes ; that they 
had been among the first to render earth and 
water ; that they had only come to Thermo- 
pylae on compulsion, and could not be con- 
sidered as accessory to the slaughter of the 
king's troops. The Thessalians confirming 
the truth of what they had asserted their 
lives were preserved. Some of them how- 
ever were slain ; for as they approached, the 
Barbarians put several to the sword ; but the 
greater part, by the order of Xerxes, had the 
royal marks impressed upon them, beginning 
with Leontiades himself. Eurymachus his son 
was afterwards slain at the head of four hundred 
Thebans, by the people of Platea, whilst he 
was making an attempt upon their city. 

CC XXXIV. In this manner the Greeks 
fought 1 at Thermopylae. Xerxes afterwards sent 



be rendered quaker ; this seems to have been an estab- 
lished term of opprobrium in Sparta; Tyrtseus says, 
T(>i(riroi.v7cr)])%' Kvh^m Teocir' ccxoXuX' a^zr/i — " the tremblers 
are devoid of all virtue." See Brunck's Anal. vol. i. p. 
40.— T. 

1 The Greeks fougJit.'} — Plutarch censures Herodotus 
for omitting many memorable things relating to Leoni- 
das. Some of those specified by Plutarch I have already 
introduced in my notes, others were as follows : When 
the wife of Leonidas took leave of him, she asked him 
what commands he had for her ? " Marry," said he, in 
reply, " a good man, and bring him good children." — 
Being desirous of saving two of Ms relations, who were 
with him at Thermopylae, he pretended to give them 
messages to the senate of Sparta; " I followed you," 
says one of them, " to fight, not as a messenger." 
" What you enjoin," says the other, " is the business of 
a messenger;" he then took up his shield and placed 
himself in his rank. 

I cannot in a more proper place than this make a few 
miscellaneous remarks upon the institutions of Lycurgus, 
und the manners of the Spartans ; not that I entertain 
any hope of throwing new light on a subject which has 



for Demaratus, and thus addressed him : " I 
have already, Demaratus, had experience of 



been amply investigated by the learned ; but I may per- 
haps be able to make a few things familiar to my English 
readers, which were obscure or unknown to them be- 
fore. The Spartans are renowned in the volumes of 
antiquity for one virtue above all others : I speak of their 
fortitude, which they carried to an amazing and almost 
incredible perfection, a virtue, which if we canvass and 
examine it to the extent in which it was practised by 
this extraordinary people, will seem almost peculiar to 
themselves. 

It was the aim of Lycurgus to settle and root in the 
minds of the Spartans this principle, that the preference 
was always to be given to virtue, which constituted the 
only real difference or inequality between one man and 
another. And he succeeded almost to a miracle. He 
persuaded them to renounce all other means of happiness 
usually but falsely so called 3 to make virtue their chief 
and only object, and to put themselves, their desires, and 
their hopes to this single test. He prevailed on the rich 
and noble to give up their ample possessions, to throw 
all they had into a common fund, and to reduce them- 
selves to a level with their neighbours. And these men, 
instead of the soft and tender blandishments of plentyv 
the sweets of luxury, and the pride of life, to which they 
had been accustomed, were contented to submit to the 
austerities of a severe and painful discipline ; to sit down 
to a coarse mess of black Spartan broth ; to make no ap- 
pearance, to expect no treatment abroad better than 
others. This astonishing reformation was confirmed 
and secured by two expedients ; the one which obliged 
every person to dine constantly in public with his own 
tribe, on the dinner which was provided for them at the 
expense of the state ; the other, which forbade the use 
of any other than iron money : by these salutary injunc- 
tions, every opportunity of indulging in luxury was cut 
off, as well as the means of providing for it. They ren- 
dered money altogether useless among them, so that 
Plutarch informs us, it was a common saying in other 
countries, "that at Sparta, and there alone, of all the 
cities in the world, Plutus the god of riches was blind; 
a mere picture or statue without life or motion." I 
would here remark, that is one note of difference which 
Polybius assigns against those who likened the Cretan 
polity to the Spartan, see book sixth. Plato also, when 
he reckons riches the fourth ordinary blessing to a state, 
certainly could not esteem this disregard of money which 
prevailed in Sparta as a mark of extraordinary virtue ; 
but ordinances so self-denying, so opposite to the sug- 
gestions of sense, and the ordinary practice of mankind, 
would not have been received on the authority of Ly- 
curgus, if they had not been favoured by a character of 
mind peculiar to this people. It was the natural and 
constitutional bravery of the Spartans which inclined 
them to admit and obey sueh a plan and form of govern- 
ment. 

Precept and authority alone would not have done it, 
for the passions of men are neither to be reasoned noi 
terrified from their own bent and tendency : it is there- 
fore but rendering justice to this gallant people to confess, 
that their bravery of mind was founded in inclination 
and principle. Cicero observes, that the Spartans (and 
the same could not be said of any other people in the 
world) had retained their primitive manners, without 
changing their laws, for more than seven hundred years. 
— See Orat. pro L. Flacco. Lacedaemonii soli, toto orbe 
terrarum, septingentos annos et amplius suis moribus et 
nunquam mutatis legibus, vixerunt — See also Livy, 
book xxx. c. 34. 



POLYMNI A. 



379 



youi truth and integrity, every thing has hap- 
pened as you foretold ; tell me then how many 



Plutarch says, only five hundred years, until the time of 
Agis, son of Archidamus, in which period fourteen kings 
had reigned. See his life of Lycurgus. The conquest of 
Lysander in Asia, by filling Lacedaemon with money, 
introduced luxury, and vitiated their morals ; several 
examples of which are produced by Xenophon. The 
women of Sparta seem little less entitled to admir- 
ation ; strangers to the natural weakness and softness 
of their sex, they were actuated by the same gallant 
spirit as the men. They submitted to a like discipline, and 
endured similar hardships. Instead of studying the accom- 
plishments which usually distinguish a female education, 
they accustomed themselves to manly exercises; to 
running, wrestling, throwing the dart or quoit ; having 
the emulation to contend with men at their own arts, 
and to bear them company in the same paths of glory. 

I cannot help presuming, with respect to the dames as 
well as the men of Sparta, that it must have been some- 
thing innate, something beyond the power of education, 
custom, or example, which constitutes the wonderful 
difference we discern in them, compared with all other 
women. Can it then be a matter of wonder, that the 
Spartan females claimed extraordinary privileges at 
home, and more extensive power in the government of 
their families. Lycurgus disliked that excessive au- 
thority, which the women had usurped, and attempted it 
seems, to reform it, and to restore to the husband the 
usual and proper authority in his own house; but in 
vain: a convincing argument, that if the women had 
not of themselves been inclined to his laws of female 
education, they would have paid them neither attention 
nor obedience. War, then, and conquest, with the en- 
durance of fatigue, were the principal objects which the 
Spartans had in view. Learning, and the study of let- 
ters, of arts and sciences, to which their neighbours 
the Athenians were devoted, were in no repute among 
them. Hence it has been observed, that the former 
made the better figure in war, the latter in peace.— See 
"Valerius Maximus, 1. ii. c. 6. Egregios virtutis bellicae 
spiritus Lacedsemoniorum, prudentissimi pacis moribus 
Athemenses subsequuntur. 

And this was unquestionably true, since we are as- 
sured, that although the most rigorous care was taken 
to keep their youth constantly to their exercises, their 
men of mature years were permitted to live just as they 
pleased ; they followed no employment, they disdained 
industry and honest labour, and were indeed forbidden 
to pursue any art, which was accounted illiberal ; even 
husbandry, and the management and culture of their 
lands, the most rational and public spirited study that 
can be pursued, they left entirely to their slaves. The 
old men of Sparta spent the whole of their time in fre- 
quenting their schools and apartments of the youth, as 
at Athens they did at the public places of resort, to hear 
or to tell some new thing. The former indeed could mis- 
pend their time in this manner with more grace, and 
might plead the authority of Lycurgus in their vindica- 
tion, whose policy and scheme of government aimed at 
maintaining an equality among the people, by restrain, 
ing them from trade, and the arts of growing rich. The 
design of Solon was entirely the reverse : he strove to 
animate the Athenians Avith a spirit of industry ; he 
enacted a law against idleness, requiring every person 
to have a calling and profession, and the philosopher who 
had none fell under the statute. Cleanthes and Mene- 
demus were indicted and called before the Areopagus on 



of the Lacedaemonians may there be left, 
how many of like valour with those who have 
perished, or are they all alike ?" " Sir," 
replied Demaratus, " the Lacedaemonians are 
a numerous people, and possessed of many ci- 
ties ; but I will answer your question more par- 
ticularly. Sparta itself contains eight thousand 
men, all of whom are equal in valour to those 
who fought here : the other Lacedaemonians, 
though inferior to these, are still brave." " Tell 
me then," returned Xerxes, " how we may sub- 
due these men with least trouble ? you who have 
been their prince, must know what measures 
they are likely to pursue." 

CCXXXV. "Since, Sir," answered De- 
maratus, " you place a confidence in my opin- 
ion, it is proper that I should speak to you from 
the best of my judgment : I would therefore 
recommend you to send a fleet of three hun- 
dred vessels to the coast of Lacedaemonia. 
Contiguous to this is an island named Cythera, 
of which Chilon, the wisest of our countrymen, 
observed, that it would be better for the Spar- 
tans if it were buried in the sea ; foreseeing the 
probability of such a measure as I now recom- 
mend. From this island your troops may 
spread terror over Sparta. Thus, a war so 
very near them, may remove from you any ap- 
prehension of their assisting the rest of Greece, 
which will then be open to your arms, and 



this account. The statute which restrained the study 
of rhetoric at Rome, assigned this reason : " Ibi homines 
adolescentulos totos dies desidere ;" for the same reason 
philosophers were banished, among whom was Epictetus 
in the reign of Domitian. — See Aldus Gellius, 1. xv. c. 11. 
I have little to say on the religion of the Spartam. 
The object of their worship seems to have been diversi- 
fied by them as well as by the Athenians according to 
the system of politics which their respective lawgivers 
established. Solon, intent upon promoting commerce, 
and gainful arts, presented the great goddess to the 
Athenians, holding in her right hand the weaver's beam, 
and he surnamed her from the Egyptians, Athene, and 
Minerva, styling her the goddess of arts and sciences. 
Lycurgus, training up the Spartans to the discipline of 
war, clothed the same goddess in armour, called her 
Pallas, and the Goddess of Battle (crccfaucixo; xki %a\~ 
ttuutes Qia) Aristoph. Lysist. ad finem. She was styled 
Chalcicecus, either because her temple was of brass, or 
because it was built by fugitives from Chalcis in Eubcea. 
The brothers also, Castor and Pollux, were for similar 
reasons enrolled in the Fasti of the Spartans; and I pre- 
sume, if the Pagan Theology be capable of being reduced 
to any fixed and settled rules, it will be best explained 
and accounted for by supposing the religion of every 
different nation or people to be a mixture of worship, 
and physics, and politics, and that their idols were re- 
presentations of natural causes, named and habited ac- 
cording to the different tempers and genius of those who 
set them up. — T. 



380 



HERODOTUS. 



which if subdued, will leave Sparta hardly able 
to oppose you. If my advice be disregarded 
you may expect what follows. There is a nar- 
row isthmus in the Peloponnese, in which all 
its people will assemble in resistance to your 
arms, and where you will have far more vio- 
lent contests to sustain than you have here ex- 
perienced. If you execute what I propose, you 
may without a battle become master of the isth- 
mus, with all the cities of Peloponnesus." 

CCXXXVI. Achaamenes the brother of 
Xerxes, and commander of the fleet, was pre- 
sent at this interview. Fearful that the king 
might do as he had been advised, he thus deliv- 
ered his sentiments : " You seem, Sir," said 
he, " too much inclined to listen to a man, who 
either envies your prosperity, or wishes to be- 
tray you. It is the character of Greeks to 
envy the successful, and to hate their superiors. 
We have already lost by shipwreck four hun- 
dred vessels ; if we detach three hundred more 
to the Peloponnese, the force of our opponents 
will be equal to our own; our united fleet will 
be far superior to theirs, and with respect to 
any efforts they can make, invincible. If your 
forces by land, and your fleet by sea advance at 
the same time, they will be able mutually to 
assist each other ; if you separate them, the 
fleet will not be able to assist you, nor you the 
fleet. It becomes you to deliberate well on 
your own affairs, and not to concern yourself 
about those of your enemies, nor to inquire 
where they will commence their hostilities, 
what measures they will take, or how numer- 
ous they are. Let them attend to their affairs, 
we to ours. If the Lacedaemonians shall pre- 
sume to attack the Persians, they will be far 
from repairing the loss they have already sus- 
tained." 

CCXXXVII. " Achaemenes," answered 
Xerxes, " I approve your counsel, and will 
follow it. The sentiments of Demaratus are, 
I well know, dictated by his regard to my in- 
terests ; but your advice to me seems prefer- 
able. I cannot be persuaded that he has any 
improper intentions, events having proved the 
wisdom of his former counsels. One man fre- 
quently envies the prosperity of another, and 
indulges in secret sentiments of hatred against 
him, neither will he, when" he requires it, give 
him salutary advice, unless indeed from some 
surprising effort of virtue ; but a friend exults 



in a friend's happiness ; has no sentiments for 
him but those of the truest kindness, and gives 
him always the best advice. Let no one there- 
fore in future use any invective against Demar- 
atus, who is my friend." 

CCXXXVIII. When Xerxes had finished, 
he went to view the dead, amongst whom was 
Leonidas. When he heard that he had been 
the prince and leader of Sparta, he ordered his 
head to be cut off, and his body to be suspend- 
ed on a cross. This incident is no small proof 
to me, amongst many others, that Xerxes in- 
dulged the warmest indignation against Leoni- 
das whilst he was alive. He otherwise would 
not have treated him when dead with such bar- 
barity. I know that the Persians, of all man- 
kind, most highly honour military virtue. The 
orders however of the king were executed. 

CCXXXIX. I shall now return to the 
thread of our history. The Spartans were the 
first who were acquainted with the king's de- 
signs against Greece; they sent to the oracle 
on the occasion, and received the answer I have 
related. The intelligence was communicated 
to them in an extraordinary manner. Demara- 
tus, the son of Ariston, bad taken refuge amongst 
the Medes, and, as there is every reason to 
suppose, was not friendly to the Spartans. He 
however it was who informed them of what 
was meditated, whether to serve or insult them 
must be left to conjecture. When Xerxes had 
resolved on this expedition against Greece, 
Demaratus, who was at Susa, and acquainted 
with his intentions, determined to inform the 
Lacedaemonians. As this was both difficult 
and dangerous, he employed the following 
means : he took two tablets, and erased the 
wax from each ; then inscribed the purpose of 
the king upon the wood. This done, he re- 
placed the wax, that the several guards on the 
road, from seeing the empty tablets, might have 
no suspicion of the business. When these were 
delivered at Lacedsemon, the people had no 
conception of their meaning, till, as I have been 
informed, Gorgo, the daughter of Cleomenes 
and wife of Leonidas, removed the difficulty. 
Imagining what might be intended, she ordered 
the w r ax to be removed, and thus made the con- 
tents of the tablets known. The Lacedaemo- 
nians, after examining what was inscribed on 
the wood, circulated the intelligence through 
Greece. 



HERODOTUS. 



BOOK VIII. 



URANIA. 



I. I have before described the events which 
are said to have happened. The Greeks who 
composed the naval armament were these : 
The Athenians' furnished one hundred and 
twenty-seven vessels, part of which were man- 
ned by Plateans, who, though ignorant of sea 
affairs, were prompted by zeal and courage ; the 
Corinthians brought forty ships, the Megarians 
twenty ; the Chalcidians equipped twenty ships, 
which the Athenians supplied ; the iEginetae 
eighteen, the Sicyonians twelve, and the Lace- 
daemonians ten ; the Epidaurians brought eight, 
the Eretrians seven, the Troezenians five, the 
Styreans two, the people of Ceos two, and two 
barks of fifty oars ; the Opuntian Locrians 
assisted the confederates with seven vessels of 
fifty oars. 

II. These were stationed at Artemisium ; 
and such were the numbers which each nation 
supplied. Without taking into the account the 
vessels of fifty oars, the whole amounted to two 
hundred and seventy-one. Of these the com- 
mander-in-chief appointed by the Spartans, was 
Eurybiades, the son of Euryclidas. The allies 
refused to serve under the Athenians, and had 
resolved, unless they had a Spartan leader, to 
disperse. 

" III. At first, and before any deputation had 
been sent to Sicily requiring assistance, it had 
been debated whether it would not be expedient 
to intrust the conduct of the naval forces to the 
Athenians ; but as this was opposed by the 
allies, the Athenians did not insist upon it. 2 
Their principal concern was the welfare of 
Greece, and as they were sensible that it would 



be endangered by any contention, they very 

wisely withdrew their claims : as much as war 

itself is more destructive than peace, so much 

more dangerous are intestine commotions, than 

a war conducted with consistency and union ; 

persuaded of this, they did not dispute the mat- 

j ter whilst circumstances justified and required 

■ their forbearance. Afterwards, when having 

repelled the Persian, they were contending for 

what belonged to him, they made the insolence 

! of Pausanias a pretence for depriving the Lace- 

' dsemonians of the command. These, however 

were things which happened afterwards. 

IV. When the Greeks assembled at Arte- 
I misium saw the number of ships which were 
! collected at Aphetse, and every place crowded 
' with troops, they were struck with terror ; and 

as the attempts of the Barbarians had succeed- 
ed so much beyond their expectations, they con- 
sulted about retreating to the interior parts of 
Greece. 3 When this idea had been generally 
circulated, the Eubceans entreated Eurybiades 
to give them time to remove their children and 
their slaves. Unsuccessful in this application, 
they went to Themistocles the Athenian leader, 
whom they engaged on consideration of thirty 
talents, to continue at Euboea, and risk the 
event of a battle. 

V. This was effected by Themistocles in 
the following manner : he presented Eurybiades 
with five talents, as if from himself; having 
gained him, he had only to prevail on Adiman- 
tus the Corinthian, 4 the son of Ocytus, who 



1 Athenians .~\ — Diodorus Siculus makes the number of 
Athenian vessels on this occasion two hundred. 

2 Did not insist upon it.~\ — Mr Glover, in his Poem of 
the Athenaid, puts this sentiment into the mouth of 
Themistocles : 

Wisely did we cede 
To Spartan Eurybiades command ; 
The different squadrons to their native ports 
iiad else deserted, &c. 



3 Parts of Greece.]— Plutarch is very severe upen 
Herodotus for making this assertion. Pindar, says he, 
who was a native of a city supposed to be attached to 
the Medes, mentions the behaviour of the Athenians at 
Artemisium with the highest encomiums. So perhaps 
he might, but what does this prove ? certainly not that 
the Greeks did not stay and fight against their will, 
though when they actually were engaged, they behaved 
with extraordinary valour. 

4 Adimantus the Corinthian.]— Tins Adimantus in the 
event behaved timidly. He n a* a Corinthian, and leader 



382 



HERODOTUS. 



was obstinate in his determination to sail from 
Artemisium. After using the solemnity of 
an oath, " If you," said he, " will not desert, 
I promise to give you a greater present than 
the king of the Medes would have done for 
leaving us." He instantly sent to his vessel 
three talents of silver. By these gifts he gain- 
ed the commanders to his purpose, and satisfied 
the Euboeans. Themistocles rewarded him- 
self by keeping the remainder, whilst they who 
had accepted of his presents supposed the 
money had been sent him from Athens for this 
purpose. 

VI. They continued therefore at Euboea, 
and came to a battle. The Barbarians arriv- 
ing at break of day at Aphetae, had before heard 
that the Greeks at Artemisium were very few 
in number. On their seeing this they were 
eager to engage, in expectation of taking them ; 
they did not, however, think it expedient to 
advance directly to the attack, lest the Greeks 
perceiving them should escape under cover of 
the night. The Persians had already boasted 
that not even the torch-bearer 1 should escape 
them. 



of the Corinthians ; he must not therefore be confound- 
ed with the Athenian Adimantus, who greatly distin- 
guished himself against the Persians, and who probably 
is the same person who was archon in the fourth year of 
the seventy-fifth Olympiad. An epitaph by Simonides 
was inscribed on his tomb, intimating, that by his coun- 
sels Greece became free. — Larcher. 

1 Torch-bearer ,~\ — Before trumpets were used in ar- 
mies, the signal for battle was given by a torch. Those 
who carried it were sacred to Mars ; they advanced at 
the head of armies, and in the interval betwixt them 
they dropt their torch, and retired without molestation. 
The armies engaged, and even if a whole army was des- 
troyed, they spared the life of the torch-bearer, because 
he was sacred to Mars : thence came a proverb applica- 
ble to total defeats, " not even the torch-bearer has es- 
caped." Herodotus is the first author where we meet 
with this expression, which afterwards became so fami- 
liar, that it passed into a proverb — Larcher. 

It is probable, that in the time of Homer, no signals 
for battle were in use, as we find no mention of any 
throughout his works; in both Iliad and Odyssey we 
rind torches placed on the tops of the hills to give in- 
telligence of certain events. Modern signals for battle 
are, by land, drums and trumpets j by sea they are 
more various, and are sometimes given by cannon, 
lights, sails, and colours. The Romans, in addition 
to the shout with which all nations have been describ- 
ed as commencing an engagment, violently clashed their 
arms together. Milton makes a happy use of this 
idea ; 

He spake, and to confirm his words outflew 
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thigh 
Of mighty cherubim. The sudden hlaze 
Far round illumined hell : highly they raged 
Against the highest, and fierce with grasped arms 
Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war, 
Hurling defiance toward the vault of heaven. 



VII. With this idea they pursued the follow- 
ing measures : two hundred chosen vessels were 
detached beyond Sciathus, lest in passing round 
Euboea they might be discovered by the 
enemy off Capharea and Geraestus, near the 
Euripus, meaning thus to enclose them, and 
commence an attack at the same time in the 
rear and in front. With this design the ap- 
pointed squadron set sail ; it was not their in- 
tention to attack the Greeks on this day, nor 
till a signal should be given by the detachment 
with which they were to act in concert. On 
the departure of the former, an account was 
taken of the number of those which continued 
at Aphetae. 

VIII. Whilst the Persians were thus em- 
ployed, they happened to have with them 
Scyllias 2 of Scios, the most skilful diver of his 
time, who in the shipwreck off Pelion had 
preserved to the Persians an immense quantity 
of treasure, and at the same time considerably 
enriched himself. This man had long intend- 
ed to desert to the Greeks, but he had never 
before had the opportunity ; he on this day 
effected his purpose ; it is uncertain in what 
manner, but if what is related of him be true, 
it is really astonishing. It is said, that having 
leaped into the sea at Aphetae, he did not rise 
again till he came to Artemisium, having gone 
a space of eighty stadia through the water. 
Other things are related of this man, some of 
which appear to be fabulous, whilst others are 
actually true. For my own part, I am inclined 
to the opinion that he escaped to Artemisium 



2 Scyllias.'} — The name of this skilful diver is diffe- 
rently written. In an epigram of Apollonides it is 
Scyllos, in Pliny and Pausanias it is Scilles. Scyllias had 
taught his daughter Cyane the art of diving ; during 
the tempest, which surprised the Persians near mount 
Pelion, they plunged together under the water, and 
removed the anchors which held the vessels of Xerxes, 
which occasioned considerable injury. By order of the 
Amphictyons, statues were erected to the father and 
daughter in the temple of Apollo at Delphi — The 
statue of Cyane was among those which by the com- 
mand of Nero were transported to Rome. — Larcher. 

Brydone, in his entertaining Tour through Sicily and 
Malta, informs us that the Sicilian authors make men- 
tion of one Colas, who, from his extraordinary skill in 
diving, was named Pesce, or the fish. It was said of 
him, that without coming at all to land, he would live 
for several days in the water ; that he caught fish mere- 
ly by his agility in the water, and that he could even 
walk across the straits at the bottom of the sea. One 
of their kings had the cruelty to propose his diving near 
the gulf of Charybdis, and to tempt him threw in 
a golden cup. In a third attempt to gain this, it is sup- 
posed he was caught by the whirlpool, for he appeared 
no more. — T. 



URANIA. 



383 



in a little vessel ; on his arrival, he informed 
the commanders of the shipwreck, 3 and of the 
ships which bad been sent round Euboea. 

IX. Upon this the Greeks called a council : 
various opinions were delivered, but it was ul- 
timately determined to remain that day in their 
station, but to depart soon after midnight to 
meet that part of the enemy's fleet which had 
been sent round Eubcea. As they perceived 
no one advancing against them, as soon as the 
twilight appeared, they proceeded towards the 
Barbarians, determined to make experiment of 
their skill in fighting and manoeuvring. 

X. The commanders and forces of Xerxes 
seeing them approach in so small a body, con- 
ceived them to be actuated by extreme infatua- 
tion, 4 and, drawing out their vessels, expected 
to find them an easy conquest. In this they 
were not unreasonable, for their fleet was supe- 
rior to the Greeks, not only in number but 
swiftness ; in contempt, therefore, they sur- 
rounded them. There were some of the Ioni- 
ans who wished well to the Greeks, and served 
against them with the greatest reluctance ; see- 
ing them thus encircled, they were affected with 
much uneasiness concerning them, not suppos- 
ing that any could escape, so insignificant did 
they appear. There were other Ionians, to 
whom the seeming distress of the Greeks gave 
great pleasure ; these contended with all exer- 
tion who should take the first Athenian vessel, 
in hopes of a reward from the king. For among 
the Barbarians greater reputation 5 was allowed 
to the Athenians than to any other of the 
allies. 



3 Shipwreck.] — See book vii. chap. 188. 

4 Extreme infatuation.] — With the same contempt the 
French are represented to have considered the English 
array before the battle of Agincourt. This is expressed 
with the greatest possible animation by Shakspeare in 
his Life of Henry the Fifth. 

His numbers are so few, 
His soldiers sick, and famish'd in their march ; 
And I am sure, when he shall see our army, 
He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear, 
And for achievement, offer us his ransom. 

To the Persians, as well as to the French, the noble 
answer of Henry to the French herald was happily 
applicable. 

The man that once did sell the lion's skin 

While the beast lived, was kill'd with hunting him. 

5 Greater reputation.] — Notwithstanding what is here 
asserted in favour of the Athenians, their own historian 
remarks, that from the best conjectures he was able to 
form, his countrymen had done nothing worthy of being 
recorded, either at home or abroad, from the Trojan to 
the Persic and Peloponnesian wars. Thucydides, 1. i. 
As I have thrown together at the end of the preceding 
book some remarks ou the Spartan policy and manners, 
the reader at the conclusion of this will lind some rela- 
tive to those of Athens. — T. 



XL The Greeks, as soon as the signal was 
given, turned their prows towards the Barbari- 
ans, collecting their sterns into one common 
centre. On a second signal, though compress- 
ed within a narrow space, they attacked the 
enemy in front. They soon took thirty of the 
Barbarian vessels, among whom was Philaon, 
son of Chersis, and brother of Gorgus, prince 
of Salamis, a man very highly esteemed in the 
army. The first enemy's ship was taken by an 
Athenian ; his name was Lycomedes, the son 
of iEschreas, and he obtained the fame he 
merited. Victory alternately inclined to both 
parties, when they were separated by the night -. 
the Greeks returned to Artemisium, the Barba- 
rians to Aphetse, the issue of the contest being 
very different from what they had expected. 
Of those Greeks who were in the service of 
the king, Antidorus the Lemnian was the only 
one who went over to his countrymen. The 
Athenians, in consideration of his conduct, as- 
signed him some lands in Salamis. 

XII. The above engagement took place in 
the middle of the summer. When night ap- 
proached, there fell a heavy storm of rain at- 
tended with continued thunder from mount 
Pelion. The bodies of the dead, and the 
wrecks of the vessels floating to Aphetae, were 
so involved among the prows of the ships, that 
the oars were hardly manageable ; the forces 
on board were seized with a violent panic, 
expecting every moment to perish.* They 
had hardly recovered themselves from the 
effect of the first storm and shipwreck ofi 
Pelion, when that severe battle at sea had suc- 
ceeded. As soon as this last terminated, they 
had now been attacked again by violent rains, 
a tempestuous sea, and continued thunder. 

XIII. This night, however, proved still 
more severe to those whose business it was to 
make a circuit round Euboea. The storm fell 
upon them with the greater violence, as they 
were remote from land, and they perished in a 



6 Expecting every moment to perish.] — An example of 
terror very much like this, occurs in 1 Samuel xiv. 15. 
Though it must be acknowledged, that the confusion 
into which the camp of the Philistines was thrown, is 
expressly attributed to a divine cause, and was attend- 
ed with an earthquake. 

" And there was trembling in the host, in the fieldi 
and among the people ; the garrison and the spoilers 
they also trembled, and the earth quaked ; so it was a 
very great trembling. 

" And the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah looked, and 
behold the multitude melted away, and they went on 
beating down one another." — T. 



384 



HERODOTUS. 



miserable manner. 1 It commenced when they 
were standing towards the sands of Eubcea ; 
ignorant of their course, they were driven before 
the wind, and dashed against the rocks. It 
seemed a divine interposition, that the Persian 
fleet should thus be rendered equal, or at least 
not much superior to that of the Greeks : in 
this manner they were destroyed on the Euboean 
sands. 

XIV. The Barbarians at Aphetse saw with 
joy the morning advance, and remained inac- 
tive, thinking it of no small moment, after their 
past calamities, to enjoy the present interval 
of tranquillity. At this juncture the Greeks 
were reinforced by fifty-three Athenian ships : 
animated by the arrival of their friends, they 
had still farther reason to exult in the fate of 
those Barbarians who had been ordered round 
Euboea, not one of whom escaped the violence 
of the storm. The Greeks taking the oppor- 
tunity of the same hour, towards . the evening 
advanced boldly against the Cilicians ; these 
they totally defeated, and at night returned 
again to Artemisium. 

XV. On the third day the leaders of the 
Barbarians did not wait for the Greeks to 
commence the attack; they advanced about 
mid-day, mutually encouraging each other ; 
they could not bear to be insulted by so infe- 
rior a number, and they feared the indignation 
of Xerxes. It happened that these engage- 
ments by sea took place precisely at the same 
periods as the conflicts at Thermopylae. The 
object of the sea-fights was the Euripus, as 
that of the battles by land was the passage of 
Thermopylae. The Greeks animated each 
other to prevent the entrance of the Barbarians 
into Greece; the Barbarians in like manner 



1 Miserable manner-] — To rikos <r<fi zyimo «%«§/. 
Longiuus, section xliii. p, 160, Pearce's edition, cen- 
sures this expression of «£«§'» as mean and feeble. 
Pearce does not vindicate our author, neither does Toup; 
Larcher does, and with considerable effect. Boiieau, he 
says, has rendered the word «%«§<, peu agreable. If 
this were admitted, the censure of Longinus would be 
reasonable enough; but in fact «%«§< is a very strong 
term, and signifies something in the highest degree shock- 
ing. Herodotus has applied trv^ctpo^ a,x<x,ys, to the mur- 
der of a brother, book i- 42 ; and again to the murder of 
a son, vii- 190. Antoninus Liberalis calls the crime of 
incest between a father and his daughter, «%«£< %-a-t 
ufeo-pov i^yov, an action horrible and offensive to all laws. 
A similar mode of speaking was in use among the Ro- 
mans ; every one knows that Virgil applied the word 
illaudatus to Busiris ; and Horace calls Pythagoras, 
Non sordid us auctor nature verique. 



were emulous to disperse the Greeks, and be- 
come masters of these passages. 

XVI. Whilst the forces of Xerxes advan- 
ced in order of battle, the Greeks remained on 
their station at Artemisium : the Barbarians, 
as if to render themselves secure of them all, 
enclosed them in a semicircle. The Greeks 
met them, and a battle ensued, which was 
fought on both sides on equal terms. The 
fleet of Xerxes, from the size and number of 
its vessels, was much perplexed by their falling 
foul of each other ; they fought however with 
firmness, and refused to give way, for they 
could not bear to be put to flight by so inferior 
a force. In the conflict many Grecian vessels 
perished, with a great number of men ; but the 
loss of the Barbarians was much greater in 
both ; they separated as by mutual consent. 

XVII. Of all those in the fleet of Xerxes, 
the Egyptians performed the most important 
service ; they distinguished themselves through- 
out, and took five Grecian vessels with all their 
men. Of the confederates, the Athenians 
were the most conspicuous, and of these the 
bravest was Clinias, son of Alcibiades. 8 flis 
ship, which carried two hundred men, was 
equipped and manned at his own expense. 

XVIII. The two fleets eagerly retired to 
their respective stations. The Greeks retained 
the wrecks of their vessels which were damag- 
ed, and possessed the bodies of their dead; 
but as they had suffered severely, and particu- 
larly the Athenians, the half of whose vessels 
were disabled, they deliberated about retiring 
to the remoter parts of Greece. 

XIX. Themistocles had constantly belie yed 
that if he could detach from the Barbarians the 
Ionians and Carians, 3 there would be no diffi- 
culty in overpowering the rest. Whilst the 
Eubceans were assembling their cattle on the 
sea-coast, he called the chiefs together, and 



2 Clinias, son of Alcibiades-] — Upon this personage 
Valcnaer has a very elaborate and learned note, but I do 
not see that it contains any thing particularly claiming 
the attention of the English reader, except that he was 
the father of the famous Alcibiades, afterwards so cele- 
brated in Greece — T. 

3 Carians-] — Originally these people inhabited the 
islands lying near their own coasts, and so much only 
of the JEgean sea as was called the Icarian, of which 
Icarus, the island of Caria, was the principal island ; 
they were then named Leleges and Pelasgi — See Strabo 
1. xii- 661—572. Afterwards removing to the continent, 
they seized upon a large tract of the sea-coast, as well as 
of the inland country ; " This," says Strabo, " was the 
opinion most generally allowed." — T- 



URANIA. 



385 



informed them he had conceived a method, 
which he believed would deprive the king of 
the best of his allies. At this juncture he ex- 
plained himself no farther, adding only his ad- 
vice that they should kill as much of the cattle 
of the Euboeans as they possibly could ; for it 
was much better that their troops should enjoy 
them than those of the enemy. He recom- 
mended them to order their respective people 
to kindle a fire, and told them that he would 
be careful to select a proper opportunity for 
their departure to Greece. His advice was 
approved, the fires were kindled, and the cat- 
tle slain. 

XX. The Euboeans, paying no manner of 
ragard to the oracle of Bacis, had neither re- 
moved any of their effects, nor prepared any 
provision, which it certainly became those to do 
who were menaced by a war : their neglect had 
rendered their affairs extremely critical. The 
oracle of Bacis 4 was to this effect : 

" When barb'rous hosts with Byblus yoke the main, 
Then drive your cattle from Eubcea's plain." 

As they made no use of this declaration, either 
in their present evils or to guard against the 
future, they might naturally expect the worst. 

XXI. At this period there arrived a spy 
from Trachis ; there was one also at Artemi- 
sium, whose name was Polyas, a native of 
Anticyra. He had a swift vessel with oars con- 
stantly in readiness, and was directed to com- 
municate to those at Thermopylae the event of 
any engagement which might take place at sea. 
There was also with Leonidas an Athenian 
named Abronychus, the son of Lysicles, who 
was prepared with a thirty-oared vessel to give 
immediate information to those at Artemisium 
of whatever might happen to the land forces. 
This man arrived at Artemisium, and informed 
the Greeks of what had befallen Leonidas and 
his party. On receiving his intelligence, they 
thought it expedient not to defer their depar- 
ture, but to separate in the order in which they 
were stationed, the Corinthians first, the Athe- 
nians last. 

XXII. Themistocles,5 selecting the swiftest 
of the Athenian vessels, went with them to a 
watering place, and there engraved upon the 
rocks these words, which the Ionians, coming 



4 The oracle of Bacis.] — There were three soothsayers 
of tins name ; the most ancient was of Eleus in Bceotia, 
the second of Athens, and the third of Caphya in Arcadia. 
This last was also called Cydns and Aletes, and wonder- 
ful things are related of him by Theopompus.— Larcher. 

5 Themistocles.] — Bartelemy in his Voyago du Jeune 
Anacharsis, divides the Athenian history into three dis- 



the next day to Artemisium, perused : " Men 
of Ionia, in fighting against your ancestors, and 
endeavouring to reduce Greece to servitude, 
you are guilty of injustice : take, therefore, an 
active part in our behalf ; if this be impractica- 
ble, retire yourselves from the contest, and pre- 
vail on the Carians to do the same. If you 
can comply with neither of these requisitions, 
and are so bound by necessity that you cannot 
openly revolt, when the conflict begins, retire ; 
remembering that you are descended from our- 
selves, and that the first occasion of our dispute 
with the Barbarians originated with you." 
Themistocles in writing the above, had, as I 
should suppose, two objects in view. If what 
he said were concealed from the king, the Ioni- 
ans might be induced to go over to the Greeks, 
and if Xerxes should know it, it might incline 
him to distrust the Ionians, and employ them 
no more by sea. 

XXIII. When Themistocles had written 
the above, a man of Histiaea hastened in a small 
vessel to inform the Barbarians that the Greeks 
had fled from Artemisium. Distrusting the 
intelligence, they ordered the man into close 
custody, and sent some swift vessels to ascer- 
tain the truth. These confirmed the report, 
and as soon as the sun rose the whole fleet in a 
body sailed to Artemisium ; remaining here 
till mid-day, they proceeded to Histiaea: they 
then took possession of the city of the Histiae- 
ans, and over ran part of Hellopia, 6 and all the 
coast of Histiaeotis. 

XXIV. Whilst his fleet continued at His- 
tiaeotis, Xerxes having prepared what he intend- 
ed concerning the dead, sent to them a herald. 
The preparations were these : Twenty thou- 
sand men had been slain at Thermopylae, of these 
one thousand were left on the field, the rest 
were buried in pits sunk for the purpose ; these 
were afterwards filled up, and covered with 
leaves, to prevent their being perceived by the 
fleet. The herald, on his arrival at Histiaea, 
assembled the forces, and thus addressed them : 
" Xerxes the king, O allies, permits whoever 
chooses it to leave his post, and see in what 



tinct intervals, which he calls the commencement, the 
progress, and the fall of that empire. The first he names 
the age of Solon, or of the laws ; the second the age of 
Themistocles, and Aristides, or of glory ; the third, the 
age of Pericles, or of luxury and the arts. — T. 

G Hellopia.]— The whole island of Eubcea was ancient- 
ly called Helapia ; I understand that the Hebrew word 
which we pronounce Hellap, means of a clear counte- 
nance ; for this reason the people round Dodona were 
called Elli and Ellopes, and their country also Ellopia. 
— T. 

8 C 



386 



HERODOTUS. 



manner he contends with those foolish men, 
who had hoped to overcome him." 

XXV- Immediately on this declaration, 
scarce a boat remained behind, so many were 
eager to see the spectacle : coming to the spot, 
they beheld the bodies of the dead. Though a 
number of Helots' were among them, they sup- 
posed that all whom they saw were Lacedaemo- 
nians and Thespians. This subterfuge of Xer- 
xes did not deceive those who beheld it ; it 
could not fail of appearing exceedingly ridicu- 
lous, to see a thousand Persian bodies on the 
field, and four thousand Greeks crowded to- 
gether on one spot. After a whole day had 
been thus employed, the troops returned on the 
following one to the fleet at Histiaea, and Xer- 
xes with his army proceeded on their march. 

XXVI. A small number of Arcadians de- 
serted to the Persian army ; they were desti- 
tute of provisions, and wished to be employed. 
Being introduced to the royal presence, and 
interrogated by several Persians, and by one in 
particular, concerning the Greeks, and how 
they were then employed : " At present," they 
replied, "they are celebrating the Olympic 
^ames, and beholding gymnastic and equestrian 
exercises." Being a second time asked what 
the prize was for which they contended, they 
answered, " An olive garland." On this occa- 
sion Tigranes, 2 the son of Artabanus, having 
expressed himself in a manner which proved 
great generosity of soul, was accused by the 
king of cowardice. Hearing that the prize was 
not money, but a garland, he exclaimed before 
them all — •' What must those men be, O Mar- 
donius, against whom you are conducting us, 
who contend not for wealth, but for virtue ?" 

XXVII. After the above calamity at Ther- 
mopylae, the Thessalians sent a herald to the 
Phoceans, with whom they had before been at 
enmity, 3 but particularly so after their last over- 

1 Helots.] — I have in a preceding note spoke of the 
Helots ; but for more particulars concerning them, I beg 
leave to refer the reader to a dissertation on the history 
p.nd servitude of the Helots, by M. Capperonier, pub- 
lished in the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions 
and Belles Lettres.— T. 

2 Tigranes. - }— Many learned men are of opinion, that 
this name is derived from the Togarmah of scripture, 
and given to the chiefs of that house ; see Eze. xxxviii. 
C. — " Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands." 
Josephus writes Togarmah's name, &uy%afx./u.Y l z, Thy- 
gram mis, which some copies render Thygran, neither of 
them very unlike Tigranes. — T. 

3 Enmity.]— The Thessalians being natives of Thes- 
protia, had seized JEolia, afterwards called Thessaly, 
whence they attempted to penetrate into Phccea, by the 
passage of Thermopylae ; but the Phoceans in this place 



throw. Some years antecedent to this expedi- 
tion of the king the Thessalians in a body, in 
conjunction with their allies, had attacked the 
Phoceans, but had been driven back and rough- 
ly handled. The Phoceans, being surrounded 
at Parnassus, happened to have with them 
Tellias 4 of Eleum, the soothsayer, at whose 
instigation they concerted the following strata- 
gem : They selected six hundred of their brav- 
est men, whose persons and arms they made 
white with chalk ; they thus sent them against 
the Thessalians, under cover of the night, com- 
manding them to put every one to death who 
was not whited like themselves. The Thes- 
salian out-posts, who first saw them, conceived 
them to be something supernatural. These 
communicated their panic to the body of the 
army, in consequence of which the Phoceans 
slew four thousand, and carried away their 
shields : half of these shields w r ere consecrated 
at Abae, and half at Delphi. A tenth part of 
the money which resulted from this victory was 
applied to erect the large statues which are to 
be seen round the tripod before the temple at 
Delphi : an equal number were erected at Abas. 



constructed a wall, which checked their incursions. This 
was the source of the hatred which these people bore 
each other, and which was carried to such extremities, 
that the Thessalians in one day cut the throats of all tl e 
magistrates and princes of the Phoceans, who, in return, 
beat to death two hundred and fifty hostages they had 
in their hands. — Earcher. 

4 Tellias.] — He was the chief of the family of the 
Teliiadae, in which the art of divination was hereditary. 
In gratitude for the victory which they obtained through 
his means, the Phoceans made a statue of Tellias, which 
they sent to Delphi, with those of the chiefs and heroes 
of their country. — Larcher. 

Compare the account here given by Herodotus with 
Pausanias, 1. x. c. i. and the Stratagemata of Polyaenus, 
1. vi. c. 18. — See also Plutarch on the virtues of women. 

To revenge the above-mentioned murder of their hos- 
tages, the Thessalians marched against the Phoceans, de- 
termining to spare no men that were of age, and to sell 
the women and children for slaves. Diaphantus, gover- 
nor of Phocis, on hearing this, persuaded his country- 
men to go and meet the Thessalians, and to collect their 
women and children in one place, round whom they 
were to pile combustible materials, and to place a watch, 
who, if the Phoceans should be defeated, were to set 
fire to the pile. To this one person objected, saying the 
women ought to be consulted on the business. The 
women hearing of this, assembled together, and not on- 
ly agreed to it, but highly applauded Diaphantus for pro- 
posing it : it is also said, that the children also met to- 
gether and resolved on the same thing. The Phoceans 
afterwards engaging the enemy at Cleon, a place in Hy. 
ampolis, were victorious. The Greeks called this re- 
solution of the women aponoia, desperation. The great- 
est feast of the Phoceans is that which they celebrated 
at Hy;.mpolis, and called Elaphebolia, in commemora- 
tion of this 



URANIA. 



387 



XXVIII. The Phoceans thus treated the 
Thessalian foot, by whom they had been sur- 
rounded: their horse which had made incursions 
into their country, they effectually destroyed. 
At the entrance to Phocis near Hyampolis 
they sunk a deep trench, into which having 
thrown a number of empty casks, they covered 
them with earth to the level of the common 
ground. They then waited to receive the at- 
tack of the Thessalians : these advancing, as if 
to capture the Phoceans, fell in among the 
casks, by which the legs of their horses were 
broken. 

XXIX. These two disasters had so much 
exasperated the Thessalians, that they sent a 
herald to say thus to the Phoceans : " As you 
are now, O Phoceans, rendered wiser by ex- 
perience, it becomes you to acknowledge your- 
selves our inferiors. When we formerly 
thought it consistent to be united with the 
Greeks, we were always superior to you ; we 
have now so much influence with the Barbari- 
ans, that it is in our power to strip you of your 
country, and reduce you to slavery. We are 
nevertheless willing to forget past injuries, 
provided you will pay us fifty talents : on 
these terms we engage to avert the evils which 
threaten your country." 

XXX. Such was the application of the 
Thessalians to the Phoceans, who alone of all 
the people of this district, did not side with the 
Medes, and for no other reason, as far as I am 
able to conjecture, than their hatred of the 
Thessalians. If the Thessalians had favoured 
the Greeks, the Phoceans I believe would 
have attached themselves to the Medes. The 
Phoceans in reply refused to give the money ; 
they had the same opportunity, they added, of 
uniting with the Medes, as the Thessalians, if 
they wished to change their sentiments ; but 
they expressed themselves unalterably reluctant 
to desert the cause of Greece. 

XXXI. This answer of the Phoceans so 
irritated the people of Thessaly, that they of- 
fered themselves as guides to the Barbarian 
army, which they conducted from Trachis to 
Doris. The passage of this district is not more 
than thirty stadia in extent, it is situate be- 
twixt Melias and Phocis, and was before called 
Dryopis. The Dorians are the original and 
principal people of the Pcloponnese: the Bar- 
barians penetrated into Doris, but without 
committing any devastations. The Thessa- 
lians did not wish them to commit any violence 



here, and indeed the inhabitants had embraced 
the interest of the Medes. 

XXXII. The Barbarians passed from Do- 
ris into Phocis, but did not make themselves 
masters of the persons of the inhabitants. Of 
these some had taken refuge on the summits 
of Parnassus, 5 at a place called Tithorea, near 
the city Neon, capable of containing a great 
number of people. A greater number had fled 
to Amphissa, a town of the Ozoke Locrians, 
beyond the plain of Crisaeum. - • The Barbarians 
effectually over-ran Phocis, to which the Thes- 
salians conducted them ; whatever they found 
they destroyed with fire and sword, and both 
the cities and sacred temples were burned. 

XXXIII. Proceeding along the river Ce- 
phissus, they extended their violence through- 
out Phocis. On one side they burned the 
city Drymos, on the other Charadra, Erochos, 
Tethronium, Amphicsea, Neon," Pedieas, Tri- 
teas, Elatea, Hyampolis, Parapotamios, and 
Abae. At this last place is an edifice sacred 
to Apollo, abounding in wealth, and full of 
various treasures, 7 and offerings. Here as now 
was an oracle. Having plundered this temple, 
they set it on fire. They pursued the Phoceans, 
and overtook some of them near the mountains ; 
many of their female captives died, from the 

5 Parnassus.'] — This celebrated mountain had a forked 
summit with two vertices ; of these one was sacred to 
Apollo, the other to Bacchus. See Joddrel on Euri- 
pides, p. 19- Sir George Wheeler, in his Travels into 
Greece, has given an engraving of this poetical circum- 
stance, so often celebrated by the Greek and Roman 
poets ; and he observes, that the high cliffs .seem to end 
in two points from the town of Delphi. He also adds, 
that there is a fountain with a very plentiful source of 
water continually flowing out from a cavity close to 
this mountain, which by the marble steps leading to it 
should be the fountain Castalia- Lucan observes, that 
at the time of the deluge Parnassus was the only moun- 
tain, and that too with one of its tops only, which pro- 
jected above the water, 1. v. 75. 

Hoc solum fluctu terras mergente cacumen 
Eminuit, pontoque fuit discrimen et astris. 

Which lines are thus diffusively rendered by Rowe : 
When o'er the world the deluge wide was spread, 
This only mountain rear'd its lofty head; 
One rising rock preserved, a bound was given 
Between the vasty deep and ambient heaven. 

L. v. ver. 17. 
Sir George Wheeler says, " I esteem this mountain 
not only the highest in all Greece, but one of the high- 
est in all the world, and not inferior to mount Cenia 
among the Alps." 

6 Neon .]— M. Larcher thinks, and with great reason, 
that the Neon in this passage should be read Cleon. 

7 Treasures.]— As the greater part of the Grecian 
cities sent their wealth to Delphi, it is very probable, 
says M. Larcher, that those of Phocis deposited theirs 
at Abae. 



388 



HERODOTUS. 



great number who committed violence on their 
persons. 

XXXIV. Passing the Parapotamians, they 
came to the Paropeans ;}. at this place the 
army was divided into two bodies, of which 
the one most numerous and powerful proceeded 
towards Athens, entering Boeotia through the 
Orchomenian territories. The Boeotians in 
general had taken part with the Medes. Alex- 
ander, with the view of preserving the Boeo- 
tian cities, and of convincing Xerxes that the 
nation were really attached to him, had sta- 
tioned a Macedonian detachment in each. 
This was the line of march pursued by one 
part of the Barbarians. 

XXXV. The other division, keeping Par- 
nassus to the right, advanced under the conduct 
of their guides, to the temple of Delphi. What- 
ever they met in their march belonging to the 
Phoceans they totally laid waste, burning the 
towns of the Paropeans, Daulians, and iEolians. 
They proceeded in this direction, after separat- 
ing from the main army, with the view of 
plundering the temple of Delphi j and of pre- 
senting its treasures to the king. I have been 
informed that Xerxes had a more intimate 
knowledge of the treasures which this temple 
contained than of those which he had left in 
his own palace ; many having made it their 
business to inform him of its contents, 2 and 
more particularly of the offerings of Croesus, 
the son of Alyattes. 



1 Paropeans.] — D'Anville, in his Geography, reverses 
this order, and places the Paropeans before the Para- 
potamians. 

2 Of its contents.]— See, in the Memoirs of the Aca- 
demy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, a dissertation 
on the riches of the temple of Delphi, and an account 
of those by whom it was at different times pillaged. We 
have had in this country a parallel of immense but use- 
less riches, accumulated by superstition, and long pre- 
served by the jealous and vigilant hand of bigotry, in 
the shrine of Thomas a Becket at Canterbury. These, 
however, like the wealth of the temple of Delphi, were 
in process of time plundered and carried away by the 
violent and powerful. When Erasmus saw at Canter- 
bury the tomb of Becket laden with so many precious 
jewels, and other inestimable riches, he could not but 
wish that these superfluous heaps of wealth might be 
distributed among the poor, and his tomb to be better 
adorned with leaves and flowers, than to heap up all 
that mass of treasure to be one day plundered and car- 
ried away by the men of power ; which was a prophecy 
most literally fulfilled in less than twenty years. — See 
Jortin's Life of Erasmus- 

At the present day, the shrine of " Our lady of Lo- 
retto" is in like manner remarkable for the splendour 
and profusion of its riches, and will not improbably, in 
the course of succeeding years, share a similar fate. 



XXXVI. The Delphians on hearing this, 
were struck with the greatest consterna- 
tion, and applying to the oracle, desired to 
be instructed whether they should bury the 
sacred treasures in the earth, or remove them 
to some other place. They were ordered not 
to remove them, as the deity was able to pro- 
tect what belonged to him; their sole care 
therefore was employed about themselves, and 
they immediately removed their wives and chil- 
dren into Achaia. Of themselves the greater 
part fled to the summits of Parnassus, and to 
the Corycian cave ; 3 others took refuge at Am- 
phissa, in Locria. Excepting sixty men, with 
the principal priest, the city of Delphi was en- 
tirely deserted. 

XXXVII. When the Barbarians approach- 
ed, and were in sight of the temple, the pro- 
phet, whose name was Aceratus, observed that 
the sacred arms, which had ever been preserved 
in the sanctuary, and which it was impious to 
touch, were removed* to the outward front of 
the temple : he hastened to acquaint those 
Delphians w T ho remained with the prodigy. 
The enemy continued to advance ; and when 
they came to the temple of Minerva Pronea, 



3 Corycian cave.] — This was at the base of mount Cory- 
cus, and said by Pausanias to have been of vast extent : 
it was sacred to the muses, who from thence were called 
Nymphse Corycides. See Ovid, Met. i. 320. 

Corycidas nymphas et numina momis adorant. 

It should seem, that in the countries of the East sub- 
terraneous caves were very frequent, and used by shep- 
herds to sleep in, or as folds for their flocks in the even- 
ing. The Syrian coast, or rather the mountains on this 
coast, are remarkable for the number of caves in them. 
See Harmer's Observations on Passages of Scripture, 
vol. hi. p. 61. 

We find in the History of the Croisades, by the Arch- 
bishop of Tyre, that Baldwin the First presented himself, 
with some troops which he had got together, before As- 
calon ; that the citizens were afraid to venture out to 
fight with him. Upon which, finding it would be to no 
advantage to continue there, he ranged about the plains 
between the mountains and the sea, and found villages 
whose inhabitants, having left their houses, had retired 
with their wives and children, their flocks and herds, 
into subterraneous caves. 

See also 1 Sam. xiii. 11. 

" And both of them discovered themselves unto the 
garrison of the Philistines ; and the Philistines said, Be- 
hold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where 
they had hid themselves." 

Again — Judges, vi. 2. 

" And because of the Midianites, the children of Israel 
made them the dens which are in the mountains, and 
caves, and strong holds." — T. 

4 Were removed.] — A little before the battle of Leuc- 
tra, it was said, that the temples opened of themselves, 
and that the arms which were in the temple of Hercules 
disappeared, as if Hercules himself was gone to bo pre- 



URANIA. 



389 



more portentous appearances were seen. It 
might be thought sufficiently wonderful, that 
the arms should spontaneously have removed 
themselves to the outward part of the temple ; 
but what afterwards happened was yet more as- 
tonishing. As the Barbarians drew near the 
temple of Minerva Pronea, a storm of thunder 
burst upon their heads j two immense fragments 
of rock 5 were separated from the tops of Par- 
nassus, which rolling down with a horrid noise, 
destroyed a vast multitude. At the same time 
there proceeded from the shrine of the goddess 
loud and martial shouts. 

XXXVIII. This accumulation of prodigies 
impressed so great a terror on the Barbarians, 
that they fled in confusion. The Delphians 
perceiving this, 6 descended and slew a great 
number. They who escaped fled to Boeotia ; 
these, as I have been informed, related that be- 
sides the above prodigies, they saw also two 
armed beings of more than human size, who 
pursued and "slaughtered them. 

XXXIX. The Delphians say, that these 
two were heroes, and natives of the country, 
their names Phylacus and Autonous, to whom 
some buildings near the temple had been conse- 
crated. That of Phylacus stands on the public 
road, near the temple of Minerva Pronea, that 
of Autonous, near Castalia, beneath the Hy- 



sent at that engagement. But many did not scruple to 
say, that these miracles were contrived by the magis- 
trates. — Xenophon. 

Julius Obsequens, in his enumeration of the Roman 
prodigies, says, that A. U. 652, Hastae Martis in regia 
sua sponte motse. — The spears of Mars, preserved in the 
palace, moved of their own accord. Among the prog- 
nostics which preceded the assassination of Csesar, Virgil 
mentions the sound of arms heard all over Germany. 
Armorum sonitum toto Gerraania coelo 
Audiit. T. 

5 Fragments of rock.] — 

The double head 
Of tall Parnassus reeling from the crag 
Unloosed two fragments : mountainous in bulk 
They roll to Delphi, with a crashing sound 
Like thunder nigh, whose burst of ruin strikes 

The shattered ear with horror 

They move, and passing by Minerva's grove, 

Two monuments of terror see. — There stopped 

The massy fragments from Parnassus rent : 

An act of nature, by some latent cause 

Disturbed. Tremendous o'er Barbarian ranks 

The ruins down the sacred way had rolled, 

Leaving its surface horrible to sight, 

Such as might startle war's remorseless god, 

And shake his heart of adamant. Athenaid. 

The same events are recorded by Diodorus Siculus, 1. 
xi & c. 4. 

Perceiving t7iis.] — 

The Delphian race, 
By fear so lately to the neighbouring hills 
And caves restrained, forsake their sheltering holds ; 
In clusters rushing on the foes dismayed, 
Accomplish their defeat. Athenaid. 



ampean vertex. The rocky fragments which 
fell from Parnassus have been preserved with- 
in my remembrance near the temple of Minerva 
Pronea, where they first fixed themselves, after 
rolling through the Barbarian ranks. In this 
manner was the enemy obliged to retreat from 
the temple. 

XL. The Grecian fleet, after their de- 
parture from Artemisium, at the request of 
the Athenians, came to an anchor at Salamis, 
The motive of the Athenians in soliciting this, 
was to have the opportunity of removing their 
wives and families from Attica, as well as to 
deliberate upon what measures they should pur- 
sue. To this also they were farther induced, 
because things had hitherto happened contrary 
to their expectations. They had hoped that 
the people of the Peloponnese, in one collected 
body, would wait the approach of the Barba- 
rians in Boeotia. Instead of which they learn- 
ed, they were satisfied with fortifying the isth- 
mus of the Peloponnese with a wall, careful of 
their own security alone. The Athenians 
were induced, in consequence of this intelli- 
gence, to entreat the allies to station themselves 
at Salamis. 

XL I. Whilst the rest of the allies continued 
with the fleet, the Athenians returned to their 
country, where they proclaimed by a herald, 7 
that every Athenian was to preserve his family 
and effects by the best means in his power. 
The greater number took refuge at Troezene, 
others fled to iEgina, and some to Salamis, 
each being anxious to save what was dear to 
him, and to comply with the injunctions of the 
oracle. It is asserted by the Athenians, that 
there is a large serpent 8 in the temple of the 
citadel, which continually defends it. Of this 
they have such an entire conviction, that they 
offer to it every month cakes of honey : these 
had before always been regularly consumed, at 
this juncture they were untouched. 9 The 
priestess having made this incident known, the 



IBya herald.] — It was criminal at Athens to abandon 
their country in time of danger, or even to remove their 
wives and children from the perils which impended, till 
permission was given by , a public proclamation— 
Larche?: 

8 Large serpent] — See Bryant on the subject of ser- 
pent worship, vol. i. p. 476, &c. The Athenians were 
esteemed Serpentigenae, and they had a tradition that the 
chief guardian of their Acropolis was a serpent, &c. — 
T. 

9 Untouched.]— It appears that Thcroistocles was at 
the bottom of all these pretended miracles, and of this in 
particular. See his Life, as given by Plutarch. 



390 



HERODOTUS. 



Athenians still more precipitately deserted the 
city, believing that their goddess had abandoned 
the citadel. Removing, therefore, all their ef- 
fects, they hastened to join the fleet. 

XLII. When it was generally known that 
those who had left Artemisium had taken their 
station at Salamis, all the vessels which were 
at Trcezene hastened to join them ; orders 
having been previously issued to assemble at 
Pogon and Troezene. A much larger fleet 
was now got together than had before fought 
at Artemisium, and they were manned by a 
greater number of different nations. Eury- 
biades, the son of Euryclidas, who had com- 
manded at Artemisium, was the leader also on 
the present occasion, though not of the blood 
royal. The vessels of the Athenians were the 
most numerous, and the best sailers. 

XL III. The fleet was thus composed : Of 
the people of the Peloponnese, the Lace- 
daemonians furnished sixteen vessels, the Cor- 
inthians the same number as at Artemisium, 
the Sicyonians fifteen, the Epidaurians ten, 
the Troezenians five, the Hermionians three. 
All these, except the Hermionians, were Do- 
rians and Macedonians, coming from Erineus, 
Pindus, and Dryopis. The Hermionians are 
from Dryopis, they had formerly been expelled 
by Hercules, and the Melians of the district 
now called Doris. — These were the forces from 
the Peloponnese. 

XLI V. Of those situated upon the exterior 
continent, the Athenians alone furnished one 
hundred and eighty vessels, a number equal to 
all the rest. The Plateans were not present 
at the battle of Salamis, and for this reason ■ 
when the Greeks departing from Artemisium 
touched at Chalcis, the Plateans, landing on 
the opposite coast of Bceotia, employed them- 
selves in removing their families and effects, 
in doing which they were left behind. The 
Athenians were Pelasgi, and called Cranai, 
when that region now named Greece was pos- 
sessed by the Pelasgi : under Cecrops 1 they 



1 Cecrops.'] — Strabo cites Hecatseus, who said that 
Peloponnesus was inhabited by the Barbari before it 
was possessed by the Greeks ; and adds, that almost all 
Greece was anciently the seat of this strange people. 
Among other proofs he alleges several names of persons, 
such as Cecrops, Codrus, &c. which he says evidently 
prove a foreign language ; to ^ot^ot^av i,u^ccinircii. 

Thucydides 1. i. at the beginning, with the Scholia, says 
that the Ionians were called Pelargi, or Pelasgi. The 
name Pelargus is usually taken for a saunter er, x^a-v/,- 
vi-slo; ; this shows that it was originally used as a word 
of reproach. Strabo evidently derives the wandering 



took the name of Cecropidae. The title of 
Athenians was given them when Erectheus 
succeeded to the throne : their name of Ioni- 
ans 2 was derived from Ion, who had been gen- 
eral of the Athenian forces. 

XLV. The Megareans supplied the same 
number of vessels, as at Artemisium. The 
Ampraciotse brought a reinforcement of seven 
ships ; the Leucadii, a Dorian nation, originally 
from Corinth, furnished three. 

XLVI. Of the people of the islands, the 
iEginetae provided thirty vessels, they had 
others, but these were employed in defending 
their coasts : the thirty, in which they fought 
at Salamis, were the best equipped, and the 
swiftest sailers. The iEginetae are Dorians, 
originally of Epidaurus, and their island was 
formerly called (Enone. Next to this people, 
the Chalcidians, as at Artemisium, supplied 
twenty ships, the Eretrians seven ; these are 
Ionians. An equal number was furnished by 
the people of Ceos, who also are Ionians of 
Athenian descent. The Naxians brought 
four vessels : these, with the rest of the island- 
ers, had been desired by the majority of their 
countrymen to take part with the Medes, but 
they had gone over to the Greeks, by the per- 
suasion of Democritus, a man of considerable 
distinction, and at that time trierarch. The Nax- 
ians also are Ionians, and of Athenian origin. 
The Styreans appeared with the same number 
of ships as at Artemisium ; the Cythnians 3 
brought only one, and that of fifty oars : both 
of these last people are Dryopians. The allies 



temper of the Pelargi, or Pelasgi, from the Greek ot^yo;, 
explaining the word xoXwzXa.vov by ros^y trgos <%vetirTu<rtif , 
quick in changing their settlements. — T. 

JEgeus of Athens, according to Androtion, was of the 
serpent breed : and the first king of the country is said 
to have been Aguzwv, a dragon. Others make Cecrops 
the first who reigned ; he is said to have been of a two- 
fold nature, being formed with the body of a man, blend, 
ed with that of a serpent. Diodorus says, that this was 
a circumstance deemed by the Athenians inexplicable, 
yet he labours to explain it by representing Cecrops as 
half a man and half a brute, &c. — Bryant, vol. i. 484. &c. 

2 Ionians. ~\ — See Genesis, x. 4. 

" And the sons of Javan, Elishah, and Tarshish, and 
Chittim, and Dodanim." 

Bochart places Javan and his sons in Europe, assign- 
ing to the father, Greece ; to Elishah, Peloponnesus ; to 
Tarshish, Tartessus in Spain ; to Chittim, Latium in 
Italy ; and to Dodanim, a part of France, 1. iii. c. 7. — 
Javan he considers as the prince of Ionia. — T. 

2 Cythnians.] — These islanders were of no great 
strength or importance. "If," says Demosthenes, "I 
considered you as like the Siphnians, Cythnians, or such 
people, I would not recommend you to adopt sentiments 
so elevated. — Larcher 



URANIA. 



391 



were farther assisted by the Seriphians, Siph- 
nians, and Melians, who alone, of the island- 
ers, had refused to render the Barbarian earth 
and water. 

XL VII. All these different people who in- 
habit the region betwixt the Thesproti and the 
river Acheron, 4 appeared as confederates in 
the war. The Thesproti are contiguous both 
to the Ampraciotse and Leucadii, who came on 
this occasion from the remotest limits of 
Greece. Of the nations still farther distant, 
the Crotoniatse alone, with one vessel, 5 assisted 
Greece in its danger i it was commanded by 
Phayllus, a man who had been three times vic- 



4 Acheron.]— Here Hercules descended into hell, and 
hither he brought back with him the dog Cerberus, whose 
foam overspread the country with aconitum. Adonis 
was celebrated for having the liberty of descending to 
Acheron, or the infernal regions, and of returning again 
at certain seasons. See Theocritus, Idyl. iii. 48. with 
Scholia ; see also Theoc. Id. xv. 135 ; where Adonis is 
said to be the only hero who had tins privilege. 

'Hfj.i6iuiv u; QxvTt [x,ovbJTOt.TO;. 

The descent into hell is generally understood to be a 
form of admission into the mysteries, for ail those more 
especially who endeavoured to prove themselves the 
most illustrious benefactors to mankind. Of these mys- 
terios the Egyptians may perhaps be esteemed the origi- 
nal authors ; and that the descent of their king Rhamsin- 
itus to the infernal regions is older than that of Hercu- 
les. Homer in the 10th Od. enumerates Acheron among 
the rivers of hell, saying that the Phlegethon and Cocy. 
tus flow into it, us A^sgovra piovtri. Pope diffusely ren- 
ders this the flaming gulf of Acheron ; Homer says no 
such thing. — T. 

5 One vessel.] — Pausanias says, that this vessel was 
provided and manned at the private expense of Phayl- 
lus ; which induces Valcnaer to believe that the text of 
Herodotus is in tins place corrupt, and that instead of 
Mji" (Aiy, we should read oiKy'ty mji". Plutarch also, in his 
Life of Alexander, says, that the Crotoniatse were per- 
mitted to plunder the Persians, out of respect to Phayl- 
lus, who equipped a vessel at Ms own expense to assist 
the Greeks at Salarnis. 

There was a statue at Delphi of this Phayllus. 

I find mention made of Phayllus twice in Aristo- 
phanes ; once in the Acharnenses, 210. 

— — or iPca <pigaiv 
Av8%tx.zcov Qognov 
JrlxcXouSovv Qa.v'h(t> r^i^m. 

In the Scholiast to which passage we are told that 
there were others of this name ; concerning which there 
is a Greek epigram, which says he could leap fifty-five 
feet, and throw the discus ninety-five. 

TilvT frrt rtlvTYtX-ovTix, srcdu-s xrfatri $>cci>Xkos } 
Attrziviriv h Ixcctov :t£xt' airoKunofttvuv. 
Which I have somewhere seen thus rendered in Latin : 

Saltum ad quinque pedes quinquagintaque Phavllus, 
Discum ad centum eget qui.it,ue minus ptdibus. 

He is again mentioned in the Vespre, 1201, for his 
Bvviftness in the course. — T. 



torious 6 at the Pythian games. — The Crotoni- 
atae are of Achaian origin. 

XL VIII. The allies in general furnished 
triremes for the service : the Melians, Siph- 
nians, and Seriphians, brought vessels of fifty 
oars : the Melians two, the Siphnians and Se- 
riphians one each. The Melians are of 
Spartan extraction : ' the Siphnians and Se- 
riphians are Ionians, and descended from the 
Athenians. Without taking into the account 
these vessels of fifty oars, the fleet consisted of 
three hundred and seventy-eight ships. 

XL IX. When all these different nations 
were assembled at Salarnis, a council was 
called of their leaders. At the suggestion of 
Eurybiades, it was proposed that each should 
deliver his opinion, what place of those which 
they yet possessed, would be most proper for a 
naval engagement. Attica was considered as 
totally lost, and the object of their deliberation 
was the rest of Greece. It seemed to be the 
opinion of the majority, that they should sail 
to the isthmus, and risk a battle in the vicinity 
of the Peloponnese ; for if, it was urged, a de- 
feat should be the issue of a contest at Salarnis, 
they would be exposed to a siege on the island, 
without the prospect of relief; but from the 
isthmus they might easily retire to their respec- 
tive countries. 

L. Whilst the leaders were revolving this 
matter, a messenger arrived from Athens, to 
inform them that the Barbarian had penetrated 
Attica, and was burning all before him. The 
forces under Xerxes in their passage through 
Boeotia had set fire to the city of the Thes- 
pians, who had retired to the Peloponnese. 
They had also burned the city of the Plateans, 
and proceeding onwards, were now about to 
ravage Athens. 8 They had so treated Thes- 



6 Three times victorious.] — Pausanias says, that he 
was twice victorious in the contests of the Pentathlon, 
and once in those of the Stadium. 

7 Spartayi extraction.] — Thucydides, book v. says the 
same thing ; MyXiot Aa.xt^cti/^ovioiv fx.iv utriv avoixoi, the 
Melians are a Lacedaemonian colony ; so also does Xeno- 
phon, Hist. Graec. 1. ii. The particulars of their migra. 
tion are related at length by Plutarch, in his treatise ol 
the virtues of Women, where he speaks of the Tyrrhene 
Women.— T. 

8 Ravage Athens] — The following lines, describing 
the advance of Xerxes to Athens, are highly animated 
and poetical : 

Her olive groves now Attica display'd ; 
The fields where Ceres first her gifts bestow'd. 
The rocks, whose marble crevices the bees 
With sweetness stored ; unparallel'd in art 
Rose structures growing on the stranger's eye 
Where'er it roanVd delighted. On like death, 



392 



HERODOTUS. 



pia and Platea, because informed by the The- 
bans that these places were hostile to them. 

LI. After passing the Hellespont, the Bar- 
barians had remained a month in its vicinity, 
before they advanced: three more were em- 
ployed in their march to Attica, where they 
arrived when Calliades was chief magistrate. 
They found the city deserted ; an inconsider- 
able number remained in the temple, with the 
treasurers ! of the temple, and a few of the 
meaner sort, who, with a pallisade of wood, 
attempted to prevent the approach of the ene- 
my to the citadel. These had not gone to Sa_ 
lamis, being deterred partly by their indigence, 
and partly from their confidence in the declar- 
ation of the oracle, that a wall of wood would 
prove invincible. This they referred not to 
the ships, but to the defence of wood, which 
on this occasion they had formed. 

LII. The Persians encamped on the hill 
opposite the citadel, which the Athenians call 
the hill of Mars, 2 and thus commenced their 
attack : they shot against the intrenchment of 
wood, arrows wrapped in tow, and set on fire. 
The Athenians, , although reduced to the last 
extremity, and involved in the fire which had 
caught their barricade, obstinately refused to 
listen to conditions, and would not hear the 
Pisistratidse, who on certain terms invited them 
to surrender. They resisted to the last, and 
when the Persians were just about to enter, 
they rolled down upon them stones of an 
immense size. Xerxes, not able to force the 



From his pale courser scatt'ring waste around, 
The regal homicide of nations pass'd, 
Unchaining all the furies of revenge 
On this devoted country, &c. Athenaid. 

1 Treasurers.] — See Suidas, at the word Tafzion; 
these, he tells us, were Athenian magistrates, and were 
ten in number ; the shrine of Minerva, of Victory, with 
their ornaments and wealth, were delivered to them in 
the presence of the senate. 

2 Hill of Mars.]— On this place was held the celebrated 
court of the Areopagus, of which, as it bore so high a 
rank in the constitution of the Athenian republic, the 
following succinct account from Gillies may be accep- 
table. 

" The court of the Areopagus, originally intrusted with 
the criminal jurisdiction, assumed an extensive power 
in regulating the behaviour and manners of the citizens : 
it consisted only of such magistrates as had discharged 
with approbation the duties of their respective offices. 
The members were named for life, and as from the na- 
ture of the institution they were generally persons of a 
mature age, of an extensive experience, and who having 
already attained the aim, had seen the vanity of ambi- 
tion, they were well qualified to restrain the impetuous 
passions of the multitude, and to stem the torrent of 
popular frenzy." 



place, was for a long time exceedingly per. 
plexed. 

LIU. In the midst of their embarrassment 
the Barbarians discovered a resource, indeed 
the oracle had declared, that whatever the 
Athenians possessed on the continent, should 
be reduced to the power of the Persians. In 
the front of the citadel, but behind the gates 
and the regular ascent, there was a cragged 
and unguarded pass, by which it was not 
thought possible that any man could force his 
way. Here, however, some of the enemy 
mounted, near the temple of Aglauros, 3 the 
daughter of Cecrops. As soon as the Athen- 
ians discovered them, part threw themselves 
over the wall and were killed, others retired 

into the building The Persians who entered, 

forced their w T ay to the gates, threw them open, 
and put the suppliants to death who had there 
taken refuge; they afterwards plundered and 
set fire to the citadel. 

LIV. As soon as Xerxes found himself en- 
tire master of Athens, he sent a horseman to 
Susa, to inform Artabanus of his success. On 
the following day he called together the 
Athenian exiles who were with him, and or- 
dered them to go to the citadel and there sacri- 
fice according to the custom of their country. 
He was probably induced to this from some 
nocturnal vision, or from some compunction, 
on account of his having burned the temple. 
The exiles did as they were commanded. 

LV. I will explain my reason for introduc- 
ing this circumstance : — There is in the citadel 
a temple sacred to Erectheus, 4 who is said to 



3 Aglauros.]— This word is written Aglauros in Pau- 
sanias, 1. i. c. 18 j in Ovid. Met. 1. ii. 739. 

Aglauros laevum, medium possederat Herse. 
Larcher nevertheless, on the authorities of Apollo- 
dorus and of Stephen of Byzantium, writes it Agraulos ; 
see his elaborate note. 

4 Erectheus.] — See book v. c. 82. Not only Erectheus 
called himself the offspring of the earth, but, as I have 
before shown, all the Athenians also. In his temple 
were three altars, on the first of which they sacrificed to 
Neptune and Erectheus, from which Neptune was called 
Erecthean. See Lycophron, v. 158. 

Erectheus was deified, because in a contest with Eu- 
molpus, prince of Thrace, he was told by the oracle that 
if he would sacrifice his daughter before he engaged the 
enemy, he should be victorious ; he did so, and succeeded. 
See the story related, Lycurg. contra Leocrat. — Taylor's 
edit. 217. 

Concerning his being deemed an offspring of the earth, 
Farnaby, on this kind of fortuitous generation, is worth 
consulting, in his note on Ovid. Met. i. 410. 

Pausanias, in Atticis, c. xxvii. mentions two large 
figures in brass in a fighting attitude, supposed to repre- 
sent Erectheus, and Immaradus, son of Eumolpus.— TV 



URANIA. 



393 



have been the offspring of the earth : in this is 
an olive 5 and a sea, 6 believed to have been 
placed there by Neptune and Minerva, in tes- 
timony of their dispute 7 concerning this coun- 
try : this olive the Barbarians had burned with 
the temple. The Athenians, who had been 
sent by the king to perform the ceremonies of 
their religion, which was two days after the 
place had been burned, observed that this olive 
had put forth a new shoot, a cubit 8 in length. 

LVI. When the Greeks at Salamis heard 
what had befallen the citadel of Athens, they 
were seized with consternation ; many of the 
leaders, without waiting the result of the coun- 
cil as to their future conduct, went hastily on 
board, hoisted their sails, and prepared to fly. 
It was instantly determined by those who re- 
mained, that they must only risk an engagement 
at sea near the isthmus. At the approach of 



5 An olive.]— This, according - to Pliny, was said to 
exist in his time ; it was in the citadel : and because 
goats destroy the olive and make it barren, it was for- 
bidden to bring goats near the citadel, except once a- year 
for the necessary sacrifice. — Larcher. 

Some oil made of this olive, which was sacred to 
Minerva, was given as a reward to those who conquered 
in the Panathenaea. See the Scholiast to the Nubes of 
Aristophanes, and to the 10 Nem. Ode of Pindar, ver. 
65. See a whole oration of Lysias ; vxio rov trwou. — T. 

6 A sea."] — This was a cistern, into which, by a subter- 
raneous canal, sea water was conducted. 

" In itself," said Pausanias, " there is nothing remark- 
able, but what deserves to be related is, that when the 
south wind blows, a noise is heard like that of agitated 
waves ; and upon the stone is seen the figure of a trident, 
which is said to be a testimony of the dispute betwixt 
Minerva and Neptune concerning Attica."— See Pau- 
sanias, 1. i. c. 26. 

The same was also said to be in the temple of Neptune 
Hippias, near Mantinea, and at Mylase, a town of Caria, 
although the gate of this last place was eighty furlongs 
from the sea, and Mantinea was so far inland, that the 
water of the sea could not come there unless by a mir. 
acle. — Larcher. 

The word sea is used in the same manner for a large 
cistern, by our interpreters of the Bible ; see 2 Kings, 
xxv. 13. 

" And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the 
Lord, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the 
house of the Lord, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and 
carried the brass of them to Babylon." 

This sea is described, 1 Kings vii. 2.3, to be ten cubits 
from one brim to the other. The Greek word in Hero- 
dotus, and in the Septuagint, is OaX&o-troi,. This meaning 
of the English word sea I do not find cither in Chambers's 
or Johnson's Dictionary. — T. 

7 Their dispute-] — This is said to have happened in 
the reign of Cecrops. Neptune coming to Athens, struck 
with his trident the midst of the citadel, from which 
sprang a horse ; Minerva produced an olive : Jupiter 
assigned the patronage of the town to Minerva. 

8 A cubit.] — Pausanias says two cubits. I suppose, 
Bays Larcher, the miracle increased with the time. 



night they left the assembly, and returned to 
their ships. 

LVII* As soon as Themistocles had retired 
to his vessel, Mnesiphilus, an Athenian, came 
to ask him what had been the determination of 
the council. When he was informed of their 
resolution to sail to the isthmus, and come to 
battle in the vicinity of the Peloponnese, he 
expressed himself as follows : " If the allies," 
said he, "shall once leave Salamis, you will 
never have the opportunity of fighting for your 
country. The fleet will certainly separate, and 
each nation return to their respective homes, 
and neither Eurybiades nor any one else will 
be able to prevent them : thus Greece will per- 
ish from the want of judicious counsel. Make 
haste, therefore, and endeavour to counteract 
what has been determined ; if it be possible, 
prevail on Eurybiades to change his purpose 
and continue here." 

LVIII. This advice was so agreeable to 
Themistocles, that, without returning an an- 
swer, he went to the vessel of Eurybiades. 
As soon as he saw him, he expressed his desire 
to speak with him on what was of importance 
to the common interest : he was desired to come 
on board, and declare his sentiments. Themis- 
tocles, seated by him, related what had been 
said by Mnesiphilus, as from himself, which he 
so enforced by other arguments, that Eury- 
biades was brought over to his opinion, and 
persuaded to leave the ship, and again assemble 
the leaders. 

LIX. As soon as they were met, and before 
Eurybiades had explained why he had called 
them together, Themistocles spake at some 
length, and with great apparent zeal. Adi- 
mantus, son of Ocytus, the Corinthian leader, 
interrupted him : " Themistocles," said he, 
H at, the public games they who rise before 
their time are beaten." " True," replied The- 
mistocles, " but they who are left behind are 
never crowned." 

LX. Having thus gently reproved the Cor- 
inthian, he turned to Eurybiades : he did not 
repeat what he had said to him before, that as 
soon as the fleet should leave Salamis, the con- 
federates would disperse, for as they were pre- 
sent he did not think it proper to accuse any 
one. He had recourse to other arguments •. 
" The safety of Greece," said he, " depends 
on you ; whether, listening to me you come to 
an engagement here, or, persuaded by those 
who are of a contrary opinion, you shall con- 
duct the fleet to the isthmus ; hear the argu- 
3 D 



394. 



HERODOTUS. 



ments on both sides and then determine. If 
we fight at the isthmus, we must fight in the 
open sea, where, on account of our heavier ves- 
sels and inferior number, we shall have every 
disadvantage : add to this, that if every thing 
else succeed to our wishes, we shall yet lose 
Salamis, Megara, and iEgina. The land forces 
of the enemy will accompany their fleet, which 
you will thus draw to the Peloponnese, and 
involve all Greece in danger. By adopting 
what I recommend you will have these advan- 
tages : By fighting within a narrower space of 
sea, our small force will be better able to con- 
tend with the greater armament of the enemy, 
and according to the common chances of war, 
we shall have decisively the advantage. For us 
it must be most eligible to contend in a small 
space, as for them to fight in a large one. 
Thus also will Salamis be preserved, where 
our wives and children remain, and thus too, 
the very advantage of which you yourselves are 
solicitous, will be secured. By remaining here 
you will as effectually defend the Peloponnese, 
as by sailing to the isthmus ; and it will be ex- 
tremely injudicious to draw the enemy there. 
If, as I sincerely wish, we shall obtain the vic- 
tory, the Barbarians will neither advance to the 
isthmus, nor penetrate beyond Attica : they 
will retire in confusion. We shall thus be 
benefited by preserving Salamis, Megara, and 
JEgina, where the oracle has promised we shall 
be superior to our enemy. They, whose deli- 
berations are regulated by reason ' generally 
obtain their wishes, whilst they who are rash 
in their decisions must not expect the favour of 
the gods." 

LXI. Themistocles was a second time in- 
terrupted by Adimantus of Corinth, who or- 
dered him to be silent, as not having now a 
country ; 2 and he added, that Eurybiades could 
only then consistently suffer Themistocles to 
influence his determination, when he should 
again have a city : this he spake in allusion to 
the plunder and capture of Athens. Themis- 
tocles in reply heaped many reproaches upon 



1 Regulated by reason.] 

True fortitude is seen in great exploits, 

Which justice warrants, and which -wisdom guides ; 

All else is tow'ring phrenzy and distraction Addison. 

2 Not having now a country. - } 

Proud Adimantus, on his birth elate, 
- - - - - - arose and spake : 

For public safety when in council meet 

Men who have countries, silence best becomes 

Him who has none — Shall such presume to vote ? 

Too patient Spartan, nay, to dictate here, 

Who cannot tell us they possess a home, &c — Athenaid. 



the Corinthians, and upon their leader in parti- 
cular ; and he further urged, that they still pos- 
sessed a country and a city, in effect greater 
than theirs, as long as they had two hundred 
vessels, 3 well provided with stores and men, a 
force which none of the Greeks would be able 
to resist. 

LXII. He afterwards proceeded to address 
himself to Eurybiades in particular. " If," said 
he with greater earnestness, " you continue here, 
you will deserve our universal gratitude ; if not 
you will be the destroyer of Greece. In 
this war Our fleet constitutes our last, our 
only resource. You may be assured, that un- 
less you accede to my advice, we will take on 
board our families, and remove with them to 
Siris in Italy, 4 which from remote times has 
been considered as belonging to us, and where, 
if the oracle may be credited, we ought to found 
a city. Deprived of our assistance, you will 
hereafter have occasion to remember my words. " 

LXIII. By these arguments, Eurybiades 
was finally influenced, principally, as I should 
suppose, from his fears lest, if they sailed to 
the isthmus, they should be deserted by the 
Athenians, without whose aid they would be 
little able to contend with the enemy. He 
acceded therefore to what Themistocles pro- 
posed, and consented to stay and fight at 
Salamis. 

LXIV. When the determination of Eury- 
biades was known, the confederates, wearied 
with altercations, prepared to engage. In this 
situation the morning appeared, at the dawn of 
which there was a convulsion of the earth, which 
was felt at sea. They determined therefore to 
supplicate the gods, and implore the interposi- 
tion of the iEacidse. This was accordingly 
done ; after calling upon all the gods, theyinvok- 

3 Two hundred vessels.} — Aristotle writes, that the 
senate of the Areopagus gave eight drachmae to every 
soldier, and thuc the compliment of men was soon pro- 
vided. Clidemnus says, that this money was procured 
by the artifice of Themistocles : whilst the Athenians, 
says he, assembled at Pirseus, to embark, the aegis of the 
statue of Minerva was lost. Themistocles pretending to 
make a search, found amongst the baggage an immense 
sum of money, which being divided, spread abundance 
amongst their fleet — Larcher. 

Thus brief he [Themistocles] dosed:— 

Athenians still possess 
A city buoyant on two hundred keels. 
Thou admiral of Sparta frame thy choice j — 
Fight, and Athenians shall thy arms sustain ; 
Retreat, Athenians shall retreat to shores 
Which bid them welcome. Athenaid. 

4 In Italy.} — 

To Hesperian shores 
For them by ancient oracles reserved ; 
Safe from insulting foes and false allies, Aihcnai.l. 



URANIA. 



395 



ed Ajax and Telamon, and despatched a vessel 
to iEgina, to entreat the aid of iEacus and the 
iEacidae. 5 

LXV. Dicaeus the son of Theocydes, an 
Athenian exile, but of considerable reputation 
with the Medes, at the time when Attica was 
deserted by the Athenians, and wasted by the 
army of Xerxes, reported that he was with 
Demaratus of Sparta on the plains of Thria. 
Here he saw a dust as of an army of thirty thou- 
sand men advancing from Eleusis. Whilst 
they were wondering from whence it could pro- 
ceed, Dicaeus affirms that he heard a voice 
which seemed to him the mystic Iacchus." — 
Demaratus, being ignorant of the Eleusinian 
mysteries, 7 inquired the meaning of the noise 

5 JEacidce.] — See book v. c. 80. — Consult Pausanias, 
book ii. c. 29. 

Near the port of the island of iEgina there is a temple 
of Venus, and in the most conspicuous part of the city is 
a temple of iEacus, called the jEaceium. It is a square 
structure of white marble, in the entrance of which are 
the statues of the deputies who came to iEacus from all 
parts of Greece. 

6 Iacchus.]— On the 20th of the month Boedromion, 
which answers to our October, which was the 16th day 
of the festival of the mysteries of Ceres, they carried from 
the Ceramians to Eleusis, a figure of Iacchus, or Bac- 
chus, crowned with myrtle, having - a torch in his hand. 
During- the procession they sung- a hymn in honour of 
the god, which hymn was also called Iacchus, and in 
which they often repeated the word Iacche. — Larcher. 

The word Iacchus is derived, according- to Eustathius 
ovro 7ov ixx'-i"} from bawling out. Iacchus is used by 
Virgil as synonymous with vinum, because Iacchus or 
Bacchus was the god of wine : some say he was the son 
of Ceres. In the mysteries here mentioned he is always 
ioined with Ceres and Proserpine ; but he is not always 
considered as the son of Ceres, though nursed at her 
breast. — See Lucretius, and Salmasius ad Solinum, p. 
750. 

The circumstance of the mystica vannus, or mystical 
fan, which in this solemnity was carried before the image 
of Iacchus, is thus curiously explained by Servius, ad 
Georg. i. 166. The fan, says he, was carried in proces- 
sion before Bacchus, because they who were .initiated 
into his mysteries are purified as corn is by the use of 
the fan or van. — T. 

7 Mysteries.~\ — I have before spoken on the subject of 
these mysteries ; but the reader will find a far more par- 
ticular and entertaining account of them in Warburton's 
Divine Legation, and in the Voyage du Jeune Anachar- 
sis, vol. v. 507, &c. Warburton intimates his belief that 
the initiated were instructed in the unity of the Divine 
Being. Larcher thinks otherwise : they might perhaps, 
says the learned Frenchman, do this with respect to 
those whom they found inclined to believe this dogma ; 
but they preached atheism to a select number, in whom 
they found a favourable disposition to receive it. The 
temple of Ceres, where these mysteries were celebrated, 
was one of the noblest in Greece ; it is described by Stra- 
bo, book ix. and by Vitruvius, book vii. A view of it is 
given in the " Ruins of Athens ;" and it is described also 
by Chandler in his Travels in Greece. There were the 
greater and the lesser mysteries j the latter of which be- 
longed to Proserpine only. — T. 



which he heard. " Demaratus," answered 
Dicaeus, " some great calamity is impending 
over the forces of the king : Attica being de- 
serted, it is evidently the divinity which speaks, 
and is now coming from Eleusis to assist the 
Athenians and their allies. If this shall appear 
in the Peloponnese, the king himself, and the 
forces which are with him, will be involved in 
the greatest danger ; if it shall show itself at 
Salamis, the destruction of the king's fleet will 
probably ensue. Once in every year the 
Athenians solemnize these rights to Ceres and 
Proserpine, when also they initiate into the 
mysteries, such of the Greeks as may desire it. 
The sound which you hear is the voice of Iac- 
chus." To this he says Demaratus made him 
this reply : " Make no mention of this to any 
one. If what you say should be communicated 
to the king, you will certainly lose your head, 
and neither myself nor any one else will be 
able to save you ; be silent, therefore, and leave 
the event to the gods." He added, that after 
the dust and voice which they saw and heard, 
a cloud appeared, which directed its course to- 
wards Salamis and the Grecian fleet. From 
this they concluded that the armament of Xer- 
xes would be defeated. This was reported by 
Dicaeus, 8 the son of Theocydes ; for the truth 
of which he appealed to Demaratus and others. 
LXVL The naval troops of Xerxes,' after 
being spectators of the slaughter of the Spartans, 
passed over from Trachis to Histiaea, where 
they remained three days : thence sailing 

8 Dicceus.] — Upon this name the following pleasant 
anecdote occurs in the Voyage du Jeune Anachar3is. 

A Persian, who founded all Ms merit on the splendour 
of his name, came to Athens : as I had known him at 
Susa, I was his conductor to the theatre. We happened 
to sit near a number of Athenians who were talking to- 
gether — he was anxious to know their names. The first, 
says I, is called Eudoxus, that is the honourable ; im- 
mediately my Persian makes a low bow to Eudoxus, 
the second, I continued, is named Polycletus, or the very 
celebrated ; another very low bow. Doubtless, says he, 
these two are at the head of the republic. Oh no, they 
are people whom nobody knows. That tliird person, 
who seems so infirm, is called Megasthenes, or the very 
strong j the fat heavy man yonder is named Prothoos, 
or the very swift; yon melancholy fellow's name is Epi- 
charis, which means the cheerful. The sixth, says the 
Persian impatiently, how is he called ? Sostrates, or the 
saviour of the army. He has commanded then ? No ; he 
has never been in the service. The seventh, yonder, 
who is called Clitomachus, which signifies illustrious 
warrior, has always been a coward, and is declared in- 
famous. The name of the eighth is Dicams, or the Just, a 
most notorious rascal.— I was going to name the ninth, 
when the stranger rose and said, How all these people 
disgrace their names! But at least, says I, you must 
confess, that their names do not make them coxcombs. 
— T. 



396 



HERODOTUS. 



down the Euripus, in three more they came 
to Phalerum. 1 The land and sea forces were 
neither of them, as far as I can determine, less 
in number when they laid waste Attica, than 
when they first arrived at Sepias and Thermo- 
pylae. To supply the loss of those who perish- 
ed from the storm, and who were slain at 
Thermopylae and Artemisium, there arrived 
from those nations which had not yet declared 
for the king, reinforcements of Melians, Dori- 
ans, Locrians, and Bactarians, who, except the 
Thespians and Plateans, joined him with all 
their troops. To these may be added the 
Carystians, Andrians, Tenians, with all the 
people of the islands, except the five states 2 
before specified. The farther the Persians 
penetrated into Greece, by the greater numbers 
were they followed. 

LXVII. All these troops, except the Pari- 
ans, assembled at Athens or at Phalerum. 
The Parians 3 stayed at Cythnus, waiting the 
event of the war. At this juncture Xerxes 
visited his fleet in person, to confer with the 
leaders, and to acquaint himself with their sen- 
timents. On his arrival he presided at a council 
where the princes of the different nations, and 
the several commanders, were placed according 
to the rank which Xerxes had given them. 
The prince of Sidon first, the prince of Tyre 4 

1 Phalerum.'} — Athens had three ports near each 
other, Piraeus, Munychia, and Phalerum. Phalerum is 
said to have been named from Phalerus, a companion of 
Jason in the Argonautic expedition. Theseus sailed 
from it for Crete, and Menestheus his successor for Troy ; 
and it continued to he the haven of Athens to the time 
of Themistocles. It is a small port of a circular form ; 
the entrance narrow, the bottom a clear fine sand, visible 
through the transparent water. The fane of Aristides, 
and his monument, which was erected at the public ex- 
pense, were by this port. The capital port was Piraeus. 
— Chandler. 

Chandler writes Phalerum ; Pococke, Phalereus and 
Pyraeium; D'Anville, Phalerus; Meursius, in his tract 
called Piraeu?, or an Essay on the Port of that name, 
writes Phalerum, and properly. This was the most 
ancient port of the three. — T. 

2 Five states.} — Naxos, Melos, Siphnos, Seriphus, and 
Cythnus. 

3 Parians.} — The Parians shared with the Persians 
the disgrace of the battle of Marathon ; and their perfidy 
to the Greeks became proverbial. — T. 

4 Tyre.}— In Isaiah, chapter xxiii. v. 10. Tyre is call- 
ed the daughter of Tarshish ; in the same chapter, v. 12. 
Tyre is called the daughter of Sidon, I presume, on dif- 
ferent accounts. The Syrians were originally a colony 
of the Sidonians, and Sidon, consequently the mother city 
of Tyre. By Tarshish, the Seventy universally under- 
stand Carthage : but how then could Tyre be called the 
daughter of Tarshish ? for Carthage was the daughter 
of Tyre. 

Herodotus, in book ii. chap. 44, cpeaka of the Hercules 



next, and the rest in order. The king then 
commissioned Mardonius to inquire of them 
individually whether they were willing to en- 
gage the enemy. 

L XVIII. Mardonius began with the prince 
of Sidon, and from him went to the rest ; and 
they were all of opinion that a battle should be 
fought ; but Artemisia thus delivered her sen- 
timents : " Mardonius, deliver this my opinion 
to the king, whose exertions in the battle of 
Eubcea were neither the meanest nor the least; 

of Tyre. It has been conjectured by many learned men, 
that this could have been no other than the Israelitish 
Samson. That this is very probable, the reader may 
perhaps be inclined to think from these among other 
reasons : 

With the story of Samson the Tyrians might easily 
become acquainted at Joppa, a seaport belonging to the 
tribe of Dan; but more especially from those Danites 
who removed to Laish, in the neighbourhood of Tyre, 
and who, as Ezekiel informs us, had great commerce 
with the Tyrians. These Danites came from Zorah and 
Eshtaol, where Samson was born and lived, and would 
not fail of promulgating and magnifying the exploits of 
their own hero. I am aware how rash it is to pronounce 
a sameness of person from a likeness of certain corres- 
ponding circumstances in the actions of men, but there 
are certain particulars so striking, first in the account 
given of this Tyrian Hercules by Herodotus, and se- 
condly, in the ritual prescribed for his worship, that 
where we can prove nothing by more solid argument, 
conjectures so founded may be permitted to have some 
weight. The story of Samson will account for the two 
pillars set up in the temple of Hercules, if we consider 
them as placed there in commemoration of the greatest 
of Samson's exploits. The various circumstances 
which Herodotus makes peculiar to the Tyrian Hercu- 
les, however disguised, are all reducible and relative to 
this last action of Samson. 1. Hercules, being appre- 
hended by the Egyptians, was led in procession as a sa- 
crifice to Jupiter ; and the Philistines proclaimed a 
feast to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and 
to rejoice, because Samson was delivered into their 
hands. 2. Whilst Hercules stood at the altar, he re- 
mained quiet for a season ; and so did Samson when 
his strength was departed from him. 3. But in a short 
time Hercules returned to his strength, and slew all the 
Egyptians. — Concerning the ritual used in the worship 
of the Tyriau Hercules, Bochart remarks there were 
many things in it not practised elsewhere. Let the 
reader judge from what follows whether they do not 
seem borrowed from the Levitical Law, or grounded 
on what the Scripture relates of Samson. The total 
disuse of images, the prohibition of swine in sacrifice, 
the habit of the priest, the embroidered stole, &c. and 
naked feet, the strict chastity exacted of him, the fire 
ever-burning on the altar, are all of them precepts 
which Moses delivered. Why may we not add that the 
exclusion of women from the temple, and the shaven 
head of the priests, were intended to brand the trea- 
cherous behaviour of Delilah, and to commemorate the 
loss of Samson's locks ? Appian, Arrian, and Diodorus 
Siculus, acknowledge these to have been Phenieian 
rites, and different from any observed among the 
Greeks ; and it is well known that this singularity was 
a principal point intended by the ritual of Moses — T. 



URANIA. 



397 



I think myself therefore justified in declaring 
what 1 think will be most to your interest to 
pursue. I would advise you to spare your 
ships, and not risk a battle. These men by 
sea are as much superior to yours, as men are 
to women: but after all, what necessity is 
there for your hazarding an engagement ? You 
are already in possession of Athens, the 
avowed object of this expedition, the rest of 
Greece is already your own, and no one resists 
you. They who opposed you, have met the 
fate they merited. I will now tell you how 
the affairs of your adversaries are circum- 
stanced : if you do not urge a naval engage- 
ment, but will order your vessels either to re- 
main here, or sail to the Peloponnese, all 
your wishes will infallibly be accomplished. — 
The Greeks will not long be able to oppose 
you ; you will oblige them to separate, and re- 
tire to their respective homes. I am well 
informed, that in the island where they are, 
they have no supply of provisions ; and if you 
shall enter the Peloponnese, it is not to be 
supposed that these remaining here, will risk 
a battle for the sake of the Athenians. But 
if you determine to fight them by sea, I seri- 
ously fear that a defeat of your fleet will be 
added to that of your land forces. Let this 
also be impressed upon your mind, that the 
best of men have sometimes the worst of ser- 
vants ; and that bad men are frequently served 
with fidelity. You, O king, are one of the 
best of men j but you have among your de- 
pendents Egyptians, Cyprians, Cilicians, and 
Pamphylians, 5 from whom no good can be ex- 
pected." 

5 Cilicians and Pamphylians.~\ — However contemp- 
tuously these people may be here introduced, it is cer- 
tain that Tarsus of Ciliciawas accounted the metropolis 
of this part of Asia, and was the first commercial power 
which made any figure in that part of the world. Not 
only the fables of Pagan mythology, which inform us 
that Anchiale was built by the daughter of Japetus, and 
Tarsus, by Perseus, son of Jupiter, bear witness to the 
high antiquity of these cities; but Scripture also in- 
forms us, that the sons of Tarshish, who were settled 
on this coast, had made themselves famous for their na- 
vigation and commerce as early as the days of David. 
The ships of Tarshish, see Psalm xlviii. 7, were then 
become a common appellation for all vessels of trade ; 
and to go to Tarshish, a proverbial expression for setting 
out to sea in such vessels. That part of the Mediterra- 
nean which was contiguous to Cilicia was called the Sea 
of Tarshish. Pamphylia was colonized from Cilicia, 
and was the entrance to it from the north-west. Strabo 
gives this character of the natives of Tarsus : " They 
did not stay at home," says he, " but in order to com- 
plete their education went abroad ; and many of them, 
when thus accomplished, resided with pleasure in to. 



LXIX. They who wished well to Artemi- 
sia were apprehensive that her speaking thus 
decisively to Mardonius against risking a bat- 
tle, would bring upon her some mark of the 
king's indignation ; her enemies on the con- 
trary, who wished to see her disgraced, and 
who were jealous of her favour with the king, 
were delighted in the confident expectation 
that her freedom of speech would prove her 
ruin ; but Xerxes, after hearing the opinions 
of the council, was particularly pleased with 
that of Artemisia ; he had esteemed her be- 
fore, but he was on this occasion lavish in her 
praise. He nevertheless determined to com- 
ply with the decision of the majority ; and as 
he imputed the former ill success at Euboea to 
his being absent, he resolved to be a spectator 
of the battle of Salamis. 

LXX. When orders were given for the fleet 
to depart, they proceeded towards Salamis, and 
deliberately ranged themselves in order of bat- 
tle. As the approach of evening prevented 
their then coming to an encounter, they prepar- 
ed themselves for the following day. In the 
mean while a general consternation was im- 
pressed upon the Greeks, and in particular up- 
on those of the Peloponnese, who, conceiving 
that their fighting at Salamis was solely on ac- 
count of the Athenians, believed that a defeat 
would occasion their being blockaded in the is- 
land, and would leave their own country to- 
tally defenceless. 

LXXI. On the very same night the land 
forces of the Barbarians advanced to the Pelo- 
ponnese, though every possible effort had been 
made to check their proceeding farther on the 
continent. As soon as the Peloponnesians 
had heard of the ruin of Leonidas and his party 
at Thermopylae, they assembled, at the isthmus, 
all the forces they could collect from their dif- 
ferent cities under the conduct of Cleombro- 
tus, the son of Anaxandrides, and brother of 
Leonidas. Encamped here, their first care was 
to fortify the pass of Sciron ; 6 they then after 

reign parts, and never returned." When their neigh- 
bours on all sides, both in Asia and the adjacent islands, 
made themselves infamous for their piratical depreda- 
tions, the inhabitants of Tarsus maintained a fair repu- 
tation; they not only occupied their business in great 
waters, but they also traded on the continent. They 
had factories at Dedan and Sheba on the Euphrates, 
with which they trafficked in silver, &c. — Ezekie'., 
xxxviii. 10. All which incidents considered, I should 
suppose that the censure of Artemisia, passed upon 
them in this place, will hardly occasion them to be con- 
sidered either as a faithless or cowardly people. — T. 
6 Sciron.]— Said by Strabo to have been called from 



398 



HERODOTUS. 



consulting on the subject, proceeded to defend 
the whole of the isthmus by a wall. This was 
soon finished, as not one of so many thousands 
was inactive ; for without intermission either 
by night or day, they severally brought stones, 
bricks, timber, and bags of sand. 

LXXII. The Greeks who appeared in de- 
fence of the isthmus with their collected 
strength, were the Lacedaemonians, Arcadians 
universally, Eleans, Corinthians, Sicyonians, 
Epidaurians, Phliasians, Trcezenians, and 
Hermionians. All these were drawn together, 
by the danger which menaced Greece. The 
rest of the Peloponnesians, although the Olym- 
pic games and Carnian festivals were past, re- 
mained in careless inactivity at home. 

L XXIII. The Peloponnese is inhabited by 
seven different nations ; two of these, the Ar- 
cadians 1 and Cynurians are natives of the 
country, and have never changed their place of 
residence. The Achaians have never quitted 
the Peloponnese, but simply removed from one' 
situation to another. The four others, name- 
ly, the Dorians, iEtolians, Dryopians, and 
Lemnians, migrated hither. The Dorians have 
many famous cities ; the iEtolians* Elis only ; 

the famous robber of that name, who was remarkable 
for his barbarity to passengers, and who was killed by 
Theseus. — See Lucian in Jove Tragoedo, where we learn 
that at the same time Theseus destroyed two other fa- 
mous robbers, whose names ■were Pityocamptes and 
Cercyon. Sciron he threw into the sea, and his bones 
became rocks. — See Ovid. Met. vii. 443. — T. 

1 Arcadians.~\ — Eustathius, in Dion. v. 414, tells ns, 
that Arcadia was formerly called Gigantis, that is, the 
Land of Giants. It was also called Azania. Arcadia 
was sacred to the god Pan, who was worshipped in every 
corner of the country. It was celebrated for the richness 
of its pastures ; and its inhabitants were so generally ad- 
dicted to the business of feeding cattle, that Arcades and 
Pastores became synonymous terms, and the Bucolic 
verse was styled the Arcadian. Of the antiquity which 
this people claimed, I have already spoken in a foregoing 
note. Some have supposed Arcadia to have been so call- 
ed from Areas, the son of Callisto, who was said to have 
had his name from the supposed transformation of his 
mother, and to have given it to Arcadia.— See in Arati 
Phcen. de Callistho. Ttxuv A^xtov ovtretv tot xX'/jdit/ra, 
Agzoihcc,. Homer says they were wholly ignorant of 
maritime affairs : 

Esrt< ov <r<pi B-aXcca-a-tot, i^ya, pty./;Xit. 
Which Pope imperfectly renders, 

And new to all the dangers of the main. 

See what De Pauw says of the Arcadians in his Re- 
cherches tur les Grecs. — T. 

2 Mtolians.~\ — There seems to be a doubt in this place 
whether it should be read JEolians or JEtolians, .Solus 
is said by some learned men to be Elishah, eldest son of 
Javan. — See the Genealogy. The name Elishah is ex- 
plained by the Jewish Rabbi to mean ad insula/?! : and 



the Dryopians have Hermion and Asina, near 
Cardamyle, 3 in Laconia. The Paroreatae 4 are 
all Lemnians. The Cynurians, though natives 
of the country, are supposed to be Ionians ; but 
in process of time, like the Orneatae and their 
neighbours, they became Dorians, and subject 
to the Argives. 5 Of all these seven nations, 
those only whom I have specified, attached 
themselves to the cause of Greece ; the others, 
if I may speak the truth, certainly favoured the 
Medes. 

LXXIV. They who were at the isthmus 
exerted themselves as if every thing depended 
upon them alone, not expecting any thing from 
the fleet. The Greeks at Salamis, hearing 
this, were overwhelmed with terror, not so 
much on their own account, as on that of the 
Peloponnese. They began to murmur secretly 
among each other, and to complain of the inju- 
dicious conduct of Eurybiades. They at length 
expressed their discontent aloud, and obliged a 
council to be called ; a violent debate ensued, 
some were for sailing instantly to the Pelopon- 
nese, and risking every thing for its defence, 
urging the absurdity of staying where they were 
to contend for a country already captured. 
The Athenians, with those of iEgina and 



Varro, as cited by Servius on the 1st iEneid, gives the 
same title to iEolus Hippetades, styling him do minus 
insularum. Lesbus was called Issa, that is, I believe 
the island. See Hesyehius in la-crri. Of the JEtolians, 
M. P. De Pauw, in his preliminary Discourse to his 
Recherches Philosophiques sur les Grecs gives a shock- 
ing character. " On y parloit," says the Frenchman, 
" a la verite la langue des Grecs, mais on y avoit les 
mceurs des Barbares, & tant d'atrocite dans les caracteres, 
que l'on comparoit les Etolians a des betes feroces ca- 
chees sous le masque de l'homme," &c. — T. 

3 Cardamyle.'] — Strabo says this city was founded on 
a rock, ivrt kit%ms ; and Homer mentions it as one of the 
seven which Agamemnon promised to give Achilles. 

4 Paroreatce.~\— See book iv. c. 145. Oreatae was the 
name of a city in the territories of Lacedaemon, which 
was afterwards called Braesise or Prasiae, concerning 
which consult Pausanias in Laconicis.— T. 

5 Argives.~\— Eustathius says, that Apis cleared the 
Peloponnese of serpents, and named it from himself 
Apia ; he was deified, and thence called Serapis, a mani- 
fest allusion to the great idol of the Egyptians. From 
these serpents Argos might receive its name, for agyxi 
was used as synonymous with otpis — See Hesyehius. The 
frog, which was the symbol of the people of Argos, was 
explained to be a direction to them to keep at home ; 
and properly enough, that they might guard the isthmus, 
prevent a surprise, and be a constant garrison to the 
Peloponnese. It was an allusion also, I believe, to their 
old name Leleges. Atx.Xce.yn, says Hesyehius, is the frog 
of a green colour. The Spartan coin, or that of the Pelo- 
ponnese, was a %eAw,7, or tortoise, the symbol of a 
housekeeper. — T. 



URANIA. 



399 



Megara, thought it most advisable to fight 
where they were. 

LXX V. Themistocles, seeing himself over- 
powered by those of the Peloponnese, retired 
privately from the council : he immediately des- 
patched a messenger to the enemy's fleet, with 
instructions what to say. The man's name 
was Sicinnus, a domestic, and the tutor of his 
children, whom Themistocles afterwards caused 
to be made a citizen of Thespia, and who be- 
came very opulent. Directing his course to the 
leaders of the barbarian fleet, he thus addressed 
them : " The Athenian leader,* who in reality 
is attached to the king, and who wishes to see 
the Greeks in subjection to your power, has 
sent me thus privately to you : a consternation 
has seized the Greeks, and they are preparing 
to fly ; an opportunity is now afforded you of 
performing a splendid action, unless you suffer 
it through negligence to escape you. They are 
divided among themselves, and incapable of 
farther resistance. You will soon see those 
who favour, and who are inclined to oppose 
you, in hostilities with each other." Having 
said this, Sicinnus departed. 

LXXVI. The Barbarians, confiding in this 
intelligence, passed over a large body of Per- 
sians to the small island of Psittalia, 7 betwixt 
Salamis and the continent. About midnight 
the western division of their fleet advanced to- 
wards Salamis, 8 meaning to surround it. The 
ships also which lay off Ceos and Cynosura, 9 



6 Athenian leader.] 

Themistocles, who leads 
Athenian squadrons, is the monarch's friend, 
Approved by this intelligence : the Greeks 
In consternation shortly will resolve 
To separate and fly. ' Let Asia's fleet 
Her numbers round in diligence extend, 
Investing every passage ; then confused 
This whole confederated force of Greece 
Will sooner yield than fight, and Xerxes close 
At once so perilous a vraz.—Athenaid. 

7 Psittalia] — "*' '« ecXtu.. Non i-etulissem inter popu- 
los Atticos nisi Strabonis locus aliud suaderet. Itaque 
credendum ilium aliquando fuisse habitatum. — Jacobus 
Sponius de Pagis Atticis. 

8 Advanced toicards Salamis.] — Larcher, in a very- 
elaborate note, attempts to describe the situation of the 
two fleets with respect to each other in this memorable 
engagement ; but the reader perhaps will have a better 
conception of it from a chart to be found in the Voyage 
du Jeune Anacharsis, than from any thing Larcher has 
said, or that I can say. — T. 

9 Cynosura] — This was a promontory of Attica, oppo- 
site to the southern extremity of Euboea ; and must not 
be confounded with the place of the same name in La- 
conia. Some critical remarks on the subsequent oracle 
may be found in Jortin's Remarks on Eccles. Hist. Ap- 
pendix, No. 2.—T. 



removed, and occupied the whole narrow sea 
as far as Munychia. They drew out their fleet 
in this manner to cut off from the Greeks the 
possibility of retreat, and that, thus inclosed at 
Salamis, they might suffer vengeance for the 
battle of Artemisiu.m. Their view in sending 
a body of forces to Psittalia was this; this 
island was contiguous to the spot where the 
battle must of necessity take place; as therefore 
such vessels and men as were injured in the 
fight must endeavour to take refuge here, they 
might here preserve their own and destroy the 
forces of the enemy. The measure was pursued 
privately and unperceived by the enemy, to ac- 
complish which, the whole night was employed 
without any interval of rest. 

LXX VII. After reflecting upon this sub- 
ject, the truth of the oracular prediction ap- 
pears incontestible ; for who would attempt to 
contradict a declaration so obvious as the fol- 
lowing ? 

" On Dian's shore, and Cynosura's coasts, 

When every strait is fill'd with naval hosts ; 

When hostile bands, inspired with frantic hope, 

In Athens give wide- wasting fury scope. — 

Then shall the youthful son of daring Pride 

The vengeance of celestial wrath abide, 

Fierce though he be, and confident of power, 

For arms with arms shall clash, and blood shall shower 

O'er all the sea : while liberty and peace 

From Jove and Victory descend to Greece." 

After the above explicit declaration from Bacis, 
I shall neither presume to question the author- 
ity of oracles myself, nor patiently suffer others 
to do so. 

LXXVIH. Disputes still continued to run 
high amongst the leaders of Salamis, who were 
not at all conscious of their being surrounded 
by the Barbarians. They presumed that the 
enemy remained on the very same post in which 
they had observed them during the day. 

LXXIX. Whilst they were debating in 

council, Aristides, son of Lysimachus, arrived 

i at iEgina ; he was an Athenian, and had been 

banished 10 by a vote of the people, although my 



10 Banished.] — Literally ostracised. Everybody knows 
that ostracism was the banishing a person by writing his 
name upon a shell, in Greek Ostracon. It was not a 
dishonourable banishment, but rather a mark of popular- 
ity, and generally inflicted on the great and powerful. 
By this, Themistocles, Aristides, Thucydides, and Alei- 
biades, were banished. 

By ostracism, a person was banished for ten years j a 

similar mode of banishment was adopted at Syracuse, and 

I called petalism, where the people wrote the name upon 

a leaf, petalon. By petalism, a man was banished for 

five years only. 



400 



HERODOTUS. 



information induces me to consider him as the 
most excellent 2 and upright of his fellow-citi- 
zens. He immediately went to the assemhly, 
and called out Themistocles, who was not his 
friend, but his particular enemy. The great- 
ness of the impending danger prevailed over 
every thing else, he called him out to confer 
with him : he had heard how anxious the Pe- 
loponnesians were to return with the fleet to 
the isthmus; accordingly, when Themistocles 
appeared, he spoke to him thus : "It would 
become us at any time, and more particularly 
at the present, to contend which of us can best 
serve our country. a I have to inform you, that 
whatever the Peloponnesians may now urge 
with respect to retiring to the isthmus can be 
of no signification ; I can assure you, from my 
own observation, that the Corinthians, and 
Eurybiades himself, could not now sail thither 
if they would ; we are on all sides surrounded 
by the enemy. Return, therefore, and tell this 
to the assembly." 

LXXX. « What you tell me," replied The- 
mistocles, " I consider as particularly happy 
for us all. The thing which I most ardently 
wished to happen you have beheld : know then, 
that this motion of the Medes is the conse- 
quence of my measures, it appearing to me es- 
sential that those Greeks, who were reluctant 
to fight, should be compelled to do so ; but as 
you come to tell us what promises so much 
good, tell it yourself. If I shall inform the as- 
sembly of what you say, I shall obtain no cre- 
dit ; nor will they suppose that the Barbarians 

Perpetual exile at Athens was the punishment of sa- 
crilege and high treason ; the term they used was not 
fvjytiv, but e|sg%£«-&«/. — T. 

1 Most excellent] — iElian gives a catalogue of Greeks 
who were alike remarkable for their extraordinary merit 
and extreme poverty. Aristides, Phocion, Epammondas, 
Pelopidas, Lamachus, Socrates, and Ephialtes. With 
respect to the dispute betwixt Themistocles and Aris- 
tides, the same authority informs us, that they were 
educated together under the same preceptor, and that 
when children they were notorious for their dislike of 
and quarrels with each other. Plutarch says, that one 
among other reasons for the inveterate hatred which 
prevailed betwixt them, was their having an attachment 
to the same youth. 

The circumstance of their mutually laying aside their 
animosities when their country was in danger, has ob- 
tained them everlasting glory. — T. 

2 Best serve our country. ] — 

Dissensions past as puerile and vain 

Now to forget, and nobly strive who best 

Shall serve his country, Aristides warnsj 

His ancient foe Themistocles. I hear 

Thou giv'st the best of councils, which the Greeks 

Reject through mean solicitude to fly, 

Weak men '. throughout these narrow seas the foe 

Is stationed, now preventing all escape— Athenaid. 



are posted as they are. Enter therefore your- 
self, and inform them how things are. If they 
believe you, it will be well ; but if not, the 
event will be the same. For if, as you say, we 
are surrounded, there exists no opportunity to 
retreat." 

LXXXI. Aristides entering the council, 
repeated what he had before said ; that he was 
come from iEgina, and had passed with great 
difficulty through the enemy's forces ; that the 
Grecian fleet was entirely surrounded, and that 
it became them to prepare for their defence. 
Aristides, as soon as he had spoken, retired. 
Fresh altercations now again arose among the 
leaders, the greater part of whom refused to 
credit what they had heard. 

L XXXII. Whilst they continued still to 
doubt, a trireme of Tenians deserted to them ; 
they were commanded by Paraetius, the son of 
Sosimenes ; and their intelligence put the mat- 
ter beyond all dispute. In gratitude for this 
service, the names of the Tenians were inserted 
upon the tripod consecrated at Delphi, amongst 
those who repelled the Barbarians. This ves- 
sel, which joined them at Salamis, 3 added to 
one of Lemnos, which before came over to 
them at Artemisium, made the exact number 
of the Grecian ships three hundred and eighty. 
There were only three hundred and seventy- 
eight before. 

LXXXIII. The Greeks having all their 
doubts removed by the Tenians, prepared seri- 
ously for battle. At the dawn of morning all 
was in readiness. Themistocles said every 
thing which might avail to animate his troops. 
The principal purport of his speech was a com- 
parison betwixt great and pusillanimous actions . 
explaining how much the activity and genius of 
man could effect, and exhorting them to have 
glory in view. As soon as he had finished, 
orders were given to embark. At this juncture 
the vessel which had been sent to the iEacidse 
returned from iEgina, and soon afterwards all 
the Grecian fleet were under sail. 



3 Salamis.] — Attica was surrounded by islands, but 
except this of Salamis, they were in general barren and 
uninhabited. Salamis is praised in high terms by Euri- 
pides, as abounding in honey and olives. Euripides and 
Solon were both born here. The trophies of the battle 
of Salamis, says De Paux, cease to interest us ; but the 
Iphigenia in Tauris, and the legislation of Solon, can 
never be forgotten. 

To take a circuit of the district of Attica, it was ad- 
vised to embark at Salamis, double the promontory of 
Sunium, and landing in the Oropian territories, proceed 
to the mouth of the Asopus.— T. 



URANIA. 



401 



LXXXIV. As soon as they began to move, 
the Barbarians rushed upon them. While the 
Greeks lay upon their oars, and seemed rather 
inclined to retire, Aminias, of Pallene, an 
Athenian, darted forwards, and attacked the 
enemy ; when he was so involved with his op- 
ponent, as to be unable to separate, the rest 
came to his assistance, and a promiscuous en- 
gagement ensued. Thus, according to the 
Athenians, the battle began. The people of 
iEgina say, that the engagement was begun by 
the vessel which had been sent to the JEacidae. 
It is also affirmed, that a female figure was 
visible to the Greeks, and that in a voice suffi- 
ciently loud to be heard by them all, it ex- 
claimed, " Insensate men, how long will ye re- 
main inactive on your oars ?" 

LXXXV. The Athenians were opposed to 
the PheUicians, who occupied the division to- 
wards Eleusisi 4 and the west ; the Lacedaemo- 
nians combated the Ionians, who were in the 
division towards the Piraeus 5 and the east. A 
small number of these, at the suggestion of 
Themistocles, made no remarkable exertions : 
but with the majority it was otherwise. I am 
able to mention the names of several trierarchs, 
who overpowered and took Grecian vessels ; 
but I shall only specify Theomestor, son of 
Androdamas, and Phylacus, son of Histiaeus, 
both of them Samians. I mention these, be- 
cause on account of the service which he on 
this occasion performed, Theomestor was made 
prince of Samos by the Persians. Phylacus 
also had his name written, as deserving of the 
royal favour, and was presented with a large 
tract of land. They who merit the favour of 
the king are in the Persian tongue called Oro- 
sangae. 

L XX XVI. A very great part of the Bar- 
barian fleet was torn in pieces at Salamis, 
principally by the Athenians and the people of 
iEgina. The event could not well be other- 
wise. The Greeks fought in order, and pre- 
served their ranks ; the Barbarians, without 



4 Eleusis.] — So called from Eleusis son of Mercury. — 
See Pausanias in Atticis, and Meursius Atticse Lectio- 
nes, 1. iii. c. 20. The Eleusinians submitted voluntarily 
to the dominion of Athens, on condition of having the 
privilege exclusively of celebrating the mysteries of Ce- 
res and Proserpine, which proved to them an inexhaus- 
tible source of riches. — T. 

5 Piraeus.] — This, as I have before remarked, was the 
most celebrated port of the Athenians. A tract of J. 
Meursius, called Piraeus, contains every thing relating 
to it and its antiquities. — T. 



either regularity or judgment. They neverthe- 
less behaved better this day than at Euboea, 
and they made the greater exertions from their 
terror of the king, in whose sight 6 they imagined 
they fought. 

LXXXVII. To speak decisively and min- 
utely of the several efforts, either of Barbarians 
or Greeks, is more than I can presume to do. 
The conduct however of Artemisia increased 
her favour with the king. When the greatest 
disorder prevailed in the royal fleet, the vessel 
of Artemisia was pursued by an Athenian, and 
reduced to the extremest danger. In this per- 
plexity, having before her many vessels of her 
allies, and being herself nearest to the enemy, the 
following artifice succeeded. 7 As she retreated 
from the Athenian, she commenced an attack 
upon a ship of her own party ; it was a Calyn- 
dian, and had on board Damasithymus, the 
Calyndian prince. Whilst they were in the 
Hellespont, she was involved in some dispute 
with this man, but it is still uncertain whether 
her conduct in the present instance was the 
effect of design, or accidentally happened from 
the Calyndian's coming first in her way. This 
vessel Artemisia attacked and sunk, by which 
she obtained a double advantage. The Athe- 
nian commander, seeing the vessel he pursued 
attack a Barbarian, supposed that it was either 
a Grecian ship, or one that had deserted the 
Barbarians, and was now assisting the Greeks ; 
he was thus induced to direct his attack else- 
where. 

LXXXVIII. Artemisia by this action not 
only avoided the impending danger, but also 
made herself more acceptable to the king at 
the time she was doing him an actual injury. 
It is asserted that the king, as he viewed the 
engagement, observed her vessel bearing down 
upon the other. At this period some attend- 
ant remarked to him, " observe, Sir, the prow- 
ess of Artemisia, she has now sent to the bot- 



6 In whose sight.] — It is no doubt difficult to describe 
and understand accounts of battles : but whoever places 
himself on the spot where the Persian monarch is said 
to have viewed the battle of Salamis, and at the same 
time reads the account which Herodotus, or that which 
iEschylus, an eye- witness, gives in his Persae of that ac- 
tion, and considers the shoalness of the water, and the 
small space into which so many ships were crowded, 
must think contemptibly of the marine engagements in 
those days. — Wood on Homer. 

7 Artifice succeeded.]— Polyaenus informs us, that Ar. 
temisia first ordered her Persian ensign to be taken 
down, a circumstance omitted by Herodotus, but which 
adds much to the probability of the story.— Larcher. 

3E 



402 



HERODOTUS. 



torn a vessel of the enemy." The king was ear- 
nest in his inquiry, whether the ship which 
attracted his attention was really that of Arte- 
misia. Those about him, knowing exactly the 
figure which distinguished her ship, assured 
him that it was : at the same time they had no 
doubt but the vessel she had attacked belonged 
to the enemy. It happened among the other 
fortunate occurrences which Artemisia met 
with, that not a single person of the Calyndian 
vessel survived to accuse her. Xerxes is said 
to have replied to what they told him : " The 
men have behaved like women, the women 
like men." 1 

LXXXIX. In this battle, many personages 
of distinction fell, both of the Persians, the 
Medes, and their confederates : among others, 
Ariabignes 2 was slain : he was the commander- 
in-chief, son of Darius, and brother of Xerxes. 
The loss of the Greeks was but small. As 
they were expert in swimming, 3 they, whose 
ships were destroyed, and who did not perish 
by the sword, made their escape to Salamis. 
Great numbers of the Barbarians, from their 
ignorance of this art, were drowned. When 
the foremost ships were obliged to seek their 
safety by flight, a general destruction of the 
rest ensued. They who were behind, anxious 



1 The women like men.] — Xerxes sent a complete suit 
of Grecian armour to Artemisia as a reward of her brav- 
ery ; to the commander of his own fleet, a distaff and 
spindle. — Polycenus. This last does not seem to me pro- 
bable, and the answer of Xerxes perhaps gave rise to it. 
The commander of the fleet was the brother of Xerxes, 
who died after fighting gallantly. — Larcher. 

Cicero in his Treatise de Off. i. 18, quotes these lines : 
Vos etenim, juvenes, animum geritis ruuliebrem, 
Ilia virago viri. 

Upon which Jortin remarks : 

" We know not from what poet these lines are taken ; 
they are, however, placed among the fragments of En- 
nius, p. 150, and are more likely to have come from his 
pen than any other." 

This virago was perhaps Artemisia; be that as it will, 
the Latin poet seems to have borrowed the expression 
from Herodotus. 
. 2 Ariabignes. - ] — Called Artabazanes, book vii. c. 2. * 

3 Swimtning."] — The art of swimming constituted a 
material part of youthful education among the Greeks 
and Romans; if they intended to speak in very con- 
temptuous terms of any man, they said he had neither 
learned to read nor to swim. 

Savary informs us, that of the Egyptians, men, women, 
and children, are remarkably expert, and he says grace- 
ful, in swimming. Man is the only perfect animal which 
learns to swim, all others swim naturally ; in general 
we find that islanders, and all those people whose coun- 
try is intersected by canals, or abounds in rivers, are 
skilful in this manly exercise, whilst those living more 
inland are ignorant of it.— T. 



to advance to the front, and to give the king 
who viewed them, some testimony of their 
zeal and courage, ran foul of those vessels 
which were retreating. 

XC. During the confusion, many Phe- 
nicians' who had lost their ships, went to the 
king, and informed him, that their disgrace was 
occasioned by the perfidy of the lonians. The 
consequence of this was, that the Ionian lead- 
ers were not punished with death, but the 
Phenicians were. "While they were yet speak- 
ing, a Samothracian vessel attacked one of 
Attica, and sunk it; immediately afterwards, 
a ship of iEgina fell upon the Samothracian, 
and inflicted on it a similar fate ; but the Samo- 
thracians, who were skilful in the management 
of the spear, attacked as they were going down 
their adversaries with so much success, that 
they boarded and took the vessel. This ex- 
ploit was very fortunate for the lonians. 
Xerxes observing this specimen of the Ionian 
valour, turned with anger to the Phenicians, 
and as he was beyond measure vexed and ex- 
asperated, he ordered them all to be beheaded, 
as being pusillanimous themselves, they had 
presumed to accuse men better than them- 
selves. The king, placed on mount iEgaleos, 4 
which is opposite to Salamis, was particularly 
observant of the battle, and when he saw any 
person eminently distinguish himself, he was 
minute in his inquiries concerning his family 



4 Mount Mgaleos.] — The ancients differ concerning 
the place from which Xerxes beheld the battle of Sala- 
mis. Phanodemus pretends that it was from the temple 
of Hercules, in a place where Attica is separated from 
Salamis by a very small strait. Acestodorus says it was 
from the hills called Cerata, (The Horns) or the confines 
of the territory of Megara. The difference is only in ap- 
pearance. They fought, says Pausanias, at Salamis, 
which stretches itself as far as Megara ; thus mount 
JEgaleos was on the confines of Attica and Megara— 
Larcher. 

iEschylus in the Persae contents himself with saying, 
that Xerxes was a spectator of the engagement, -without 
saying from what place : 

H2gU.V yOLg £(%£ TTUVTOS iVCtV/VI ff7%CC.T0V 

'Ti^jjXev o%dov wyxi friXofyiot-s xXos. 
He had a seat from which he could easily discern all his 
forces, a lofty mound, near the sea ; from which it should 
seem to have been some artificial tumulus. The Scho- 
liast to the passage of JEschylus refers the reader to the 
place before us in Herodotus. Pliny calls it mount 
^gialos.— 1\ 

Xerxes, who enthroned 
High on iEgaleos anxious sate to view 
A scene which nature never yet display 'U, 
Nor fancy feign'd. The theatre was Greece, 
Mankind spectators, equal to that stage, 
Themistocles, great actor. 

Athenaid. 



URANIA. 



403 



and city ; all which, at his direction, his scribes 
recorded. This execution of the Phenicians 
was not a little forwarded by Ariaramnes, a 
Persian, and favourite of the king, who hap- 
pened to be then present. 

XCL In this disaster were the Phenicians 
involved; the Barbarians retreating, were 
anxious to gain Phalerum ; the iEginetae how- 
ever guarding this neck of sea, performed what 
well deserves mention. The Athenians, in 
the tumult of the fight, overpowered those who 
resisted, and pressed upon those who fled. 
These last the iEginetae attacked, so that 
many which escaped from the Athenians were 
intercepted by the iEginetae. 

XCII. As Themistocles was engaged in 
the pursuit of a flying enemy, he came up with 
a vessel of iEgina, commanded by Polycritus, 
son of Crios, which was then attacking a ves- 
sel of Sidon. It happened to be the very ship 
which off Sciathus took Pytheas, the son of 
Ischenus, in a vessel of iEgina sent to watch 
the motions of the enemy. This man, almost 
expiring from his wounds, the Persians with 
great tenderness had preserved on account of 
his extraordinary valour ; and when the Sidon- 
ian vessel with the Persians on board was 
taken, Pytheas was restored in safety to his 
country. Polycritus observing the Athenian 
vessel, which by its colours he knew to belong 
to the commander-in-chief, called out in a re- 
proachful manner 5 to Themistocles, and bade 
him observe how the iEginetse showed their at- 
tachment to the Medes, and at the same time 
he rushed on the Sidonian. 

XCIII. The Barbarians, whose ships re- 
mained, fled to Phalerum, and joined the forces. 
On this day, they who distinguished themselves 
the most were the people of iEgina, next to 
them the Athenians. Of the iEginetse, Poly- 
critus was most eminent ; of the Athenians, 
Eumenes of Anagyris, and Aminias of Pal- 
lene. 6 This last was the person who pursued 
Artemisia, and who would not have desisted 
till he had taken the enemy, or been taken 
himself, if he had conceived her to have 
been on board the vessel which he chased. 
The Athenian commanders had received parti- 



5 In a reproachful manner.]— The Athenians liad ac- 
cused the iEginetae, and particularly Crios the father of 
this man, of designing- to betray their country to the 
Medes.— See book vi. chap. 40. To this unjust accusation 
I'olycritus alluded in this sarcasm. — T. 

3 Aminias of Palle?ie.]—He was brother to the great 
poet .TT-fchylus. 



cular orders with respect to her, and a reward 
of ten thousand drachmas was offered to who- 
ever should take her alive ; it being thought a 
most disgraceful circumstance that a woman 
should fight against Athens. She however 
escaped as we have before described, as also 
did many others, to Phalerum. 

XCIV. The Athenians affirm 7 of Adiman- 
tus, the leader of the Corinthians, that at the 
very commencement of the fight he was seized 
with a panic and fled. The Corinthians fol- 
lowed his example. Arriving at the temple of 
Minerva Sciras, 8 not far from the coast of 
Salamis, they met a little bark, which seemed 
as if sent by the gods : who actually sent it 
could never be discovered ; it approached how- 
ever the Corinthians, who were in total igno- 
rance how things went, and when at a certain 
distance some one on board exclaimed, " Adi- 
mantus, by thus flying with the ships under 
your command, you must be considered as the 
betrayer of Greece : the Greeks however are vic- 
torious over their enemies to the utmost of their 
hopes." Adimantus not giving credit to these 
assertions, it was repeated from on board the 
little bark, that they would agree to suffer death 
if the Greeks were not victorious. Adimantus 
therefore with his detachment made haste to 
rejoin the Greeks, but they did not come up 
till the battle was determined. This is what 
the Athenians affirm. The Corinthians deny 
the fact, declaring that no nation was more dis- 
tinguished on this occasion than themselves ; 
and this indeed the Greeks in general confirm. 



7 The Athenians affirm.] — Dion Chrysostom relates, 
that our historian not having received the compensation 
which he expected from the Corinthians, to whom he 
had recited what he had written in their praise, was in- 
duced to misrepresent their conduct, with that of Adiman- 
tus, on the day of Salamis. Plutarch pretends that Hero- 
dotus from malignity related the battle of Salamis in a 
manner disadvantageous to the Corinthians. If what 
was asserted by Dion Chrysostom were true, Plutarch 
would not have omitted it. I cannot prevail on myself 
to believe that our historian was influenced by either 
motive. I rather think he desired to gratify the Athen- 
ians, who were at enmity with the Corinthians. Plu- 
tarch with some reason opposes to Herodotus the silence 
of Thucydides, the offerings made at Delphi, the vow of 
the women of Corinth, and the inscriptions of Simonides, 
and some other poets, of which the historian could not 
be ignorant. I may add, that if Herodotus had felt the 
motives imputed to him, by Plutarch and Dion Chrysos- 
tom, he would not have opposed to the recital of the 
Athenians the evidence of Universal Greece.— Larclur. 

8 Minerva Sciras.]— Salamis was anciently calied Sri- 
ras, from some hero. Minerva was honoured by this 
name in that island, whence came the sacrifice called at 
Athens EpiBcirods, and the month Scirnphorion.— Lur- 
cher, 



404 



HERODOTUS. 



XCV. Aristides the Athenian, son of Lysi- 
machus, of whose integrity I have before made 
honourable mention, during the tumult of the 
battle of Salamis rendered his country this ser- 
vice; taking with him a number of armed 
Athenians, whom he found stationed along 
the shore of Salamis, he landed on the island 
of Psittalia, and put every person whom he 
found there to death. 

XCVL After the engagement, the Greeks 
collected all their damaged vessels at Salamis, J 
and prepared for another battle, presuming 
that the king would renew the fight with all 
the vessels he had left. At the same time a 
wind from the west had driven on that part of 
the coast of Africa which is called Colias, 
many wrecks belonging to the enemy. Thus 
the different oracles pronounced concerning 
this battle by Bacis and Musseus, were minute- 
ly accomplished, as was also the prediction of 
the Athenian Lysistratus, made many years 
before, concerning these wrecks. It had long 
eluded the sagacity of the Greeks, and was to 
this effect : 

The Colian dames with oars shall roast their food. s 
The above happened after the king's depar- 
ture. 

XCVII. When Xerxes knew how severely 
he had suffered, apprehending that the Ionians 
might induce the Greeks, or that of themselves 
they might be disposed to sail to the Helles- 
pont and break down the bridge, determined to 
seek his safety by flight. Desirous however of 
not being suspected in his design, either by the 
Greeks or his own troops, he made an effort to 
connect Salamis with the continent, joining for 
this purpose the Phenician transports together, 
to serve both as a bridge and a wall, he then 
made seeming preparations for another naval 
engagement. His taking these measures caus- 



1 Salamis.'} Among other rejoicings which celebrated 
the victory of Salamis, I find in Athenaeus the following 
anecdote of Sophocles. Sophocles, who had a very fine 
person, was also accomplished in the arts of music and 
dancing, winch, when very young, he had been taught 
by Lamprus. After the victory of Salamis, he danced 
with a lyre in his hand, round a military trophy erected 
by the conquerors. Some say that he was entirely 
naked, and anointed with oil ; others, that he was in his 
clothes. When he exhibited his tragedy of Thyamris, 
he played on the Citharis ; and when his Nausicaa was 
performed, he discovered great activity in leaping with 
the ball— i<r<p<x,i%itriv. — T. 

2 Roast their food.}— This passage has greatly per- 
plexed the commentators : in the Greek it is i^-r^ourt 
QZi%ov<n, shall rage at the oars. Kuhnius reads cgv'&von, 
which both Wesseling and Valcnaer approve —T. 



ed it to be generally believed that he intended 
to continue where he was and prosecute hosti- 
lities. His real purpose did not escape Mar- 
donius, who was well acquainted with his 
mind. Whilst Xerxes was thus employed, he 
sent a messenger to Persia with intelligence of 
his defeat. 3 

XCVIII. The Persian messengers travel 
with a velocity which nothing human * can 
equal. It is thus accomplished : as many days 
as are required to go from one place to another, 
so many men and horses are regularly stationed 
along the road, allowing a man and a horse for 
each day ; neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor 
darkness, are permitted to obstruct their speed. 



3 Defeat.}—" I have been told by a Mede," says Dion 
Chrysostom, " that the Persians do not agree to what is 
reported by the Greeks. They pretend that Xerxes 
conquered the Lacedaemonians at Thermopylae, and slew 
their king ; that he made himself master of Athens, to- 
tally destroying it, and reducing all those Athenians to 
slavery who did not escape by flight ; and that finally he 
returned to Asia, after having imposed a tribute on the 
Greeks. It is evident that this narrative is false ; but it is 
not impossible, indeed it is very probable, that the king 
said this to the Asiatic nations," ikc.—Larche?V 

4 Nothing human.} — ®r/}rov iov. — Valcnaer does not 
approve this reading. Surely, says he, the domestic 
pigeons, which we know were used for the purpose of 
conveying intelligence very anciently, travelled much 
faster. He therefore proposes to read a.y'h^iov or ccv- 
d^aifT'/jiov, human. Larcher replies to this, by saying, 
" that it is not probable that pigeons were used in the 
great roads where public posts were established, but 
rather in routs difficult of access for horses." This ob- 
servation has no great weight ; it is more to the purpose 
that he refers the reader to an expression of Herodotus, 
in the first book, where he calls the horse, xowtwv tu» 
Or/jTav to tolxhttov. I nevertheless prefer the conjecture 
of Valcnaer. 

The regularity and swiftness of the Roman posts can- 
not fail of exciting the admiration of all who attentively 
consider the subject ; they are thus excellently described 
by Gibbon. 

" The advantage of receiving the earliest intelligence, 
and of conveying their orders with celerity, induced the 
emperors to establish, throughout their extensive domi- 
nions, the regular institution of posts. Houses were 
every where erected at the distance only of five or six 
miles ; each of them was constantly provided with forty 
horses, and by the help of these relays, it was easy to 
travel a hundred miles in a day along the Roman roads." 
Mr Gibbon adds in a note the following anecdote : 

" In the time of Theodosius, Cesarius, a magistrate 
of high rank, went post from Antioch to Constantinople. 
He began his journey at night, was in Cappadocia (165 
miles from Antioch) the ensuing evening, and arrived at 
Constantinople the sixth day about noon. The whole 
distance was 725 Roman, or 665 English miles." See 
also Libanhcs. Orat. 22, and the -Itineraria, p. 572 — 
581. 

The mode adopted by Cyrus, as described by Xeno- 
phon, did not essentially vary from this of the Romans. 

T. 



URANIA. 



405 



The first messenger delivers his business to the 
second, the second to the third, as the torch is 
handed about among the Greeks at the feast of 
Vulcan. This mode of conveying intelligence 
the Persians call Angare'ion. 

XCIX. On the arrival of the first messen- 
ger at Susa, informing them that Xerxes was 
master of Athens, such universal transport pre- 
vailed, that the Persians strewed their public 
roads with myrtle, burned perfumes, and all 
were engaged in religious or private festivals ; 
but the intelligence of the second messenger ex- 
cited universal sorrow; they tore their clothes, 5 
wept and mourned aloud, imputing all the blame 
to Mardonius. They were not so solicitous 
about the loss of their fleet, as anxious for the 
person of their king ; nor were their disquie- 
tudes calmed but bv the arrival of Xerxes him- 
self. 

C. Mardonius observed that his defeat at 
sea greatly afflicted Xerxes, and he suspected 
that he meditated to fly from Athens : he began 
therefore to be alarmed on his own account, 
thinking that as he had been the instrument of 
the king's commencing hostilities with Greece, 
he might be made the object of his vengeance. 
He thought it therefore preferable to attempt 
again the subjection of Greece, or in some 
great effort meet an honourable death. His 
idea of conquering Greece prevailed, and after 
some deliberation, he thus addressed the king : 
" I would not, Sir," said he, "have you much 
afflict yourself concerning what has happened, 
nor suppose that your reputation has sustained 
from it any considerable wound. The ultimate 
success of our attempts does not depend 6 on 
ships, but on our troops and horses. They, 
who from their late advantages, suppose all con- 
test at an end, will not presume to leave their 
vessels to oppose you, nor will the Greeks on 
the continent dare to meet you in the field. 
They who did so, suffered. With your per- 

5 Tore their clothes.']— This was a custom of the 

Orientals, of which various examples occur in scripture. 

— See also the Persaj of iEschylus, 53, &c. — Larcher. 
Does not depend.] — The following' paraphrase on 

this speech of Mardonius by Mr Glover, is one of the 

best passages in his poem : 

Be not discouraged, sovereign of the world; 

Not oars, not sails and limber can decide 

Thy enterprise sublime. In shifting strife, 

By winds and billows govern'd, may contend 

The sons of traffic ; on the solid plain 

The generous steed and soldier : they alone 

Thy glory must establish, where no swell 

Of fickle floods, nor breath of casual gales 

Assist the skilful coward, and control 

By nature's wanton but resistless might 

The brave man's arm, &c. Athoxaid. 



mission, therefore, our future exertions shall be 
made in the Peloponnese : or if you please for 
a while to suspend your activity, it may securely 
be done : be not however disheartened, it is 
not possible that the Greeks should be finally 
able to elude the vengeance due to them, or to 
avoid being made your slaves. What I have 
recommended, you will find to merit your at. 
tention ; but if you are determined to return 
with your army, I have other advice to offer. 
Suffer not, O king, the Persians to become the 
ridicule of the Greeks ; you will not find us to 
have been the instruments of your losses ; you 
have never seen us cowardly or base. If the 
Phenicians, Egyptians, Cyprians, or Cilicians 
have behaved themselves ill, it ought not to be 
imputed to us : if the Persians therefore have 
not merited your censure, vouchsafe to listen 
to my counsel ; if you shall not think proper to 
continue with us yourself,return to your country, 
and take with you the majority of your forces. 
Leave me here three hundred thousand chosen 
men, and I doubt not but I shall reduce Greece 
to your obedience." 

CI. Xerxes, on hearing this, found his vexa- 
tion suspended, and his tranquillity restored. 
He told Mardonius, that after taking advice on 
the subject he would give him an answer. 
Having consulted with some Persians whom 
he assembled, he determined to send for Ar- 
temisia, whose superior wisdom he had before 
had reason to approve. On her arrival, Xer- 
xes ordered his counsellors and guards to retire, 
whilst he thus addressed her : " Mardonius 
advises me to continue here, and make an at- 
tempt on the Peloponnese, urging that my 
Persians and land forces have not been at all 
accessory to the injuries we have sustained, of 
which they desire to give me future testimony. 
If I should disapprove of this, he himself en- 
gages, with three hundred thousand troops, to 
stay and reduce Greece to my power, recom- 
mending me to retire with the rest of the army 
to my native country. Do you therefore, who 
with so much wisdom endeavoured to dissuade 
me from risking an engagement at sea, tell me 
which of these measures you would have me 
pursue." 

CI I. The reply of Artemisia was to the fol- 
lowing purport : " In a situation like the pre- 
sent, O king, it is not easy to say what mea- 
sures will be best ; but as far as I am able to 
discern, I would recommend your return. Let 
Mardonius remain here with the number of 
forces he requires, as it is his own voluntary 



\ 



406 



HERODOTUS. 



proposal with these to effect the accomplish- 
ment of your wishes. If he shall subjugate the 
country, and effect what he promises, the glory 
will be yours, 1 for your troops must be his in- 
struments ; if he should be disappointed and 
vanquished, while you are safe, and your family 
and fortunes secure, no great calamity can en- 
sue. The Greeks, as long as you shall survive, 
and your family remain, must be involved in 
many contests* If Mardonius shall fail in his 
attempts, and perish, the Greeks will have no 
great advantage to boast from the misfortunes 
or death of one of your slaves. You have 
burned Athens, which was the proposed object 
of your expedition, and may therefore return 
without dishonour." 

CHI. Xerxes was delighted with advice so 
consonant to the secret wishes of his heart : for 
my own part, I am of opinion his terror was so 
great, that no persuasions could have prevailed 
on him to stay. Artemisia was dismissed most 
graciously from his presence, and directed to 
retire with the royal children to Ephesus, for 
some of the king's natural sons had accompa- 
nied him. 

CIV. Hermotimus, a favourite eunuch ot 
the king, and a Pedasian by birth, was sent to 
take care of them. The Pedasians 2 inhabit 
the district beyond Halicarnassus. It is affirm- 
ed of this people, that as often as they are men- 
aced by any calamity, the chin of the priestess 
of Minerva produces a large beard ; an incident 
which has happened twice among them. 

C V. This Hermotimus revenged himself on 



1 The glory will be yours. - ] — Thus in subsequent times 
did the emperors of Rome obtain ovations, triumphs, and 
an artificial reputation from the successful labours of 
their more bold and hardy lieutenants. "Under the 
commonwealth," says Mr Gibbon, " a triumph could 
only be obtained by the general who was authorized to 
take the auspices in the name of the people. By an ex- 
act consequence drawn from tlus principle of policy and 
religion, the triumph was reserved to the emperor ; and 
Ids most successful lieutenants were satisfied with some 
marks of distinction, which, under the name of triumph- 
al honours, were invented in their favour." Speaking 
of the emperors' lieutenants, in another place, he says, 
" they received and held their commissions at the will of 
a superior, to whose auspicious influence the merit of 
their actions was legally attributed." — T- 

2 The Pedasians, #c]— See book i. chap. 175. Valc- 
naer is of opinion that the whole of this paragraph to the 
end of the chapter is spurious. It certainly has no busi- 
ness here, and if essential at all, would have more pro- 
perly appeared hi book vi. chap. 20. The strongest ar- 
gument against its being genuine is, that Strabo seems 
to have known nothing of it ; speaking as if he had only 
seen the passage in the first book, to which 1 have refer- 
red the reader.— T. 



account of the injury he had formerly sustained, 
with a severity, as far as I can learn, without 
example. He had been taken captive, and sold 
as a slave to a man of Chios, 3 named Panionius, 
who maintained himself by the most infamous 
of all traffic : whenever he met with any youths 
whose persons were handsome, he castrated 
them, and carrying them to Sardis or Ephesus, 
disposed of them at a prodigious price. Among 
the Barbarians, eunuchs 4 are esteemed of 



3 Chios.]— Chios, and the islands in its vicinity, were 
famous for their purple. It was to Chios that Alexander, 
when he was revelling in Persia, sent for materials to 
clothe himself and his attendants with purple robes. It 
was produced from the purpura, called in Maccabees, 
chap. iv. verse 23, the purple of the sea. 

" Then Judas returned to spoil the tents, where they 
got much gold and silver, and blue silk, and purple of 
the sea, and great riches." 

See also Ezekiel, chap, xxvii. where the prophet, enu- 
merating the merchandise of Tyre, says, verse 7, " Blue 
and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which co- 
vered thee." By the isles of Elishah, I conceive the 
prophet to mean Lesbos, Tenedos, and the small islands 
near them. There were several species of the purpura, 
but the Pelagium and the Buccina were most valued. — 
See Pliny, 1. ix. c. 33. From these two separately, or 
combined, were produced the three kinds of purple most 
esteemed by the ancients. One was called #og$v%if, of a 
strong violet colour inclining to black ; a second was 
called (pomzts, inclining to scarlet ; a third ct'Mueyis, azure 
or sky blue. Athenaeus says, 1. iii. c. 12, that the best 
and largest were found about Lesbos and the promontory 
of Lectus. 

" By the discovery of cochineal," says Mr Gibbon. 
" we far surpass the colours of antiquity. Their royal 
purple had a strong smell and a dark cast, as deep as 
bull's blood. In Rome, this was restrained to the sacred 
person and palace of the emperor, and the penalties of 
treason were denounced against the ambitious subjects 
who dared to usurp the prerogative of the throne." — See 
Gibbon, vol. iii, 71. Statius in the following passage 
seems to distinguish betwixt the deep and the blueish 
purple : 

Quis purpura saepe 
CEbalis et Tyrii moderator livet aheni Syl. i. 2. 150. 

The best, or the Pelagia, were so called, because found 
in deeper waters.— See the Schol. to Apollonius Rhodius, 
1. i. v. 461. Ev (ZxSli rys OxJiatrtrr,; iu^arxiTcci. From this 
peculiarity of the purpura, the verb ao^u^ia-fcu Avas used 
for to meditate profoundly. — T. 

4 Eunuchs.]— Eunuchs were introduced in the courts 
of princes and the families of great men at a very early 
period, and of course became an important article of 
commerce. Black eunuchs appear to have been prefer- ' 
red, at least we find one in the court of Zedekiah. — See 
Jeremiah xxxviii. 7. 

" Now when Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian, one of the 
eunuchs which was in the king's house, heard that they 
had put Jeremiah in the dungeon," &c. 

Black eunuchs are still an article of great luxury in the 
east, and seldom found but in the seraglio of the Grand 
Signior, and those of the Sultanas — See Memoirs of Baron 
Tott, who represents their manners as always harsh and 
brutal.— See also Harmer, vol. iii. 328. 



URANIA, 



407 



greater value than other slaves,from the presump- 
tion of their superior fidelity. Hermotimus was 
one of the great many, whom Panionius had 
thus treated. Hermotimus, however, could not 
be esteemed as altogether unfortunate : he was 
sent from Sardis to the king as one among 
other presents, and in process of time became 
the favourite of Xerxes above all the other 
eunuchs. 

CVI. When the king left Sardis to proceed 
towards Athens, this Hermotimus went on 
some business to a place in Mysia, called Atar- 
neus, inhabited by some Chians : he there met 
and remembered Panionius. He addressed him 
with much seeming kindness ; he first enumer- 
ated the many benefits he enjoyed through him, 
and then proceeded to assure him, that if he 
would come to him with all his family, he 
should receive the most convincing testimony 
of his gratitude. Panionius listened to the offer 
with great delight, and soon went to Hermoti- 
mus, with his wife and children. When the 
eunuch had got them in his power, he thus ad- 
dressed Panionius : " The means by which 
you obtain a livelihood is the most infamous 
that can be conceived. How could I, or any 
of my ancestors, so have injured you or your 
family as to justify your reducing me from man- 
hood to my present contemptible state ? Could 
you imagine that your crimes would escape the 
observation of the gods, who inspiring me with 
the fallacy I practised, have thus delivered yon 
into my hands ? Abandoned as you are, you 
can have no reason to complain of the ven- 
geance which I mean to inflict on you." After 
these reproaches, he produced the four sons of 
Panionius, and obliged the father to castrate 
them himself; when this was done, he com- 
pelled the sons to do the same to their father. 
Such was 5 the punishment of Panionius, and 
the revenge of Hermotimus. 

CVH. Xerxes having sent his children to 
Ephesus, under the care of Artemisia, commis- 
sioned Mardonius to select from the army the 
number that he wished, and desired him to 
make his deeds correspond with his words. 
The above happened during the day ; but on 



Eunuchs are found in the catalogue of eastern commo- 
dities, which, about the time of Alexander Severus, were 
made subject to the payment of duties; and Mr Gibbon 
observes, that the use and value of these effeminate slaves 
gradually rose with the decline of the empire. — T. 
5 Such was.]— 

Qui primus pueris genitalia membra recidit ' 

Vulnera qua; fecit debuit ipse pati. 

Ovid. Amor. X.ii. r. 5, 



the approach of night, the king commanded the 
leaders of his fleet to retire from Phalerum, to- 
wards the Hellespont, with the greatest expe- 
dition, to protect the bridge and secure his 
passage. The Barbarians set sail, but when 
they approached Zoster, mistaking the little 
promontories which rise above that coast for 
ships, they fled a great way. Discovering their 
error, they afterwards formed, and proceeded 
in a regular body. 

CVH I. In the morning, the Greeks per- 
ceiving the land forces of the enemy on their 
former post, supposed their fleet to be still at 
Phalerum, and prepared for a second engage- 
ment. When informed of their retreat, they 
commenced a pursuit with the greatest eager- 
ness. Proceeding as far as Andros without 
being able to discover them, they went on shore 
on the island to hold a consultation. Themis- 
tocles was of opinion that they should sail 
through the midst of the islands, continuing 
their pursuit, and endeavour to reach the Hel- 
lespont, and destroy the bridge. This was 
opposed by Eurybiades, who thought that the 
measure of breaking down the bridge would 
not fail to involve Greece in the greatest cala- 
mity. It was not probable, he urged, that if 
the Persian was compelled to stay in Europe 
he would remain inactive ; if he did, his army 
would be in danger of suffering from famine, 
unable either to return to Asia, or advance his 
affairs ; but if he should be earnest in the pro- 
secution of any enterprise, he would have great 
probability of success, as it was much to be 
feared, that most of the cities and powers of 
Europe would either be reduced by him, or 
surrender previously to his arms ; besides this, 
he would have a constant supply of corn from 
the annual produce of Greece : as therefore it 
was not likely that the Persian, after his late 
naval defeat, would wish to stay in Europe, it 
was better that his escape to his own country 
should be permitted. Here he added, it will 
be afterwards advisable to prosecute hostilities. 
In this opinion the other leaders of the Pelo- 
ponnese acquiesced. 

CIX. Themistocles seeing his advice to sail 
immediately to the Hellespont overruled by 
the majority, addressed himself next to the 
Athenians. They were more particularly ex- 
asperated by the escape of the enemy, and had 
determined to continue the pursuit to the Hel- 
lespont, even if unsupported by the rest of the 
allies. He spoke to them as follows : "I have 
myself been witness of similar incidents, and I 



408 



HERODOTUS. 



have frequently heard it affirmed by others, 
that men reduced to the extremest ebb of for- 
tune have by some succeeding efforts retrieved 
their affairs, and made amends for their former 
want of vigour. We Athenians have enjoyed 
this favourable vicissitude ; but although we 
have thus happily defended ourselves and our 
country, and have repulsed such a host of 
foes, we refrain from the pursuit of a flying 
enemy; not that we must impute our success 
to our own exertions : we must thank the gods 
and the heroes who would not suffer an indi- 
vidual marked by his impiety and crimes to be 
the tyrant of Asia and of Europe ; a man who 
made no discrimination betwixt things sacred 
and profane ; who consumed by fire the shrines 
of the gods : who dared to inflict lashes on the 
sea, and throw chains into its bosom. To us 
the present moment is auspicious, let us there- 
fore attend to the interest of ourselves and fa- 
milies ; and as the Barbarian is effectually ex- 
pelled, let us severally repair our dwellings, 
and cultivate our lands. In the spring we 
will sail to Ionia and the Hellespont." By 
this conduct, Themistocles intended to conci- 
liate the friendship of the Persian, that in 
case of his becoming unpopular with his 
countrymen he might be secure of a place of 
refuge. The event proved his sagacity. 1 

CX. The Athenians, deluded by Themis- 
tocles, assented to his proposal ; they had be- 
fore thought highly of his wisdom, and the 
present instance of his prudence and discretion 
induced their readier compliance with his 
wishes. The Athenians had no sooner agreed 
in form to what here commended, than he des- 
patched a bark with confidential servants to 
inform the king of their determination, who 
were not to be prevailed on even by torture to 
reveal what was intrusted to them ; among 
these was the slave Sicinnus. 3 On their arri- 



1 The event.}— It is a singular circumstance which I 
do not remember ever to have seen remarked by any 
writer, that one of the motives which made Atossa 
urge on Darius to hostilities with Greece was, that she 
might have some Ionian female slaves, who were cele- 
brated for their graces and accomplishments— See 
Horace : 

Motus doceri gaudet Ionicos 
Matura virgo, et fingitur artubus 
Jam nunc, &c. 

And the escape of Themistocles to Asia was in the 
habit of an Ionian female slave, concealed in a litter, by 
which meaos he with difficulty eluded the fury of his 
incensed countrymen — T. 

2 Sicinnus.'} — Plutarch says it was one of the king's 
eunuchs, found among the prisoners, named Arraces. 



val at Attica, Sicinnus left his companions in 
their vessel, and hastened to the king, whom 
he thus addressed : " Themistocles, son of 
Neocles, and leader of the Athenians, of all 
the confederates the most wise and the most 
valiant, has sent me to inform you, that willing 
to render you kindness, he has prevented the 
Greeks from pursuing you to the Hellespont, 
when it was their inclination to do so, 3 in order 
that they might break down your bridge ; you 
may now, therefore, retire there in security." 
Saying this, Sicinnus returned. 

CXI. The Greeks having thus declined to 
pursue the Barbarians, with the view of break- 
ing down the bridge at the Hellespont, laid 
close siege to Andros, and determined totally 
to destroy it. These were the first of the 
islanders who had refused the solicitations of 
Themistocles for money. He had urged to 
them, that they were impelled to make this 
application by two powerful divinities, persua- 
sion and necessity, who could not possibly be 
refused. The Andrians replied, that Athens 
might reasonably expect to be great and pros- 
perous from the protection of such powerful 
deities, but that their island was of itself poor 
and barren, and had withal unalterably attached 
to it two formidable deities, poverty and weak- 
ness ; that they, therefore, could not be ex~ 
pected to supply them with money : the 
strength of Athens, they added, could never be 
greater in proportion than their weakness. In 
consequence of this refusal and reply they were 
now besieged. 

CXII. In the meanwhile the avarice of 
Themistocles appeared to be insatiable. He 
made applications to all the other islands also 
for money, using the same emissaries and lan- 
guage as before to the Andrians. In case of 
refusal, he threatened to bring against them 
the forces of Greece, and utterly destroy them. 
He by these means obtained from the Carys- 
tians and Parians an enormous sum of money. 

But as Larcher justly remarks, Themistocles was much 
too wise to send a person of this description, who, if 
possessed of the smallest sagacity, could have fore- 
warned Xerxes of the artifice of the Athenian com- 
mander.— T. 

3 Inclination to do so-}— Plutarch relates the matter 
differently : he makes Themistocles inform Xerxes, 
that the Greeks, after their victory, had resolved to 
sail to the Hellespont, and break down their bridge ; 
but that Themistocles, zealous to preserve him, urged 
him to hasten to that sea, and pass over to Asia. In 
the mean time he raised perplexities and embarrass- 
ments among the allies, which retarded their pursuit— 
Larcher. 



URANIA. 



409 



These people hearing that the Andrians had 
been distressed, on account of their attachment 
to the Medes, and being informed that The- 
mistocles was the first in rank and influence of 
all the Grecian leaders, were terrified into 
compliance. Whether any of the other islands 
gave him money or not, I will not take upon 
me to decide, but I am inclined to believe that 
some of them did. The Carystians, however, 
did not by their compliance escape the menaced 
calamity, whilst the Carians, by the effect of 
their bribes on Themistocles, avoided being 
made the objects of hostilities. In this man- 
ner Themistocles, beginning with the Andri- 
ans, extorted money from the islanders with- 
out the knowledge of the other leaders. 

CXIII. The land forces of Xerxes, after con- 
tinuing on their former station, a few days after 
the battle of Salamis moved towards Boeotia, 
following the track by which they had come. 
Mardonius thought proper to accompany 
the king, both because the season of the year 
was improper for any farther military exertions, 
and because he preferred wintering in Thessaly, 
intending to advance to the Peloponnese on the 
commencement of the spring. On their arri- 
val in Thessaly, the first care of Mardonius 
was to select, in preference to all the Persians, 
those called the Immortals, excepting only their 
leader Hydarnes, who refused to leave the per- 
son of the king. Of the other Persians he 
chose the Cuirassiers, and the body of a thou- 
sand horse : to these he added all the forces, 
horse and foot, of the Medes, Sacae, Bactrians, 
and Indians. From the rest of the allies he 
selected only those who were distinguished by 
their advantages of person, or who had per- 
formed some remarkable exploit. He took 
also the greater part of those Persians who wore 
collars and bracelets ; 4 and next to these the 
Medes, inferior to the Persians in force, but 
not in number. The aggregate of these troops, 
including the cavalry, was three hundred thou- 
sand men. 

CX1V. Whilst Mardonius was employed 
in selecting his army, and Xerxes was still in 
Thessaly, an oracle was addressed to the 
Lacedaemonians from Delphi, requiring them 
to demand compensation of Xerxes for the 
death of Leonidas, and to accept of what he 
should offer. A messenger was instantly des- 



4 Collars and bracelets.]— As marks of royal favour, 
and rewards for service. See an account of the royal 
gifts of Persia, in a note on the first book. 



patched from Sparta, who came up with the 
army, the whole of which was still in Thessa- 
ly, and being introduced to Xerxes, thus ad- 
dressed him : " King of the Medes, the Lace- 
daemonians and Heraclidae of Sparta, 5 claim of 
you a compensation for the death of their king, 
whom you slew whilst he was defending 
Greece." The king laughed at this, and for 
some time returned no answer ; till at length, 
turning to Mardonius, who stood near him, 
" This man," says he, " shall make you a be- 
coming retribution. " The herald receiving this 
answer departed. 

CXV. Xerxes, leaving Mardonius in Thes- 
saly, hastened towards the Hellespont. With- 
in the space of forty-five days he arrived at the 
place of passage with a very inconsiderable 
number of troops. But wherever these troops 
came, without any distinction, they consumed 
all the corn of the inhabitants, and when this 
failed, they fed upon the natural produce of the 
earth, stripping wild and cultivated trees alike 
of their bark and leaves, to such extremity of 
famine were they come. To this a pestilence 
succeeded, which with the dysentery destroyed 
numbers in their march. Xerxes distributed 
his sick through the cities as he passed, recom- 
mending the care and maintenance of them to 
the inhabitants. Some were left in Thessaly, 
others at Siris in Paeonia, others at Macedonia. 
At this last place, on his march to Greece, 
Xerxes, had left the sacred chariot of Jupiter, 
which he did not find on his return. The 
Paeonians had given it to the Thracians j but 
when Xerxes inquired for it again, they told 
him that the mares, whilst feeding, had been 
driven away by the people of the higher Thrace, 
who lived near the source of the Strymon. 

CXVL Here the king of Bisaltica and 
Crestonia, a Thracian, did a most unnatural ac- 
tion. Refusing to submit to Xerxes, he had 
retired to the higher parts of mount Rhodope, 
and had commanded his sons not to serve 
against Greece. They, either despising their 
father, or curious to see the war, had joined 
the Persian army. There were six of them, 
and they all returned safe, but their father or- 
dered their eyes to be put out ; such was the 
reward they received. 

CXVII. The Persians, leaving Thrace, 



5 Heraclida> of Sparta.]— Herodotus expresses him- 

self thus, to distinguish the kings of Lacedaemon from 

those of Argos, and Macedonia, who also were Heracli. 

dae, that is to say, of the race of Hercules.— Lurcher. 

3 F 



410 



HERODOTUS. 



came to the passage, where they eagerly crowd- 
ed into their vessels to cross to Abydos. The 
bridge of vessels was no more, a tempest had 
broken and dispersed it. Here meeting with 
provisions in greater abundance than they had 
enjoyed during their march, they indulged them- 
selves so intemperate^ that this, added to the 
change of water, destroyed a great number of 
those who remained ; the rest with Xerxes ar- 
rived at Sardis. " 

C XVIII. There is also another story. — It 
is said that Xerxes, leaving Athens, came to a 
city called E'ion, on the banks of the Strymon. 
Hence he proceeded no farther by land, but 
intrusting the conduct of his forces to Hydar- 
nes, with orders to march them to the Helles- 
pont, he went on board a Phenician vessel to 
cross over into Asia. After he had embarked, 
a heavy and tempestuous wind set in from the 
lake, which, on account of the great number of 1 
Persians on board, attendant upon Xerxes, 
made the situation of the vessel extremely I 
dangerous. The king, in an emotion of ter- ; 
ror, inquired aloud of the pilot if he thought I 
they were safe ? " By no means," was the | 
answer, " unless we could be rid of some of 
this multitude." Upon this Xerxes exclaim- j 
ed, " Persians, let me now see which of you ; 
has an affection for his prince ; my safety it ' 
seems depends on you." As soon as he had | 
spoken, they first bowed themselves before him, 
and then leaped into the sea. 2 The vessel be- 
ing thus lightened, Xerxes was safely landed in 
Asia. As soon as he got on shore, he reward- 
ed the pilot with a golden crown for preserving \ 
the life of the king ; but as he had caused so ■ 
many Persians to perish he cut off his head. 
CXIX. This last account of the retreat of 



1 Mr Richardson, who rejects altogether the Grecian 
account of Xerxes, and his invasion of Greece, finally 
expresses himself in these strong- terms. 

" To sum up all : the expedition of Xerxes, upon the 
most moderate scale of the Greek writers, seems to be 
inconsistent with probability, and the ordinary power of 
man. — It is all upon stilts ; every step we take is upon 
romantic ground : nothing seems wanting but a few 
genii, to make it in every respect an exceeding good 
Arabian tale. — Dissertations, 8vo. 316. 

2 Leaped into the sea.~\— An anecdote not very unlike 
this, and particularly characteristic of the spirit of British 
sailors, is related of James the second, when duke of 
York. He was, by some accident, in imminent danger 
of being lost at sea, but getting into the ship's boat, with 
a select number of attendants, he, though with extreme 
difficulty, got safe to shore. The honest crew, when 
they saw his highness landed on the beach, gave him 
three cheers, and in a few minutes all went down, and 
perished. — T. 



Xerxes seems to deserve but little credit for 
many reasons, but particularly from this catastro- 
phe of the Persians who accompanied the king. 
If Xerxes really made such a speech to the 
pilot, I cannot hesitate a moment to suppose, 
that the king would have ordered his atten- 
dants, who were not only Persians, but men of 
the highest rank, to descend into the hold of 
the ship, and would have thrown into the sea 
as many Phenician rowers as there were Per- 
sians on board. But the truth is, that the king 
with the residue of his army, returned toward 
Asia by land. 

CXX. Of this there is a yet stronger proof. 
It is well known that Xerxes, on his return to 
Asia, came to Abdera, with the inhabitants of 
which he made a treaty of friendship, present- 
ing them with a golden scymitar, and a tiara 
richly embroidered. The Abderites assert 
what does not to me appear probable, that with 
them, Xerxes, for the first time after his de- 
parture from Athens, pulled off his robes, as 
not being till then released from alarm. Ab- 
dera is much nearer the Hellespont than Stry- 
mon and Eion, where it is said he went on 
board. 

CXXI. The Greeks not succeeding in their 
attempts upon Andros, attacked Carystus, and 
after wasting its lands returned to Salamis. 
Here their first care was to set apart as sacred 
to the gods the first fruits of their success, 
among which were three Phenician triremes. 
One of these was deposited upon the isthmus, 
where it continued within my memory ; a se- 
cond was placed at Sunium ; the third was con- 
secrated to Ajax, and reserved at Salamis. 
They then proceeded to a division of the plun- 
der, sending the choicest to Delphi. Here a 
statue was erected twelve cubits high, having 
in its hand the beak of a ship : s it was placed 
on the same spot where stands a statue in gold 
of Alexander of Macedon. 

CXXII. After these offerings had been 
presented at Delphi, it was inquired publicly of 
the deity, in the name of all the Greeks, whe- 
ther what he had received was perfect and satis- 
factory to him. He replied, that from the 
Greeks in general it was, but not from the 
iEginetae, from whom he claimed a farther 
mark of their gratitude, as they had principally 



3 Beak of a ship.2— The first naval triumph of Rome 
was commemorated in a similar manner. A pyramid, 
or rather trophy, was erected in the forum, composed of 
the beaks of ships taken from the enemy. — T. 



URANIA. 



411 



been distinguished at the battle of Salamis. 
The people of iEgina, on hearing this, conse- 
crated to the divinity three golden stars, which 
were fixed upon a brazen mast, in the angle 
near the cistern of Croesus. 

C XXII I. After the division of the plunder, 
the Greeks sailed to the isthmus, to confer the 
reward of valour upon him who should be 
judged to have been most distinguished during 
the war. On their arrival here, the Grecian 
leaders severally inscribed their opinions, which 
they deposited upon the altar of Neptune. 
They were to declare whom they thought the 
first, and whom the second in merit : each 
individual inscribed his own name, as claim- 
ing the first reward ; but a great majority of 
them united in declaring Themistocles de- 
serving the second. Whilst each, therefore, 
had only his own suffrage for the first, Themis- 
tocles had the second place awarded him, by a 
great majority. 

CXXIV. Whilst the Greeks severally re- 
turned to their homes, avoiding from envy 
to decide the question for which they had pur- 
posely assembled, Themistocles was not only 
esteemed, but celebrated through Greece as the 
first in sagacity and wisdom. Not having been 
honoured by those with whom he conquered at 
Salamis, he retired for this purpose to Lacedse- 
mon : here he was splendidly entertained, 4 and 
honourably distinguished. The prize of per- 
sonal prowess was assigned to Eurybiades ; but 
that of wisdom and skill to Themistocles, and 
each was presented with an olive crown. To 
the latter they also gave the handsomest chariot 
in Sparta ; they heaped praises upon him, and 
when he returned, three hundred chosen Spar- 
tans, of those who are called the knights, 5 were 
appointed to attend him as far as Tegea. I 



1 Splendidly entertained.] — This was the more re- 
markable, and must have been a proof of the extraordi- 
nary regard in which the character of Themistocles was 
held, as it was contrary to the genius of the Spartans, 
and the inveterate prejudices of that people. While at 
Athens there were sometimes known to be ten thousand 
foreigners of different nations, all of whom were treated 
with hospitality and attention, strangers were discou- 
raged from visiting Sparta, and if ever they ventured 
there, were considered as spies. — T. 

5 The knights.]— The Greek word is iWs/j ; it never, 
theless may fairly be doubted whether they served on 
horseback, or whether it was not a term of honour only. 
It is certain the country of Lacedaemon was ill adapted 
for cavalry ; that Xenophon calls the few they had 
rroy/j^oTocroi ; and that none but those who were wealthy 
possessed horses. See Larcher's elaborate note at this 
word.— T. 



know no other example of the Spartans con- 
ducting any person from their city. 

CXXV. On his return from Lacedaemon 
to Athens, Timodemus of Aphidna, a man 
chiefly remarkable for his implacable enmity 
against Themistocles, imputed to him his visit 
to Sparta as a public crime. The honours, he 
said, which he had received at Lacedaemon, 
were not bestowed out of respect to him, but 
to Athens. Whilst he was continuing his in- 
vectives, " Friend," says Themistocles, " the 
matter is thus ; if I had been a Belbinite," I 
should not have been thus distinguished at 
Sparta, nor would you, although an Athenian." 

CXXVI. At this juncture, Artabazus, son 
of Pharnaces, who had always had great repu- 
tation among his countrymen, and particularly 
from his conduct at Platea, accompanied the 
king with a detachment of sixty thousand men 
of the army which Mardonius had selected. 
When Xerxes had passed the Hellespont, and 
was arrived in Asia, Artabazus returned, and 
encamped near Pallene. Mardonius had taken 
up his winter quarters in Thessaly and Mace- 
donia, and as he did not wish to have his camp 
enlarge4 by this additional number, Artabazus 
thought it expedient to take the opportunity 
now before him of chastising the rebellious 
Potideeans. When the king was gone, and the 
Persian fleet had fled from Salamis, this people 
openly revolted from the Barbarians j they of 
Pallene had done the same. 

CXXVII. Artabazus therefore laid siege 
to Potidaea : distrusting the fidelity of the 
Olynthians, he attacked them also. Their 
city was at this time possessed by the Bottiae- 
ans, whom the Macedonians had driven from 
the gulf of Therma. Artabazus having taken 
their city, put the inhabitants to death in a 
neighbouring marsh. The government of the 
place he gave to Critobulus of Torone : the 
Chalcidians thus became masters of Olynthus. 

CXXVIH. Having taken Olynthus, Arta- 
bazus applied with greater ardour to the siege of 
Potidsea. He contrived to induce Timoxenus, 
the chief of the Scionaeans, to betray the town 
into his hands. In what manner their corres- 
pondence commenced I am not able to say, I 
can only speak of the event. Whenever they 



6 Belbinite.J— In the beginning <>f the chapter, Hero- 
dotus tells us that this man was of Aphidna'.— Wcssclin^ 
thinks that he might nevertheless be a Belbinite, though 
when made a citizen of Athens, he was enrolled in the 
tribe of Aphidnae. — T. 



412 



HERODOTUS. 



wanted to communicate with each other, a let- 
ter was fixed to an arrow, and made to serve as 
wings, which was then shot to a place agreed 
upon. But the betrayer of Potidaea was ulti- 
mately detected : Artabazus directed an arrow 
to a concerted place, but it deviated from its 
direction, and wounded a Potidsean in the 
shoulder. A crowd, as is usual on such occa- 
sions, surrounded the wounded man, who seeing 
the letter connected with the arrow, carried it 
immediately to the magistrates, with whom 
their Pallenian allies were present. The letter 
was read, and the traitor discovered : it was not, 
however, thought proper to inflict the deserved 
punishment on Timoxenus, out of regard to his 
country, and that the Scionaeans might not in 
future be stigmatized as traitors : but it was in 
this manner that the treachery of Timoxenus 
became known. 

CXXIX. Artabazus had been now three 
months before Potidaea, when there happened 
a great overflowing of the sea, which continued 
for a considerable time. The Barbarians see- 
ing the ground become a swamp., retired to 
Pallene : they had already performed two-fifths 
of their march, and had three more before them, 
when the sea burst beyond its usual limits with 
so vast an inundation, that the inhabitants, who 
had often witnessed similar incidents, represent 
this as without parallel. They who could not 
swim were drowned ; they who could, were 
killed by the Potidaeans from their boats. This 
inundation, and the consequent destruction of 

the Persians, the Potidaeans thus explain 

The Barbarians, they say, had impiously pro- 
faned the temple and shrine of Neptune, situate 
in their suburbs, who may therefore be con- 
sidered as the author of their calamity, which 
to me appears probable. With the few who 
escaped, Artabazus joined the army of Mar- 
donius in Thessaly, and this was the fate of 
those who conducted Xerxes to the Hellespont. 
CXXX. The remainder of the fleet of 
Xerxes, which flying from Salamis, arrived in 
Asia, after passing over the king and his forces 
from the Chersonese to Abydos, wintered at 
Cyma. In the commencement of the spring it 
assembled at Samos, where some other vessels 
had continued during the winter. This arma- 
ment was principally manned by Persians and 
Medes, and was under the conduct of Mardon- 
tes, the son of Bagaeus, and Artayntes, son of 
Artacheeus, whose uncle Amitres had been 
joined to him as his colleague. As the alarm 



of their former defeat was not yet subsided, 
they did not attempt to advance farther west- 
ward, nor indeed did any one impel them to 
do so. Their vessels, with those of the 
Ionians, amounted to three hundred, and they 
stationed themselves at Samos, to secure the 
fidelity of Ionia. They did not think it proba- 
ble that the Greeks would penetrate into Ionia, 
but would be satisfied with defending their 
country. They were confirmed in this opinion, 
as the Greeks, after the battle of Salamis, 
never attempted to pursue them, but were con- 
tent to retire also themselves. With respect 
to their affairs at sea, the Persians were suffi- 
ciently depressed ; but they expected that 
Mardonius would do great things by land. 
Remaining on their station at Samos, they con- 
sulted how they might annoy the enemy, and 
they anxiously attended to the progress and af- 
fairs of Mardonius. 

CXXXI. The approach of the spring, and 
the appearance of Mardonius in Thessaly, 
roused the Greeks. Their land army was not 
yet got together, but their fleet, consisting of a 
hundred and ten ships, was already at JEgina, 
under the command of Leutychides. He was 
descended in a right line from Menares, Agesi- 
laus, Hippocratidas, Leutychides, Anaxilaus, 
Archidamus, Anaxandrides, Theopompus, 
Nicander, Charillus, Eunomus, Polydectes, 
Prytanes, Euryphon, Procles, Aristodemus, 
Aristomachus, Cleodaeus, Hyllus, and lastly 
from Hercules. He was of the second royal 
family, and all his ancestors, except the two 
named after Leutychides, had been kings of 
Sparta. The Athenians were commanded by 
Xanthippus, son of Ariphon. 

CXXXII. When the fleet of the Greeks 
had arrived at iEgina, the same individuals 
who had before been at Sparta to entreat the 
assistance of that people to deliver Ionia, arriv- 
ed amongst the Greeks. Herodotus, 1 the son 
of Basilides, was with them ; they were in all 
seven, and had together concerted the death of 
Strattes, tyrant of Chios. Their plot having 



1 Herodotus.']— This seems anciently to have been a 
very common name. Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Grae- 
ca, gives a long catalogue of eminent persons who bore 
the name of Herodotus. I will mention some of them. 

Herodotus, brother of Democritus, spoken of by JElian, 
V. H. iv. 20. Herodotus, a comedian, in great favour 
with king Antiochus, as Athenseus asserts, book i. 4. 
Herodotus, a friend of Epicurus; see Laertius, b. x. 
sect. 4. Herodotus the m usician ; Herodotus, a Lycian, 
oommended bv Athenseus, 1. iii. with many others. 



URANIA. 



413 



been discovered by one of the accomplices, the 
other six had withdrawn themselves to Sparta, 
and now came to iEgina, to persuade the 
Greeks to enter Ionia : they were induced, 
though not without difficulty, to advance as far 
Delos. All beyond this the Greeks viewed as 
full of danger, as well because they were igno- 
rant of the country, as because they supposed 
the enemy's forces were in all these parts strong 
and numerous : Samos they considered as not 
less remote than the pillars of Hercules. Thus 
the Barbarians were kept by their apprehen- 
sions from advancing beyond Samos, and the 
Greeks, notwithstanding the solicitations of 
the Chians, would not move farther eastward 
than Delos. Their mutual alarm thus kept 
the two parties at an equal distance from each 
other. 

CXXXIII. Whilst the Greeks thus moved 
to Delos, Mardonius, who had wintered in 
Thessaly, began to break up his quarters. His 
first step was to send an European, whose 
name was Mys, to the difFerent oracles, order- 
ing him to use his endeavours, and consult them 
all. What it was that he wished to learn from 
them I am unable to say, for I have never 
heard ; I should, however, suppose that he 
only intended to consult them on his present 
affairs. 

CXXXIV. It is certain that this man went 
to Lebadia, and by means of a native of the 
country, whom he bribed to his purpose, de- 
scended to the cave of Trophonius ; he went 
also to the oracle of Abae in Phocis ; he then 
proceeded to Thebes, where, with the same 
ceremonies as are practised in Olympia, he 
consulted the Ismenian Apollo ; afterwards he 
obtained permission by his gold, of some stran- 
ger, but not of a Theban, to sleep in the tem- 
ple of Amphiaraus. No Theban is here per- 
mitted to consult the oracle ; for when Am- 
phiaraus had formerly submitted to their choice, 
whether they would have him for their diviner, 
or their ally, they preferred having him as the 
latter. On this account no Theban is allowed 
to sleep in his temple. 

CXXXV. According to the account given 
me by the Thebans, a remarkable prodigy at 
this time happened. Mys the European hav- 
ing visited all the oracles, came to the temple 
of Apollo Ptous. This, though so called, be- 
longs to the Thebans ; it is beyond the lake 
of Copais, at the declivity of a mountain near 



Acraephia. 4 When this Mys arrived here, he 
was attended by three persons of the place, ap- 
pointed for the express purpose of writing 
down the answer of the oracle. The priestess 
immediately made reply to him in a barbarous 
language, 5 which filled those who were present, 
and who expected the answer to be given in 
Greek, with astonishment. Whilst his attend- 
ants remained in great perplexity, Mys snatched 
the tablets from their hands, and wrote down 
the reply of the priestess, which, as afterwards 
appeared, was in the Carian tongue : having 
done this he returned to Thessaly. 

C X X X V I. As soon as the oracular declara- 
tions had been conveyed to Mardonius, he sent 
Alexander the Macedonian, son of Amyntas, 
ambassador to Athens. His choice of him was 
directed from his being connected with the 
Persians by ties of consanguinity, Bubares, a 
Persian, had married Gygcea, sister of Alexan- 
der, and daughter of Amyntas : by her he had 
a son, who, after his grandfather, by the 
mother's side, was called also Amyntas, to 
whom the king had presented Alabanda, a city 
of Phrygia. Mardonius was farther influenced 
in employing Alexander, from his being a man 
of a munificent and hospitable spirit. For 
these reasons he deemed him the most likely 
to conciliate the Athenians, who were repre- 
sented to him as a valiant and numerous people, 
and who he understood had principally con- 
tributed to the defeats which the Persians had 
sustained by sea. He reasonably presumed, 
that if he could prevail on them to unite their 
forces with his own, he might easily become 
master of the sea. His superiority by land 
was in his opinion superior to all resistance, 
and as the oracles had probably advised him to 
make an alliance with the Athenians, he hoped 
by these means effectually to subdue the Greeks. 

C XXXVIL Attending to this, he sent to 
Athens Alexander, descended in the seventh 
degree from Perdiccas, whose manner of ob- 
taining the throne of Macedonia I shall here 
relate : — Three brothers, Gavanes, iEropus, 
and Perdiccas, sons of Temenus, fled on some 
occasion from Argos to Illyrium, from whence 
retiring to the higher parts of Macedonia, they 
came to Lebaea. Here they engaged in the 



4 Acrccphia.]— From this place Apollo had the name 
of AcraplriuB. — T. 

5 Barbarous revenge.^— Sec chapter 18. 



414 



HERODOTUS. 



service of the king, in different menial em- 
ployments: one had the care of his horses, 
another of the cattle, the third and youngest, 
of the sheep. In remoter times, the families 
even of kings had but little money, 1 and it was 
the business of the queen herself to cook for 
her husband. 2 When the bread prepared by 
the younger domestic, Perdiccas, was baked, 
she always observed that it became twice as 
big as before ; this she at length communicated 
to her husband. The king immediately con- 
sidered the incident as a prodigy, and as fore- 



1 Little money.]— In the time of the Trojan war, the 
use of money was not known among the Greeks. Ho- 
mer and Hesiod do not speak of gold and silver money ; 
they express the value of things by saying they are 
worth so many oxen or sheep. They estimated the 
riches of a man by the number of his flocks, and that of 
a country by the abundance of its pastures, and the 
quantity of its metals. See the Iliad, vii. 466. — Pope's 
version : 

Each in exchange 'proportioned treasures gave, 
Some brass or iron, some an ox or slave. 

Lucan attributes the invention of money (]. 6. v. 402.) 
to I ton us, king of Thessaly, and son of Deucalion : others 
to Ericthonius, king of Athens, who, as they say, was 
the son of Vulcan, and bad been brought up by the 
daughters of Cecrops. Aglaosthenes (in Julius Pollux) 
gives the honour of this invention to the inhabitants of 
the island of Naxos. The more received opinion is, that 
Phidon, king of Argos, and contemporary with Lycur- 
gus and Iphitus, first introduced the use of money in 
iEgina, to enable the people of iEgina to obtain a subsist- 
ence by commerce as their island was so barren. 

Neither gold nor silver was permitted at Lacedaemon. 
According to Athenseus, they gave the widow of the 
king Polydonus, who reigned about 310 years before Ly- 
curgus, a certain number of oxen to purchase a house. 
When Lysander plundered Athens, the Lacedaemonians 
began to have gold and silver, but only for public neces- 
sities, the use of it among individuals being forbidden on 
penalty of death. 

Herodotus, 1. i. c. 94, says that the Lydians were the 
first who coined gold and silver money, and used it in 
commerce. 

The treasures of Croesus contained gold and silver only 
in the mass. See Herodotus, b. vi. c. 125. 

It does not appear that the Persians had money before 
the time of Darius, son of 'Hystaspes. See Herod. ]. vi. 
166.— 1. ix. 40. 

None of the ancient money of the Lydians, Persians, 
&c. is now to be seen : the most ancient of those pre- 
served in cabinets are Greek, and of the Greek the oldest 
are those of Amyntas, grandfather of Alexander the 
Great. — Bellanger. 

2 Cook for her husland.~\— A shaik, who has the com- 
mand of five hundred horse, does not disdain to saddle 
and bridle his own, nor to give him barley and chopped 
straw. In Ins tent his wife makes the coffee, kneads the 
dough, and superintends the dressing of his victuals : his 
daughters and kinswomen wash the linen, and go Avith 
pitchers on their heads, and veils over their faces, to 
draw water from fountains. These manners agree pre- 
cisely with the descriptions in Homer, and the history 
of Abraham in Genesis. — Volney. 



boding some extraordinary event. He there- 
fore sent for the brothers, and commanded 
them to leave his territories. They told him 
it was but reasonable that they should first re- 
ceive what was due to them. Upon this the 
king answered, as if heaven-struck, " I give 
you this sun (the light of which then came 
through the chimney) as proper wages for 
you." Ga vanes and iEropus, the two elder 
brothers, on hearing this, were much astonish- 
ed, but the younger one exclaimed, " We ac- 
cept, O king, what you offer us :" Then taking 
the sword, for he had one with him, he made a 
circular mark with it upon that part of the 
ground on which the sun shone, and having 
three several times received the light upon his 
bosom, departed with his brothers. 

C XXXVIII. One of the king's porters 
informed him of what the young man had 
done, and of his probable design in accepting 
what was offered. The king was much in- 
censed, and immediately despatched some horse- 
men to kill them. In this country is a river, 
near which the posterity of those men who 
were originally from Argos offer sacrifices as 
to their preserver. This, as soon as the Te- 
rn enidse bad got to the opposite bank, swelled 
to so great a degree that the horsemen were 
unable to pass it. The Temenidse, arriving at 
another district of Macedonia, fixed their resi- 
dence near the gardens said to belong to 
Midas the son of Gordius. In these a species 
of rose grows naturally, having sixty leaves, 
and more than ordinary fragrance ; here also, as 
the Macedonians relate, Silenus 3 was taken. 
Beyond this place is a mountain, called Ber- 
mion, which during the winter is inaccessible. 
The Temenidse first settled here, and after- 
wards subdued the rest of Macedonia. 

C XXXIX. From the above Perdiccas, 
Alexander was thus descended : He was the 



3 Silenus.~\ — Most authors affirm that he was a satyr ; 
some confound the Sileni with the satyrs. Marsyas is 
called Silenus by some writers, and a satyr by others. 
There was certainly a difference betwixt them; the 
Sileni were the elder satyrs. — Larcher. 

We learn from the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, 
1. iv. 460, that there was a people of Arabia, called 
Selenitae. It has been said, that this name was taken 
by the Arcadians, to confront the vain boast of the 
Athenians ; see book vii. I think that the name Sileni 
was assumed by the Arcadiaus before they began to dis- 
pute antiquity with the Athenians. A principal part of 
their possessions in Asia was called Salonum, and the 
cheese there made Caseus Salonites, words not unlike 
Silenus and Selenitae. The name is preserved in Silenus, 
the usual companion of Pan. — T. 



URANIA. 



415 



son of Amyntas, Amyntas was the son of Al- 
cetas, Alcetas of ^ropus, iEropus of Philip, 
Philip of Argaeus, Argaeus of Perdiccas, who 
obtained the kingdom. 

CXL. When Alexander arrived at Athens, 
as deputed by Mardonius, he delivered the fol- 
lowing speech : " Men of Athens, Mardonius 
informs you by me, that he has received a com- 
mission from the king of the following import : 
* Whatever injuries the Athenians may have 
done me, I willingly forgive : return them 
therefore their country ; let them add to it 
from any other they may prefer, and let them 
enjoy their own laws. If they will consent to 
enter into an alliance with me, you have my 
orders to rebuild all their temples which I have 
burned.' It will be my business to do all this, 
unless you prevent me : I will now give you 
my own sentiments : — What infatuation can 
induce you to continue your hostilities against 
a king to whom you can never be superior, and 
whom you cannot always resist : you already 
know the forces and exploits of Xerxes ; nei- 
ther can you be ignorant of the army under 
me. If you should even repel and conquer 
us, of which if you be wise you can indulge 
no hope, another army not inferior in strength 
will soon succeed ours. Do not, therefore, by 
endeavouring to render yourselves equal to so 
great a king, risk not only the loss of your na- 
tive country, but the security of your persons : 
accept, therefore, of our friendship, and avail 
yourselves of the present honourable oppor- 
tunity of averting the indignation of Xerxes. 
— Be free, and let us mutually enter into a so- 
lemn alliance, without fraud or treachery. Hi- 
therto, O Athenians, I have used the senti- 
ments and language of Mardonius ; for my own 
part it cannot be necessary to repeat what par- 
tiality I bear you, since you have experienced 
proofs of it before. Accept, therefore, the 
terms which Mardonius offers you ; you cannot 
always continue your opposition to Xerxes ; if 
I thought you could, you would not now have 
seen me. The power of the king is prodi- 
gious, * and extensive beyond that of any hu- 
man being. If you shall refuse to accede to 
the advantageous proposals which are made 
you, I cannot but be greatly alarmed for your 
safety, who are so much more exposed to dan. 
ger than the rest of the confederates, and who, 



4 Prodigious.]— As the word XH is used in Greek, so 
is manus in Latin. 

An nescis longas regibus esse manus Lurcher. 



possessing the region betwixt the two armies, 
must be involved in certain ruin. Let, then, 
my offers prevail with you as their importance 
merit, for to you alone of all the Greeks, the 
king forgives the injuries he has sustained, 
wishing to become your friend." 

CLXI. The Lacedaemonians, having heard 
that this prince was gone to Athens to invite 
the Athenians to an alliance with the Persian, 
were exceedingly alarmed. They could not 
forget the oracle which foretold, that they with 
the rest of the Dorians, should be driven from 
the Peloponnese by a junction of the Medes 
with the Athenians, to whom, therefore, they 
lost no time in sending ambassadors. These 
were present at the Athenian council, for the 
Athenians had endeavoured to gain time, well 
knowing that the Lacedaemonians would learn 
that an ambassador was come to invite them to 
a confederacy with the Persians, and would 
consequently send deputies to be present on 
the occasion ; they therefore deferred the meet- 
ing, that the Lacedaemonians might be present 
at the declaration of their sentiments. 

CXLII. When Alexander had finished 
speaking, the Spartan envoys made this imme- 
diate reply : " We have been deputed by the 
Spartans, to entreat you not to engage in any 
thing which may operate to the injury of our 
common country, nor listen to any propositions 
of Xerxes ; such a conduct would not be equi- 
table in itself, and would be particularly base 
in you for various reasons •. you were the first 
promoters of this war, in opposition to our 
opinions ; it was first of all commenced in vin- 
dication of your liberties, though all Greece was 
afterwards drawn into the contest. It will be 
most of all intolerable, that the Athenians 
should become the instruments of enslaving 
Greece, who, from times the most remote, have 
restored their liberties to many. Your present 
condition does not fail to excite in us sentiments 
of the sincerest pity, who, for two successive 
seasons, have been deprived of the produce of 
your lands, and have so long seen your man- 
sions in ruin. From reflecting on your situa- 
tion, we Spartans, in conjunction with your 
other allies, undertake to maintain, as long as 
the war shall continue, not only your wives, 
but such other parts Of your families as are in- 
capable of military service. Let not, therefore, 
this Macedonian Alexander, softening the sen - 
timents of Mardonius, seduce you : the part he 
acts is consistent ; a tyrant himself, he espouses 
the interests.of a tyrant. If you are wise you 



416 



HERODOTUS. 



will always remember, that the Barbarians are 
always false and faithless." 

CXLIII. After the above address of the 
Spartans, the Athenians made this reply to 
Alexander : " It was not at all necessary for 
you to inform us, that the power of the Per- 
sians was superior to our own : nevertheless, 
in defence of our liberties, we will continue our 
resistance to the utmost of our abilities. You 
may be assured that your endeavours to per- 
suade us into an alliance with the Barbarians 
never will succeed : tell, therefore, Mardonius, 
on the part of the Athenians, that as long as 
the sun shall continue its ordinary course, so 
long will we avoid any friendship with Xerxes, 
so long will we continue to resist him. Tell 
him, we shall always look with confidence to 
the protecting assistance of those gods and 
heroes whose shrines and temples he has con- 
temptuously destroyed. Hereafter do not you 
presume to enter an Athenian assembly with 
overtures of this kind, lest whilst you appear 
to mean us well, you prompt us to do what is 
abominable. * We are unwilling that you 
should receive any injury from us, having been 
our guest and our friend." 

CXLIV. The above was the answer given 
to Alexander ; after which the Athenians s thus 

1 What is abominable.]—" Our ancestors so loved their 
country," says Lycurgus, "that they were very near 
stoning Alexander, the ambassador of Xerxes, and for- 
merly their friend, because he required of them earth 
and water." 

It was the circumstance of their being united to him 
by the ties of hospitality, which induced the Athenians 
to spare his life. See my note on the ancient rites of 
hospitality. — T. 

2 I choose in this place to make a few observations on 
the Athenians, which after so many learned works on 
the subject, may perhaps at first appear superfluous ; 
they cannot, however, be deemed impertinent, and, in 
so fertile a topic, something may have occurred to me 
novel enough both to interest and entertain the English 
reader. 

Of the Lacedaemonians I remarked at the end of the 
preceding book, that the characteristic feature was for- 
titude. It will, I fear, be found, that indolence was that 
of the Athenians : they were lovers of their ease, and 
averse to labour. From the Trojan to the Persic and 
Peloponnesian wars, it is the observation of Thucydides, 
their own historian, that they performed nothing worthy 
of being recorded ; and Plutarch in some place passes 
the same censure upon them. Thucydides resolves this 
hypothesis into two causes, the barrenness of their soil, 
and the incursion of pirates : the historian indeed en- 
deavours to gloss over the failings and follies of his 
countrymen ; but their comic poet Aristophanes never 
spared them. See also the character given by Demos- 
thenes of the Athenians in his third Olynthiac. He tells 
them, that their magistrates were now become their 
lords, and they their slaves, courting every one who 



spoke to the Lacedaemonians ; " That the 
Spartans should fear our entering into an alli- 
ance with the Barbarians seems natural enough; 
but in doing this, as you have had sufficient 



entertained them with sports, or fed them with pieces 
of beef ; what was still more unmanly, they confessed 
themselves under obligations for things that were their 
own. Voltaire, Hist, of Europe, part v. speaking of the 
Chinese, remarks, that the spirit of a nation is ever con- 
fined to the few who employ, who feed, and who govern 
the many. I know not whether this be true ; but if the 
Athenian spirit is to be determined by that of the magis- 
trates, the imputation I endeavour to fix upon them is 
true and just. 

At Athens, from the great conflux of strangers con- 
tinually resorting thither, many individuals of other na- 
tions were at length incorporated with the natives, and 
gave them a spirit and activity not naturally their own. 
The dangers also to which they were continually exposed, 
from the Persians, the Spartans, and the Macedonians, 
kept alive a resolution which present distress made ne- 
cessary. Polybius resolves the Athenian valour into the 
same cause, and compares this people to mariners, who 
will obey the pilot, and navigate the ship with much 
diligence in a storm, but when that is blown over, they 
despise their leaders and fall a quarrelling, 1. vi. 488. 

For the truth of this, I may appeal to the testimony and 
judgment of their lawgiver Solon, who found it necessary 
to animate the people with a spirit of industry, by sun- 
dry edicts, and to force them to till and cultivate their 
lands, which lay neglected. To this end he required, 
after the example of the Egyptian policy, that the ma- 
gistrates should inquire vigorously what ways and 
means each man followed to provide for himself, and 
severely punish the idle : he ordained, that the parent 
who neglected to train his son to some business, should 
not be maintained by him in his old age. Notwithstand- 
ing this and more, the Athenians continued to have in 
after ages the same character as formerly, and the wri- 
ters of other nations passed the same censure upon them 
which their neighbours had done before. See Horace : 

Vt primum positis nugari Grsecia bellis 
Coepit et in vitium fortuna labier sequa. 

But with these soft and ensnaring arts of trifling and 
luxury, in which Athens from her infancy was versed, 
did she at length revenge herself on the Roman arms, 
and lead her captivity captive j Graecia capta ferum vic- 
tor em cepit. 

When St Luke says in the Acts, xvii. 21. — " For all 
the Athenians and strangers that sojourn there spend 
their time in nothing but in telling and hearing some 
new thing ;" it is exactly the same character which 
their comic poet passes on them. See the Pax of Aris- 
tophanes, ovhlv y«.g ccXXo 5^«tS n\r,v 'btxa.'C.lTl. 

When St Paul opened to them his commission, and 
preached Jesus and the resurrection, the newness of the 
thing excited their curiosity : their unsteadiness also 
in their common amusements is thus finely ridiculed by 
Horace : 

Nunc tibicinibus, nunc est gavisa tragcedis : 
Sub nutrice puella velut si luderet infans 
Quod cupide petiit, mature plena reliquit. 

Homer applies a similar remark to them in their mili- 
tary capacity, thus distinguishing their chief : 

Amphilochus the vain, 
Who, trick'd with gold, and glitt'ring in his car, 
Rode like a woman to the field of war. 



URANIA. 



417 



testimonies of Athenian firmness, you certainly 
did us injury. There is not upon earth a quan- 
tity of gold, nor any country so rich or so beau- 
tiful, us to seduce as to take part with the 
Medes, or to act injuriously to the liberties of 
Greece. If of ourselves we were so inclined, 
there still exist many important circumstances 
to deter us : in the first place, and what is of 
all motives the most powerful, the shrines and 
temples of our deities, consumed by fire, and 
levelled with the ground, prompt us to the pro- 
secution of a just revenge, and manifestly com- 
pel us to reject every idea of forming an alliance 
with him who perpetrated these impieties. In 
the next place, our common consanguinity, our 
using the same language, our worship of the 
same divinities, and our practice of the same 
religious ceremonies, render it impossible that 
the Athenians should prove perfidious. If you 

I will subjoin a few words on Athenian superstition 
and idolatry, the rather as this is a subject which has 
been less copiously discussed. 

In bigotry and superstition, in the pageantry and fop- 
pery of x-eligious ceremonies, Athens was a servile 
copier of Egypt. The Athenians were the factors of 
Egypt, for uttering and dispersing her idolatrous en. 
chantments : ever unwilling to put themselves to trouble, 
tbey would not be at the pains, out of the abundance of 
trmnpery which Egypt showed them, to make a discreet 
choice, but adopted indiscriminately the whole synod of 
her gods. They took them just as they found them, 
with all their insignia and hieroglyphics, whose design 
and purport they did not know, retaining also their 
Egyptian' names, which they did not understand. But 
Egypt was not the only mart at which Athens trafficked 
for superstition : Strabo censures the Athenians for 
picking up foreign gods wherever they could find them, 
and informs us that they had naturalized many religious 
ceremonies of foreign invention, and were ridiculed for 
doing so by their comic poets. 

I have intimated how well disposed they were to give 
St Paul a hearing, because he seemed to be a setter forth 
of strange gods ; and no mark could be stronger of their 
inveterate superstition, than their erecting an altar to 
the unknown God. Such an inscription could not fail of 
giving to one of St Paul's eloquence a fine opportunity 
of exposing so absurd a worship ; and he accordingly tells 
them, that, as he passed through their city, and beheld 
their devotions, and especially this altar, that he per- 
ceived they were in all tilings too superstitious. If 
Italy was first occupied by the Pelasgi, or by Tyrrhenus 
and his colony, and the proper and original natives were 
the European and Asiatic Ionians, we need not be sur- 
prised that Rome, as she extended her conquests, en- 
larged her theology, till her fasti swelled to the Athenian 



knew it not before, be satisfied now, that as 
long as one Athenian shall survive, we wi;l 
not be friends with Xerxes ; in the mean time, 
your interest in our fortunes, your concern for 
the ruin of our mansions, and your offers to 
provide for the maintenance of our families, 
demand our gratitude, and may be considered 
as the perfection of generosity. We will, how- 
ever, bear our misfortunes as we may be able, 
and not be troublesome to you ; be it your care 
to bring your forces into the field as expedi- 
tiously as possible ; it is not probable that the 
Barbarian will long defer his invasion of our 
country, he will be upon us as soon as he shall 
be informed that we have rejected his proposals: 
before he shall be able to penetrate into Attica, 
it becomes us to advance to the assistance of 
Boeotia. " 



Quos colit ob meritum magnis donata triumphis, 

says Prudentius contra Symmachum, and then adds 
these examples : 

Jupiter ut Cretae domineris, Pallas ut Argis, 
Cynthius ut Delphis tribuerunt, omine dextro, 
Iris Nilicolas, Rhodios Cytherea reliquit, 
Venatrix Ephesum virgo, Mars dedidit Hebrum, 
Destituit Thebes Bromius, concessit ut ipsa 
Juno tuos Phrygiis servire nepotibus Aphro . 

A medley then of devotions ((riGcur pac™, the objects of 
devotion) borrowed of every family of the earth with 
whom they had commerce, however discordant from or 
opposite to each other in temper and manners, and a 
long train of religious rites and ceremonies attendant on 
these, justify me in affirming, that superstition and in- 
dolence were the two great features of the Athenian 
character. 

I have said nothing of the Athenian virtues, or of the 
respectable commerce they carried on : my only inten- 
tion in this place was to point out two striking defects, 
which the prejudice of education might incline us to 
overlook. 

The glory of teaching the Athenians civility, and of 
forming them into society by the gentle arts of. persua- 
sion, belongs to Theseus.— See the Theseus of Meursius. 
The body of men he collected together, Theseus named 
Atrrv, Astu, that is vokn, the city ; afterwards he named 
it Athens. The Hebrew word ethan, or asper, suits 
very well with the situation of Athens. The epithet 
Tg«xs<«, was bestowed generally on Attica by Thucydides 
and Plutarch ; it agrees particularly with Athens, which 
stood on a promontory, jutting out into the sea. The 
Abbe la Pluche derives it from the Hebrew word signify- 
ing linteum ; this corresponds very well with the idea of 
Minerva's skill in the art of weaving, and he observes 
that linen was the dress of the Athenians. 

3G 



HERODOTUS. 



BOOK IX. 



CALLIOPE. 



I. On receiving this answer from the Atheni- 
ans, the ambassadors returned to Sparta. As 
soon as Mardonius heard from Alexander the 
determination of the Athenians, he moved from 
Thessaly, directing by rapid marches his course 
towards Athens. Wherever he came he fur- 
nished himself with supplies of troops. The 
princes of Thessaly were so far from repenting 
of the part they had taken, that they endeav- 
oured still more to animate Mardonius. Of 
these, Thorax 1 of Larissse, 8 who had attended 
Xerxes in his flight, now openly conducted 
Mardonius into Greece. 

II. As soon as the army in its progress ar- 
rived at Boeotia, the Thebans received Mardo- 
nius. They endeavoured to persuade him to 
fix his station where he was, assuring him that 
a place more convenient for a c^mp, or better 
adapted for the accomplishment of the purpose 
he had in view, could not be found. They told 
him, that by staying here he might subdue the 
Greeks without a battle. He might be satis- 
fied, they added, from his former experience, 
that as long as the Greeks were united, it would 
be impossible for any body of men to subdue 
them. " If," said they, " you will be directed by 
our advice, you will be able, without difficulty, 
to counteract their wisest counsels. Send a 
sum of money to the most powerful men in 
each city ; you will thus create anarchy in 
Greece, and by the assistance of your partizans, 
easily overcome all opposition." 

III. This was the advice of the Thebans, 

1 Thorax."] — He was the son of Aleaus, and with his 
two hrothera Eurypylua and Thrasydeius, were remark- 
able for their attachment to Xerxes. — T. 

2 Larissce.] — There were several cities of this name 
in Asia and in Europe. Strabo remarks, that it was 
something peculiar to the Larissaei, both of Europe and 
Asia, that the ground or soil of their settlements was 
alike in three places, at the rivers Cayster, Hermns, and 
Peneus. It was yij voTu.fjt.ix'*' ' 6 *) land thrown up by the 
river.— T. 



which he was prevented from following, 3 partly 
by his earnest desire of becoming a second time 
master of Athens, and partly by his pride. He 
was also anxious to inform the king at Sardis, 
by means of fires 4 dispersed at certain distances 
along the islands, that he had taken Athens. 
Proceeding therefore to Attica, he found it to- 
tally deserted ; the inhabitants, as he was in- 
formed, being either at Salamis or on board the 
fleet. He then took possession' of Athens a 
second time, ten months after its capture by 
Xerxes. 

IV. Whilst he continued at Athens, he des- 
patched to Salamis, Murichides, a native of the 
Hellespont, with the same propositions that 
Alexander the Macedonian had before made to 
the Athenians. He sent this second time, not 
that he was ignorant; of the ill-will of the 
Athenians towards him ; but because he hoped, 
that seeing Attica effectually subject to his 
power, their firmness would relax. 

V. Murichides went to the council, and de- 
livered the sentiments of Mardonius. A sena- 
tor named Lycidas gave his opinion, that the 
terms offered by Murichides were such as it 
became them to listen to, and communicate to 
the people : he said this, either from convic- 
tion, or seduced by the gold of Mardonius ; but 



3 From following.] — Diodorns Siculus assures us on the 
contrary, that Mardonius, whilst in Breotia, did actually 
send money to the Peloponnese, to detach the principal 
cities from the league. 

4 Fires.] — I have before spoken on this subject, and 
informed my reader, how, in remoter times, intelligence 
of extraordinary events was communicated from one 
place to another by means of fires. The word here is 
jrv^croitri, which Larcher renders torches, and adds in a 
note the following particulars : 

" Men placed at different distances gave notice of 
whatever happened. The first who saw any thing gave 
notice of it by holding up lighted torches ; the second 
held up as many torches as he had seen ; the third and 
the rest did the same : by which means intelligence was 
communicated to a great distance in a short space of 
time."— T. 



420 



HERODOTUS. 



he had no sooner thus expressed himself, than 
both the Athenians who heard him, and those 
who were without, rushed with indignation up- 
on him, and stoned him 1 to death. Murichides 
they dismissed without injury. The Athenian 
women soon heard of the tumult which had 
been excited at Salamis on account of Lycidas, 
when in a body mutually stimulating each other, 
they ran impetuously to his house, and stoned 
his wife, and his children. 

VI. These were the inducements with the 
Athenians for returning to Salamis : as long as 
they entertained any expectation of assistance 
from the Peloponnese they staid in Attica : 
but when they found their allies careless and 
inactive, and that Mardonius was already in 
Bceotia, they removed with all their effects to 
Salamis. At the same time they sent envoys 
to Lacedsemon, to complain that the Spartans, 
instead of advancing with them to meet the 
Barbarian in Bceotia, had suffered him to enter 
Attica. They told them by what liberal offers 
the Persian had invited them to his friendship ; 
and they forewarned them, that if they were not 
speedy in their communication of assistance, 
the Athenians must seek some other remedy. 
The Lacedaemonians were then celebrating 
what are called the Hyacinthia, 2 which solem- 
nity they deem of the highest importance ; they 
were also at work upon the wall of the isthmus, 
of which the battlements were already erected. 

VII. The Athenian deputies, accompanied 
by those of Megara and Platea, arrived at La- 



1 Stoned him."] — A man of the name of Cyrsilus had 
ten months before met a similar fate for having advised 
the people to stay in their city and receive Xerxes. The 
Athenian women in like manner stoned his wife. Cicero 
mentions the same fact, probably from Demosthenes. — 
See De?nod. Orat. pro Corona. — Larcher. 

The stoning a person to death was in remoter times 
not only resorted to by the people to gratify their fury 
against an obnoxious character, but it had the sanction 
of law, and was a punishment annexed to more enor- 
mous crimes. The extreme barbarity of it is too obvious 
to require discussion ; we accordingly find it gradually 
disused as civilization extended its powerful influence. 
Within these last centuries, in all the distractions of 
civil, or the tumults occasioned by religious fanaticism, 
we meet with no exampie of any one's being stoned to 
death. A modern traveller informs us, that lapidation, 
or stoning to death, is a punishment at this time inflicted 
in Abyssinia for crimes against religion. — T. 

2 Hyacinthia.'} — A particular description of this so- 
lemnity is given by Athenaeus in his fourth book. They 
were celebrated in memory of the beautiful Hyacinthus, 
whose story must be sufficiently familiar; and they 
were accompanied by games in honour of Apollo. They 
continued three days, and were exhibited at Amyclae, in 
Laconia.— T. 



cedsemon, and being introduced to the Ephori, 3 
thus addressed them : " We have to inform 
you, on the part of the Athenians, that the 
king of the Medes has expressed himself will- 
ing to restore us our country, and to form an 
alliance with us on equitable terms, without 
fraud or collusion : he has also engaged to give 
us any other country which we may choose, in 
addition to our own. We, however, though 
deserted and betrayed by the Greeks, have 
steadily refused all his offers, through reverence 
for the Grecian Jupiter,4 and detestation of the 
crime of treachery to our countrymen. We are 
sensible that it would be more to our advantage 
to accept the Barbarian's offered friendship, 
than continue the object of his hostilities : we 
shall however be very unwilling to do so. Thus 
far we have discharged our duty to the Greeks 
with sincerity and candour ; but you, who were 
so greatly alarmed at the possibility of our be- 
coming the confederates of Persia, when once 
you were convinced that we should continue 
faithful to Greece, and when you had nearly 
completed the wall on the isthmus, thought no 
further of us nor of our danger. You had 
agreed with us jointly to meet the Barbarian in 
Bceotia; but you never fulfilled the engage- 
ment, considering the entrance of the enemy 
into Attica of no importance. The Athenians 
therefore confess, that they are incensed against 
you, as having violated your engagements. We 
now require you instantly to send us supplies, 
that we may be able to oppose the Barbarian 
in Attica. We have failed in meeting him in 
Bceotia ; but we think the plains of Thria, 5 in 
our own territories, a convenient and proper 
place to offer him battle. " 



3 Ephori.}— Of the Ephori I have before spoken at 
some length, but I omitted to mention that the principal 
Ephorus was called Eponymus, as the principal Archon 
was at Athens, and for the same reason, because from 
him the year was named Hftoqivovros tod ozivu,. — T. 

4 Grecian Jupiter.} — Pausanias in Corinthiis, e. xxx. 
speaks of a temple erected to this Jupiter on a mountain 
called Panhellenium : It was said to have been erected 
by JEacus. There was also a festival called the Panelle- 
nia, celebrated by an assembly of people from the differ- 
ent parts of Greece.— T. 

5 Thria.}— This was a village in Attica.— See Spon cte 
Pagis Atticis. Athens had ten gates, the largest of 
which, probably because the entrance to the city from 
Thria, were called Portse Thriasiae.— See Meursius At- 
tica: Lectiones. The same gates were afterwards called 
Dipylon.— See Plutarch in Pericle. U«.$a. r»s e^icttrias 
ttoXus ot.1 wv AtnvXov ovof^xiovTou. It was also called the 
sacred gate, and was that through which Sylla entered 
from the Piraeus. It was named moreover the gate of 
Ceramicus. — T. 



CALLIOPE. 



421 



VIII. The Ephori heard, but deferred an- 
swering them till the next day : when the mor- 
row came, they put them off till the day follow- 
ing, and this they did for ten days successively. 
In this interval, the Peloponnesians prosecuted 
with great ardour on the isthmus their work of 
the wall, which they nearly completed. Why 
the Spartans discovered so great an anxiety on 
the arrival of Alexander at Athens, lest the 
Athenians should come to terms with the 
Medes, and why now they did not seem to con- 
cern themselves about them, is more than I am 
able to explain, unless it was that the wall of 
the isthmus was unfinished, after which they 
did not want the aid of the Athenians; but 
when Alexander arrived at Athens, this work 
was not completed, although from terror of the 
Persians they eagerly pursued it. 

IX. The answer and motions of the Spar- 
tans were finally these : on the day preceding 
that which was last appointed, a man of Tegea, 
named Chileus, 6 who enjoyed at Lacedsemon 
greater reputation than any other foreigner, in- 
quired from one of the Ephori what the Athe- 
nians had said ; which when he knew, he thus 
addressed them : " Things, O Ephori, are thus 
circumstanced. If the Athenians, withdrawing 
from our alliance, shall unite with the Persian, 
strong as our wall on the isthmus may be, the 
enemy will still find an easy entrance into the 
Peloponnese. Let us therefore hear them be- 
fore they do any thing which may involve 
Greece in ruin." 

X. The Ephori were so impressed by what 
Chileus had said, that without communicating 
with the deputies of the different states, whilst 
it was yet night, they sent away a detachment 
of five thousand Spartans, each accompanied by 
seven Helots, under the conduct of Pausanias, 
son of Cleombrotus. The command properly 
belonged to Plistarchus, 7 son of Leonidas ; he 
was yet a child, and Pausanias was his guardian 
and his uncle. Cleombrotus, the son of An- 



6 Chileus. 1 — Plutarch, in the Essay so often quoted, 
takes occasion in this place severely to reprobate Hero- 
dotus. According to the Historian, says he, we are 
taught to believe, that if any private business had kept 
Chileus at home, or if the rites of private hospitality had 
not accidentally subsisted betwixt this man and some 
of the Ephori, the splendid victory of Platea never 
would have happened. Surely it could not be necessary 
to inform a man of Plutarch's wisdom, that from causes 
equally insignificant, events not less important than the 
one here recorded have proceeded.— T. 

7 Plistarchus.'] — This prince, according to Pausanias, 
died at a very early age, and was succeeded by the 
Pausanias here mentioned.— T. 



axandrides, and father of Pausanias, died very 
soon after having conducted back from the isth- 
mus the detachment which constructed the wall. 
He had brought them back, because, whilst 
offering a sacrifice to determine whether he 
should attack the Persian, an eclipse 8 of the 
sun had happened. Pausanias selected as his 
assistant in command, Euryanactes, son of 
Dorieus, who was his relation. 

XI. With these forces Pausanias left Spar- 
ta : the deputies, ignorant of the matter, when 
the morning came went to the Ephori, having 
previously resolved to return to their respective 
cities : " You, O Lacedaemonians," they ex- 
claimed, " lingering here, solemnize the Hya- 
cinthia, and are busy in your public games, 
basely deserting your allies. The Athenians, 
injured by you, and but little assisted by any, 
will make their peace with the Persians on the 
best terms they can obtain. When the enmity 
betwixt us shall have ceased, and we shall be- 
come the king's allies, we shall fight with him 
wherever he may choose to lead us : you may 
know therefore what consequences you have to 
expect." In answer to this declaration of the 
ambassadors, the Ephori protested upon oath, 
that they believed their troops were already in 
Orestium, on their march against the stran- 
gers ; 9 by which expression they meant the 



8 An eclipse."] — That an eclipse in the early ages of ig- 
norance and superstition should be deemed an inauspi- 
cious cmen seems very natural. A partial deprivation 
of light or heat, contrary to their ordinary experience, 
and beyond their ability to account for or explain, must 
to untutored minds have had the appearance of preter- 
natural interposition, and have seemed expressive of 
divine displeasure. 

Mr Seldon makes no scruple to assert, that the authors 
of the melancholy rites instituted in Phrygiain honour of 
Adonis, had no other meaning than to represent thereby 
the access and recess of the sun. Attes Hyes, Hyes Attes, 
was the set form of exclamation used in these mysteries, 
which, as explained by Bochart, means, tu es ignis, ille 
est ignis, is consistent with Seldon's opinion, and j usti- 
fies us in concluding, that ignis, fire or heat, whether 
solar or any other, whether real or symbolical, was the 
chief thing intended and pointed at in these mysteries. 
Neither is it perhaps unworthy of remark, that Ezekiel 
was carried to the north door of the temple to behold 
the women lamenting Thammuz or Adonis. 

" Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the 
Lord's house which was towards the north, and behold, 
there sat women weeping for Thammuz." — Ezek. viii. 
15.— T. 

9 The Strangers, fyc. Barbarians."] — I have before re- 
marked, that the ancients used the word Barbarians ill 
a much milder sense than we do. In the sense in which 
it is here used, it occurs in the following classical lines 
of Milton : 

High on a throne of royal state, which far 
Outshone the wealth of Orinus or of Ind, 



422 



HERODOTUS. 



Barbarians. The deputies, not understanding 
them, requested an explanation. When the 
matter was properly represented to them, they 
departed with astonishment to overtake them, 
accompanied by five thousand armed troops 
from the neighbourhood of Sparta. 

XII. Whilst these were hastening to the 
isthmus, the Argives, 1 as soon as they heard of 
the departure of Pausanias at the head of a 
body of troops from Sparta, sent one of their 
fleetest messengers to Mardonius in Attica. 
They had before undertaken to prevent the 
Lacedaemonians from taking the field. When 
their herald arrived at Athens, " I am sent," 
said he to Mardonius, " by the Argives, to in- 
form you that the forces of Sparta are already 
on their march, and we have not been able to 
prevent them ; avail yourself therefore of this 
information." Saying this, he returned. 

XIII. Mardonius, hearing this, determined 
to stay no longer in Attica. He had continued 
until this time, willing to see what measures 
the Athenians would take ; and he had refrain- 
ed from offering any kind of injury to the 
Athenian lands, hoping they would still make 
peace with him. When it was evident that 
this was not to be expected, he withdrew his 
army before Pausanias and his detachment ar- 
rived at the isthmus. He did not however 
depart without setting fire to Athens, 8 and 
levelling with the ground whatever of the walls, 
buildings, or temples, still remained entire. 
He was induced to quit his station, because the 
country of Attica was ill adapted for cavalry, 
and because in case of defeat he had no other 



Or where the gorgeous east with richest hand 
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, 
Satan exalted sat.— T. 

1 The Argives."] — Eustathius in Dionys. informs us, 
that Apis having cleared the Peloponnese of serpents, 
named it from himself Apia. He was afterwards deified, 
and thence called Serapis, all which has a manifest allu- 
sion to the great idol of the Egyptians. From these ser- 
pents probably tins part of the Peloponnese was called 
Argus, for Argus, according to Hesychius, was used 
synonymously with Ophis, Serpens. — See Hesychius at 
the word A^;«. But this is mere conjecture. — T. 

2 Fire to Athens-] — The fate of Athens has been vari- 
ous. It was burned by Xerxes ; the following year by 
Mardonius j it was a third time destroyed in the Pelo- 
ponnesian war ; it received a Roman garrison to protect 
it against Philip, son of Demetrius, but was, not long 
afterwards, ravaged and defaced by Sylla ; in the reign of 
Arcadius and Honorius, it was torn to pieces by Alaric, 
king of the Goths, and it is now as obscure and insignifi- 
cant as it was once famous and splendid. When in its 
glory, the circumference of the walls of the city alone 
was seven miles and a half. Modern Athens is called 
Athini.— T 



means of escape but through straits, where a 
handful of men might cut off his retreat. He 
therefore determined to move to Thebes, that 
he might have the advantage of fighting near a 
confederate city, and in a country convenient 
for his cavalry. 

XIV. Mardonius was already on his march, 
when another courier came in haste to inform 
him, that a second body of a thousand Spartans 
was moving towards Megara. He accordingly 
deliberated how he might intercept this latter 
party. Turning aside towards Megara, 3 he 
sent on his cavalry to ravage the Megarian 
lands. These were the extreme limits, on the 
western parts of Europe, to which the Persian 
army penetrated. 

XV. Another messenger now came to tell 
him, that the Greeks were assembled with great 
strength at the isthmus, he therefore turned 
back through Decelea. The Boeotian chiefs 
had employed their Asopian neighbours as 
guides, who conducted Mardonius first to 
Sphendaleas, and thence to Tanagra. At Tana- 
gra, Mardonius passed the night, and the next 
day came to Scolos, in the Theban territory. 
Here the lands of the Thebans, though the 
friends and allies of the Medes, were laid waste, 
not from any enmity, but from the urgent ne- 
cessities of the army. The general was desir- 
ous to fortify his camp, and to have some place 
of refuge in case of defeat. His camp extend- 
ed from Erythrse, by Hysiae, as far as Platea, 
on the banks of the Asopus. It was protected 
by a wall which did not continue the whole 
extent of the camp, but which occupied a space 
of ten stadia in each of the four fronts. Whilst 
the Barbarians were employed on this work, 
Attaginus, the son of Phrynon, a Theban, gave 
a magnificent entertainment, to which Mardo- 
nius and fifty Persians of the highest rank were 
invited. They accepted the summons, and the 
feast was given at Thebes. 

XVI. What I am now going to relate, I 
received from Thersander, an Orchomenian, 
one of the most esteemed of his countrymen 
He informed me, that he was one of fifty The . 
bans whom Attaginus at the same time invited. 
They were so disposed at the entertainment, 



3 Megara]— Was at the point of middle distance be- 
twixt Athens and Corinth : it took its name either from 
Megaras, a son of Neptune, or Megareus, a son of Apollo. 
It was the native place of Euclid the Socratic, and of 
Theognis. There was a place of the same name in Sicily. 
The Megara here mentioned retains its ancient name. 
— T. 



CALLIOPE. 



423 



that a Theban and a Persian were on the same 
couch. 4 After the feast they began to drink 
cheerfully, when the Persian who was on the 
same couch, asked him in Greek, " What 
countryman he was ?" he replied, " An Orcho- 
menian." " Well," answered the Persian, 
" since we have feasted together, and partaken 
of the same libations, 5 I would wish to impress 
upon your mind something which may induce 
you to remember me, and at the same time 
enable you to provide for your own security. 
You see the Persians present at this banquet, 
and you know what forces were encamped upon 
the borders of the river ; of all these in a short 
interval very few will remain." Whilst he was 
saying this, the Persian wept. His neighbour, 
astonished at the remark, replied : " Does it 
not become you to communicate this to Mar- 
donius, and to those next him in dignity?" 
" My friend,'' returned the Persian, " it is not 
for man to counteract the decisions of Provi- 
dence. Confidence is seldom obtained to the 
most obvious truths. A multitude of Persians 
think as I do ; but like me, they follow what 
it is not in their power to avoid. Nothing in 
human life is more to be lamented, than that a 



4 On the same couch, ] — The ancients, in more remote 
times, sat at table a^s we do. Homer represents people 
as sitting round a table. Yet the custom of reclining on 
a. couch at meals must have been practised very early, as 
is evident from this passage of Herodotus. The Romans 
also, in the earlier times of the republic, sat ; and Mont- 
faucon, expressing his surprise at this, inquires what 
could possibly induce the Romans, as they became more 
luxurious and voluptuous, to adopt a custom much less 
convenient and easy. He proceeds to give the following 
reason from Mercurialis, who says, that they first began 
to eat in a reclining attitude when the use of the bath 
became fashionable ; it was their custom to bathe before 
supper ; after bathing to he down, and have their supper 
placed before them ; it soon became universally the prac- 
tice to eat in that posture. Heliogabalus had his sleep- 
ing beds and table beds of solid silver.— See Montfaucon, 
vol. iii. 74 See also Harmer's Observations on Passages 
of Scripture, from which I extract the following : 

" The Persian carvings at Persepolis frequently ex- 
hibit a venerable personage sitting in a sort of high-raised 
chair, with a footstool ; but the latter sovereigns of that 
country have sat with their legs under them, on some 
carpet or cushion laid on the floor, like their subjects. 
Two very ancient colossal statues in Egypt are placed on 
cubical stones, in the same attitude we make use of in 
sitting." In like manner, we find the figures on the 
ancient Syrian coins are represented sitting on seats as 
we do.— T. 

5 Same libations.'] — The Greek is otx.otrrov'bot, which 
perhaps might as well have been rendered, drank of the 
6ame cup. This expression occurs with great beauty 
and effect in the lively allegorical description which Na- 
than gives David of his conduct. " It did eat of his own 
meat, and drank of his men cup" &c. — T. 



wise man should have so little influence. " This 
information I received from Thersander the 
Orchomenian, who also told me that he related 
the same to many, before the battle of Platea. 

XVII. Whilst Mardonius was stationed in 
Boeotia, all the Greeks who were attached to 
the Persians supplied him with troops, and 
joined him in his attack on Athens ; the Pho- 
ceans alone did not: these had indeed, and 
with apparent ardour, favoured the Medes, not 
from inclination but necessity. A few days 
after the entertainment given at Thebes, they 
arrived with a thousand well armed troops under 
the command of Harmocydes, one of their most 
popular citizens. Mardonius, on their follow- 
ing him to Thebes, sent some horsemen, com- 
manding them to halt by themselves in the 
plain where they were; at the same moment, 
all the Persian cavalry appeared in sight. A 
rumour instantly circulated among those Greeks 
who were in the Persian camp, that the Pho- 
ceans were going to be put to death by the 
cavalry. The same also spread among the 
Phoceans ; on which account their leader Har- 
mocydes thus addressed them : My friends, I 
am convinced that we are destined to perish by 
the swords of these men, and from the accusa- 
tions of the Thessalians. Let each man there- 
fore prove his valour. It is better to die like 
men, exerting ourselves in our own defence, 
than to suffer ourselves to be slain tamely and 
without resistance : let these Barbarians know 
that the men whose deaths they meditate are 
Greeks." 

XVIII. With these words Harmocydes ani- 
mated his countrymen. When the cavalry had 
surrounded them, they rode up as if to destroy 
them ; they made a show of hurling their wea- 
pons, which some of them probably did. The 
Phoceans upon this closed their ranks, and on 
every part fronted the enemy. The Persians, 
seeing this, faced about and retired. I am not 
able to decide whether, at the instigation of the 
Thessalians, the Phoceans were actually doom- 
ed to death ; or whether, observing them deter- 
mined to defend themselves, the Persians re- 
tired from the fear of receiving some injury 
themselves, and as if they had been so ordered 
by Mardonius, merely to make experiment of 
their valour. After the cavalry were withdrawn, 
a herald came to them on the part of Mardo- 
nius : " Men of Phocis," he exclaimed, ** be 
not alarmed ; you have given a proof of resolu- 
tion which Mardonius had been taught not to 
expect ; assist us therefore in the war with 



421 



HERODOTUS. 



alacrity, for you shall neither outdo me nor the 
king in generosity," The above is what hap- 
pened with respect to the Phoceans 

XIX. The Lacedaemonians arriving at the 
isthmus, 1 fortified their camp. As soon as this 
was known to the rest of the Peloponnesians, 
all were unwilling to be surpassed by the Spar- 
tans, as well they who were actuated by a love 
of their country, as they who had seen the La- 
cedaemonians proceed on their march. The 
victims which were sacrificed having a favour- 
able appearance, they left the isthmus in a body, 
and came to Eleusis. The sacrifices at this 
place being again auspicious, they continued to 
advance, having been joined at Eleusis by the 
Athenians, who had passed over from Salamis. 
On their arrival at Erythrae, in Boeotia, they 
first learned that the Barbarians were encamp- 
ed near the Asopus ; consulting upon which, 
they marched forward to the foot of Mount 
Cithaeron. 8 

XX. As they did not descend into the plain, 3 



1 At the isthmus.]— Diodorus Siculus says, that the 
Peloponnesians, arriving at the isthmus, agreed without 
reserve to take the following oath : 

" I will not prefer life to liberty ; I will not desert my 
commanders, living or dead ; I will grant burial to all 
the allies who shall perish in the contest ; after having 
vanquished the Barbarians, I will not destroy any city 
which contributed to their defeat : I will not rebuild any 
temple which they have burned or overturned ; but I 
will leave them in their present condition, as a monu- 
ment to posterity of the impiety of the Barbarians." 

Lycurgus says, and with great probability, that this 
oath was taken by the confederates at Platea.— Lycurg. 
contra Leocreton. The oath is there preserved, but it 
ciflers in some respect: it adds, " I will decimate all 
those who have taken part with the Barbarians.— Lar- 
cher. 

2 Cithceron.]—T\\Ss place was particularly eminent for 
the sacrifices to Bacchus.— See Virg. Mn. v. 301. 

Qualis commotis excita sacris 

Thyas ubi audito stimulant trieterica Baocho 

Orgia, nocturnusque vocat clamore Cithaeron. T. 

3 Into the plain. ~\— Plutarch relates some particulars 
previous to this event, which are worth transcribing. 

Whilst Greece found itself brought to a most delicate 
crisis, some Athenian citizens of the noblest families of 
the place, seeing themselves ruined by the war, and con- 
sidering that with their effects they had also lost their 
credit and their influence, held some secret meetings, 
and determined to destroy the popular government of 
Athens : in which project if they failed, they resolved to 
ruin the state, and surrender Greece to the Barbarians. 
This conspiracy had already made some progress, when 
it was discovered to Aristides. He at first was greatly 
alarmed, from the juncture at which it happened j but 
as he knew not the precise number of conspirators, he 
thought it expedient not to neglect an affair of so great 
importance, and yet not to investigate it too minutely in 
order to give those concerned opportunity to repent. 
He satisfied himself with arresting eight of the oonspira- 



Mardonius sent against them the whole of his 
cavalry, under the command of Masistius, call- 
ed by the Greeks Macisius. He was a Per- 
sian of distinction, and was on this occasion 
mounted on a Nisaean horse, 4 decorated with a 
bridle of gold, and other splendid trappings. 
When they came near the Greeks, they attack- 
ed them in squadrons, did them considerable 
injury, and by way of insult called them women. 

XXI. The situation of the Megarians being 
most easy of access, was most exposed to the 
enemy's attack. Being hardly pressed by the 
Barbarians, they sent a herald, who thus ad- 
dressed the Grecian commanders : " We Me- 
garians, O allies, are unable to stand the shock 
of the enemy's cavalry in our present position : 
nevertheless, though closely pressed, we make 
a vigorous and valiant resistance. If you are 
not speedy in relieving us, we shall be compell- 
ed to quit the field." After this report of the 
heralds, Pausanias wished to see if any of the 
Greeks would voluntarily offer themselves to 
take the post of the Megarians. All refused 
except a chosen band of three hundred Athe- 
nians, commanded by Olympiodorus the son of 
Lampon. 

XXII. This body, which took upon itself 
the defence of a post declined by all the other 
Greeks encamped at Erythrae, brought with 
them a band of archers. The engagement, 
after an obstinate dispute, terminated thus: 
The enemies' horse attacked in squadrons; 
the steed of Masistius, being conspicuous 
above the rest, was wounded in the side by an 
arrow ; it reared, and becoming unruly from the 
pain of the wound, threw its rider. The 
Athenians rushed upon him, seized the horse, 
and notwithstanding his resistance, killed Ma- 
sistius. In doing this, however, they had some 
difficulty, on account of his armour. Over a 
purple tunic he wore a breast-plate covered 
with plates of gold. This repelled all their 
blows, which some person perceiving, killed 



tors ; of these, two as the most guilty were immediately 
proceeded against, but they contrived to escape. The 
rest he dismissed, that they might show their repentance 
by their valour, telling them that a battle should be the 
great tribunal, to determine their sincere and good inten- 
tions to their country. — Plutarch's Life of Aristides. — 
Larcher. 

4 Niscean horse.]— These horses are mentioned as re- 
markable for their size, in Thalia, c. 136. Strabo says, 
book the 11th, that they were used by kings, being the 
best and largest breed, Ayo-Tois eviri xeci piyitrrois ; they 
are said to have been all of a golden colour, uvxi gouidus 
•ra.ff(x.f. — T. 



CALLIOPE. 



425 



him by wounding him in the eye. 5 The death 
of Masistius was unknown to the rest of his 
troops ; they did not see him fall from his 
horse, and were ignorant of his fate, their at- 
tention being entirely occupied by succeeding 
in regular squadrons to the charge. At length 
making a stand, they perceived themselves 
without a leader. Upon this they mutually 
animated each other, and rushed in with united 
force upon the enemy, to bring off the body 6 of 
Masistius. 

XXIII. The Athenians seeing them ad- 
vance no longer in successive squadrons, but in 
a collected body, called out for relief. While 
the infantry were moving to their support, the 
body of Masistius was vigorously disputed. 
While the three hundred were alone, they were 
compelled to give ground, and recede from the 
body ; but other forces coming to their relief, the 
cavalry in their turn gave way, and, with the 
body of their leader, lost a great number of 
their men. Retiring for the space of two 
stadia, they held a consultation, and being with- 
out a commander, determined to return to 
Mardonius. 

XXIV. On their arrival at the camp, the 
death of Masistius spread a general sorrow 
through the army, and greatly afflicted Mardo- 
nius himself. They cut off the hair from 
themselves, their horses, and their beasts of 
burden, and all Boeotia resounded with their 
cries and lamentations. The man they had 
lost was next to Mardonius, most esteemed by 
the Persians and the king. Thus the Bar- 
barians in their manner honoured the deceased 
Masistius. 

XXV. The Greeks having not only sustained 
but repelled the attacks of the cavalry, were in- 
spired with increasing resolution. The body 
of Masistius, which from its beauty and size 

5 In the eye.] — Plutarch, in his life of Aristides, says 
that Masistius was killed by a wound through the open- 
ing of his helmet. 

6 Bring off the body.]— This was considered as a high 
point of honour in ancient military service. Some of the 
finest passages of Homer are found in his descriptions of 
battles about the dead bodies of the slain. The supersti- 
tious ideas which prevailed, from the circumstance of a 
deceased relative's not receiving the rites of burial, are 
beautifully employed by Sophocles in his Antigone. It 
seems a very natural impulse, but I remember no other 
instance where the Persians appear to have been tena- 
cious with respect to this prejudice. Their obstinacy on 
this occasion might increase in the proportion in which 
they saw it exercised by their adversaries. On the cus- 
toms of the Persians with respect to their dead, see book 
L c cxL and note 125.— T. 



deserved admiration, they placed on a carriage, 
and passed through the ranks, 7 while all quitted 
their stations to view it. They afterwards 
determined to remove to Platea j they thought 
this a more commodious place for a camp than 
Erythrae, as well for other reasons as because 
there was plenty of water. To this place, near 
which is the fountain of Gargaphie, they re- 
solved to go and pitch a regularly fortified 
camp. Taking their arms, they proceeded by 
the foot of Cithseron, and passing Hysia?, came 
to Platea. They drew themselves up in regu- 
lar divisions of the different nations near the 
fountain of Gargaphie 8 and the shrine of the 
hero Androcrates, 9 some on a gently rising 
ground, others on the plain. 

XXVI. In the arrangement of the several 
nations, a violent dispute arose betwixt the 
Tegeans and Athenians, each asserting their 
claim to one of the wings, in vindication of 
which they appealed to their former as well as 
more recent exploits. The Tegeans spoke to 
this effect ; " The post which we now claim 
has ever been given us bv the joint consent of 
the allies, in all the expeditions made beyond 
the Peloponnese : we not only speak of ancient 
but of less distant periods. After the death of 
Eurystheus, when the Heraclidae 10 made an at- 
tempt to return to the Peloponnese, the rank 
we now vindicate was allowed us on the follow- 
ing occasion: In conjunction with the Achaeans 
and Ionians, who then possessed the Pelopon- 
nese, we advanced as allies to the isthmus, en- 
camping opposite to those who were endeavour- 
ing to return. At that time Hyllus made a 
proposition not to risk the safety of the two 
armies, but that the Peloponnesians should se- 
lect the bravest man of all their army to engage 

7 Through the ranks.] — Thus iu the twenty-second 
book of the Iliad, Achilles directs the body of Hector to 
be carried for inspection through the Grecian army. 

Meanwhile ye sons of Greece in triumph bring 
The corpse of Hector, and your Paeans sing ; 
Be this the song, slow moving toward the shore ; 
Hector is dead, and Ilion is no more. — T. 

8 Gargaphie.] — This place is celebrated in poetic story 
for being the place where Actaeon was devoured by his 
dogs.— T. 

9 Androcrates.] — Androcrates had been anciently a 
Plateau commander. 

10 Heraclidce.] — This speech of the Tegeatae does not 
to me seem remarkably wise. They had better, I should 
suppose, have spoken but very tenderly of their exploits 
against the Heraclidae in the presence of their imme- 
diate descendants, who to punish their arrogance might 
naturally enough assign the superiority to their rivals, 
although their pretensions were not so well founded.— 
I j archer. 

3H 



426 



HERODOTUS. 



him in single combat, upon certain terms. The 
Peloponnesians assented, and an oath was 
taken to this effect : If Hyllus conquered the 
Peloponnesian chief, the Heraclidae should be 
suffered to resume their paternal inheritance, 
if Hyllus was vanquished, the Heraclidae were 
to retire, nor during the space of one hundred 
years make any effort to return to the Pelo- 
ponnese. Echemus the son of GEnopus, and 
grandson of Phegeus,' our leader and prince, 
was selected on this occasion by the voice of 
all the confederates. He encountered Hyllus, 
and slew him. From this exploit, the Pelo- 
ponnesians of that period assigned us many 
honourable distinctions which we still retain, 
and this in particular, that as often as any ex- 
pedition should be made by their joint forces, 
we should command one of the wings. With 
you, O Lacedaemonians, we do not enter into 
competition, we are willing that you should 
take your post in which wing you think proper j 
the command of the other, which has so long 
been allowed us, we claim now. Not to dwell 
upon the action we have recited, we are cer- 
tainly more worthy of this post than the Athe- 
nians. On your account, O Spartans, as well 
as for the benefit of others, we have fought 
again and again with success and glory. Let 
not then the Athenians be on this occasion 
preferred to us ; for they have never in an 
equal manner distinguished themselves in past 
or in more recent periods." 

XXVII. The Athenians made this reply : 
" We are well aware, that the motive of our 
assembling here is not to spend our time in 
altercations, but to fight the Barbarians ; but 
since it has been thought necessary to urge on 
the part of the Tegeatae their ancient as well as 
more recent exploits, we feel ourselves obliged 
to assert that right, which we receive from our 
ancestors, to be preferred to the Arcadians as 
long as we shall conduct ourselves well. These 
Heraclidae, whose leader they boast to have 
slain at the isthmus, after being rejected by all 
the Greeks with whom they wished to take 
refuge from the servitude of the people of My- 
cenae, found a secure retreat with us alone. In 
conjunction with them we chastised the inso- 
lence of Eurystheus, and obtained a complete 
victory over those who at that time possessed 
the Peloponnese. The Argives, who under 



1 Phegeus.2 — Larcher, on the authority of Pausanias, 
proposes to read Cepheus, arid I think it ought to be so. 
Cepheus was one of the Argonauts. 



Polynices fought against Thebes, remaining 
unburied, 2 we undertook an expedition against 
| the Cadmeans, recovered the bodies, and in 
terred them in our country at Eleusis." A 
farther instance of our prowess was exhibited 
in our repulsion of the Amazons, 4 who advanc- 
ed from the river Thermodon, to invade At- 
tica. We were no less conspicuous at the seige 
of Troy. But this recital is vain and useless ; 
the people who were then illustrious might 
now be base, or dastards then might now be 
heroes. Enough therefore of the examples of 
our former glory, though we are still able to 
introduce more and greater ; for if any of the 
Greeks at the battle of Marathon merited re- 
nown, we may claim this, and more also. On 
that day we alone contended with the Persian, 
and after a glorious and successful contest, 
were victorious over an army of forty-six differ- 
ent nations : which action must confessedly en- 
title us to the post we claim ; but in the present 
state of affairs, all dispute about rank is unrea- 
sonable ; we are ready, O Lacedaemonians, to 
opp-se the enemy wherever you shall choose 
to station us. Wherever we may be, we shall 
endeavour to behave like men. Lead us, there- 
fore, we are ready to obey you." 



2 Unluried.] — The sentiments of the ancients, with 
respect to the bodies of the dead remaining unburied, 
cannot be better expressed than in the following lines of 
Homer, which I give in the version of Pope. The shade 
of Patroclus, in the 23d book, thus addresses Achilles : 
And sleeps Achilles (thus the phantom said) 
Sleeps my Achilles, his Patroclus dead : 
Living, I seemed his dearest tenderest care ; 
But now forgot, I wander in the air. 
Let my pale corpse the rites of burial know, 
And give me entrance in the realms below ; 
Till then the spirit finds no resting place, 
But here and there the unbodied spectres chase 
The vagrant dead around the dark abode, 
Forbid to cross the irremeable flood, 
Now give thy hand : for to the farther shore, 
When once we pass, the soul returns no more : 
When once the last funereal flames asoend, 
No more shall meet Achilles and his friend, &c. 

Upon this translation of Mr Pope I may be excused 
remarking, that in the fourth line, the expression, *' I 
wander in the air," is not in Homer. Homer contents 
himself with saying, " You did not neglect me living, 
but dead. " The seventh line also is not in Homer : " Till 
then the spirit," &c. it is implied perhaps, but certainly 
not expressed. It may seem cavilling to quarrel with 
the epithet "irremeable " in the tenth line : I can only 
say it is not in Homer, who merely says, vvi% ^roTu.fjt.nto^ 
over the river. " For to the farther shore, when once 
we pass," in lines eleven and twelve, are not found in 
Homer.— T. 

3 At Eleusis.~\— Pausanias as well as Herodotus asserts 
that these bodies were interred at Eleusis.— Pausan. i. i 
c. 39. 

4 Amazons.] — Concerning the Amazons, see book 
Melpomene, chap ex. 



CALLIOPE. 



427 



XXVIII. When the Athenians had thus 
delivered their sentiments, the Lacedaemonians 
were unanimous in declaring that the Area, 
dians must yield to the people of Athens the 
command of one of the wings. They accord- 
ingly took their station in preference to the 
Tegeatae. The Greeks who came afterwards, 
with those who were present before, were thus 
disposed. The Lacedaemonians to the num- 
ber of ten thousand, occupied the right wing ; 
of these five thousand were Spartans, who were 
followed by thirty-five thousand Helots lightly 
armed, allowing seven Helots to each Spartan. 
The Tegeatae, to the number of fifteen hundred 
were placed by the Spartans next themselves, 
in consideration of their valour, and as a mark 
of honour. Nearest the Tegeatae were five 
thousand Corinthians, who, in consequence of 
their request to Pausanias, had contiguous to 
them three hundred Potidaeans of Pallene. 
Next in order were six hundred Arcadians of 
Orchomene, three thousand Sicyonians, eight 
hundred Epidaurians, and a thousand Troezen- 
ians. Contiguous to these last, were two hun- 
dred Lepreatae ; next to whom were four hun- 
dred Myceneans and Tirynthians. Stationed 
by the Tirynthians were in regular succession 
a thousand Phliasians, three hundred Hermon- 
ians, six hundred Eretrians and Styreans : next 
came four hundred Chalcidians, five hundred 
Ampraciatae, eight hundred Leucadians and 
Anactorians ; to whom two hundred Paleans 
of Cephallenia, and five hundred iEginetae, 
successively joined. Three thousand Mega- 
rians and six hundred Plateans were contiguous 
to the Athenians, who to the number of eight 
thousand, under the command of Aristides, son 
of Lysimachus, occupied the left wing at the 
other extremity of the army. 

XXIX. The amount of this army, inde- 
pendent of the seven Helots to each Spartan, 
was thirty-eight thousand seven hundred men, 
all of them completely armed and drawn toge- 
ther to repel the Barbarian. Of the light- 
armed troops were the thirty-five thousand 
Helots, each well prepared for battle, and 
thirty-four thousand five hundred attendant on 
the Lacedaemonians and other Greeks, reckon- 
ing a light armed soldier to every man j the 
whole of these therefore amounted to sixty- 
nine thousand five hundred. 

XXX. Thus the whole of the Grecian 
army assembled at Platea, including both the 
heavy and the light-armed troops, was one 
hundred eight thousand two hundred men ; 



adding to these one thousand and eight hun- 
dred Thespians who were with the Greeks, 
but without arms, the complete number was 
one hundred and ten thousand. These were 
encamped on the banks of the Asopus. 5 

XXXI. The Barbarian army having 
ceased to lament Masistius, as soon as they 
knew that the Greeks were advanced to 
Platea, marched also to that part of the Aso- 
pus nearest to it ; where they were thus dis- 
posed by Mardonius. Opposed to the Lace- 
daemonians were the Persians, who, as they 
were superior in number, fronted the Tegeatae 
also. Of this body the select part was opposed 
to the Lacedaemonians, the less effective to the 
Tegeatae. In making which arrangement, 
Mardonius followed the advice of the Thebans. 
Next to the Persians were the Medes, op- 
posed to the Corinthians, Potidaeans, Orcho- 
menians, and Sicyonians. The Bactrians 
were placed next, to encounter the Epidau- 
rians, Trcezenians, Lepreatae, Tirynthians, 
Myceneans, and Phliasians. Contiguous to the 
Bactrians the Indians were disposed, in oppo- 
sition to the Hermionians, Eretrians, Styreans, 
and Chalcidians. The Sacae, next in order, 
fronted the Ampraciatae, Anactorians, Leuca- 
dians, Paleans, and iBginetae. The Athe- 
nians, Plateans, and Magareans were ultimately 
faced by the Boeotians, Locrians, Melians, 
Thessalians, and a thousand Phoceans. All 
the Phoceans did not assist the Medes ; some 
of them about Parnassus, favoured the Greeks, 
and from that station attacked and harassed 
both the troops of Mardonius and those of 
the Greeks who were with him. The Mace- 
donians and Thessalians were also opposed to 
the Athenians. 

XXXII. In this manner Mardonius ar- 
ranged those nations who were the most 
numerous and the most illustrious ; with these 
were promiscuously mixed bodies of Phrygians, 
Thracians, Mysians, Paeonians, and others. 



5 Of the Asopus.] — An ingenious plan of this battle, 
which may give the reader a general idea of the re- 
spective situations of the two armies, may be seen in 
the Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis. In the description 
of places, every succeeding observation of different tra- 
vellers confirms the fidelity and accuracy of Herodotus. 
On this subject Mr Wood speaks thus : " I would not 
encourage that diffidence in Herodotus which has al- 
ready been carried too far. Were I to give my opinion 
of him, having followed him through most of the coun- 
tries which he visited, I would say, that he is a writer 
of veracity in his description of what he snw, but of 
credulity in his relations of what he heard." — 1\ 



428 



HERODOTUS. 



To the above might be added the Ethiopians, 
and those Egyptians named Hermotybians and 
Calasirians, 1 who alone of that country follow 
the profession of arms. These had formerly 
served on board the fleet, whence they had 
been removed to the land forces by Mardonius 
when at Phalerum : the Egyptians had not 
been reckoned with those forces which Xerxes 
led against Athens. We have before remarked 
that the Barbarian army consisted of three 
hundred thousand men ; the number of the 
Greek confederates of Mardonius, as it was 
never taken, cannot be ascertained ; as far as 
conjecture may determine, they amounted to 
fifty thousand. Such was the arrangement of 
the infantry ; the cavalry were posted apart by 
themselves. 

XXXIII. Both armies being thus ranged 
in nations and squadrons, on the following day 
offered sacrifices. The diviner on the part of 
the Greeks was Tisamenus, the son of Anti- 
ochus, who had accompanied the Grecian army 
in this character. He was an Elean of the 
race of Jamidse, 2 and of the family of Clytiadae, 
but had been admitted to the rights of a Lace- 
daemonian citizen. Having consulted the 
oracle at Delphi concerning his offspring, 
the Pythian informed him, he should be 
victorious in five remarkable contests. Tis- 
amenus not understanding this, applied him- 
self to gymnastic exercises, presuming it was 
here he was to expect renown and victory : be- 
coming, therefore, a competitor in the Pent- 
athlon, he carried off all the prizes, except that 
of wrestling, 3 in which he was foiled by Hier- 
onymus, an Andrian. The Lacedaemonians, 
however, applying the oracular declaration to 
Tisamenus not to gymnastic but military con- 
tests, endeavoured to prevail on him by money 
to accompany their kings, the Heraclidae, as a 



1 Hermotybians and Calasiriayis.] — See book Euterpe, 
c. clxiv. 

2 Jamidae.]— The families of the Jamidae, Clytiadae, 
and Telliadae, seem to have been all soothsayers, with 
some specific distinction. Cicero, in his book de 
Divinat. makes a difference betwixt the Jamidse and 
the Clytiadae. 

Larcher thinks the text of Herodotus is in this place 
corrupt. Of Jamus, the founder of this family, it may 
farther be remarked, that his mother being secretly 
delivered of him, concealed him among the rushes and 
violets, from whence he had the name of Jamus, Iw? 
Ion, signifying a violet. This is Larcher's account, who 
refers the reader to Pindar, Olymp. vi. ver. 90.— It ne- 
vertheless seems very far-fetched. — T. 

3 Except that of wrestling.]— See Pausanias, 1. iii. c. 
xi. where the same thing is said of this personage. 



leader in their warlike enterprises. He, ob- 
serving that his friendship was of importance 
to the Spartans, endeavoured to make the most 
of it ; he told them, that if they would admit 
him to all the privileges of a citizen of Sparta, 
they might expect his services, otherwise not. 
The Spartans were at first incensed, and for a 
time neglected him : but when the terror of the 
Persian army was impending, they acceded to 
his terms. Tisamenus seeing them thus chang- 
ed, increased his demand, 4 . and insisted upon 
their making his brother Hegies also a citizen 
of Sparta. 

XXXIV. In this conduct he seems to have 
imitated the example of Melampus, excepting 
that the one claimed a throne, the other the 
rights of a citizen. Melampus was invited 
from Pylos by the Argives, for a certain pro- 
posed compensation, to remove a kind of mad- 
ness which prevailed among their women. The 
Argives, on his requiring half of their" king- 
dom, 5 disdained and left him : but as the dis- 
ease continued to spread still farther among 
their females, they returned to him, accepting 
his terms : he observing this change, extended 
his views, refusing to accomplish what they 
desired, unless they would also give a third part 



4 Increased his demand.] — The story of the Sibyline 
books will here occur to the reader. A woman came to 
Tarquin with nine books of the oracles of the Sibyls, 
which she offered to sell : the king hesitating about the 
price, she went away and burned three of them, and 
then came and asked the same price for the remaining 
six; Tarquin again refused to accede to her demand; 
she accordingly went away, and burned three more, and 
returning, still asked the same price. — The augurs ad- 
vised the king to pay her, and preserve the books as 
sacred, which was done. — T. 

5 Half of their kingdom.] — These men sometimes sold 
their knowledge at a very high price. There were 
diviners and soothsayers in all parts of Greece ; 
but Elis of the Peloponnese was particularly remark- 
able for two families, the Jamidae and the Clytiadae, 
who for many generations transmitted the art of 
divination from father to son. — See Cicero de Divinat. 
1. i. c. 41.— T. 

Melampus is thus mentioned in the Odyssey : 
A wretch ran breathless to the shore, 
New from his crime and reeking yet with gore ; 
A seer he was, from great Melampus sprung, 
Melampus, who in Pylos flourish'd long; 
Till urged by wrongs, a foreign realm he chose, 
Far from the hateful cause of all his woes. 
Neleus his treasures one long year detains, 
As long he groan'd in Philacus's chains. 
Meantime what anguish and what rage combined 
For lovely Pero rack'd his lab'ringmind : 
Yet 'scaped he death, and vengeful of his wrong, 
To Pylos drove the lowing herds alone: 
Then Neleus vanquiih'd, and consign'd the fair 
To Bias' arms, he sought a foreign air; 
Argos the rich for his retreat he chose, 
There form'd his empire, there his palace rose. V. 



CALLIOPE. 



429 



to his brother Bias : the Argives, compelled by 
necessity, granted this also. 

XXXV. In like manner the Spartans, from 
their want of the assistance of Tisamenus, 
granted all that he desired. He, from being an 
Elian, thus became a Spartan, and assisting 
them as a diviner, they obtained five remarkable 
victories. The Spartans never admitted but 
these two strangers into the number of their 
citizens. The five victories were these : the 
first was this of Platea ; the second was the 
battle of Tegea, won by the Spartans against 
the Tegeatae and the Argives ; the third at 
Dipaea, against all the Arcadians, except the 
Mantineans ; the fourth was over the Messen- 
ians at the isthmus ; the last at Tanagra, 6 
against the Athenians and Argives, which com- 
pleted the predicted number. 

XXXVI. This Tisamenus officiated as the 
augur of the Greeks at Platea, to which place 
he had accompanied the Spartans. The sacri- 
fices promised victory to the Greeks if they 
acted on the defensive, but the contrary, if 
passing the Asopus, they began the fight. 

XXXVII. Mardonius, though anxious to 
engage, had nothing to hope from the entrails, 
unless he acted on the defensive only. He had 
also sacrificed according to the Grecian rites, 
using as his soothsayer, Hegesistratus an 
Elean, and the most illustrious of the Tel- 
liadae. The Spartans had formerly seized 
this man, thrown him into prison, and 
menaced him with death, as one from whom 
they had received many and atrocious injuries. 
In this distress, alarmed not merely for his life, 
but with the idea of having previously to suffer 
many severities, he accomplished a thing which 
can hardly be told. He was confined in some 
stocks bound with iron, but accidentally ob- 
taining a knife, he perpetrated the boldest thing 
which has ever been recorded. Calculating 
what part of the remainder he should be able to 
draw out, he cut of the extremity of his foot ; 
this done, notwithstanding he was guarded, he 
dug a hole under the wall, and escaped to Te- 
gea, travelling only by night, and concealing 
himself in the woods during the day. Eluding 
the strictest search of the Lacedaemonians, he 
came on the third night to Tegea, his keepers 
being astonished at his resolution, for they saw 

6 Tanagra."] — Thucydidss, in his account of tins battle 
agrees with Herodotus, and says that the Lacedaemon- 
ians were victorious : Diodorus Siculus, on the contrary, 
represents it as doubtful. — Lurcher. 



the half of his foot, but could not find the man. 
In this manner Hegesistratus escaped to Te- 
gea, which was not at that period in amity with 
Sparta. When his wound was healed he pro- 
cured himself a wooden foot, and became an 
avowed enemy of Sparta. His animosity, how- 
ever, against the Lacedaemonians proved ulti- 
mately of no advantage to himself, he was taken 
in the exercise of his office at Zacynthus, and 
put to death. 

XXXVIII. The fate of Hegesistratus was 
subsequent to the battle of Platea ; but at the 
time of which we were speaking, Mardonius, for 
a considerable sum, had prevailed with him to 
sacrifice, which he eagerly did, as well from his 
hatred of the Lacedaemonians, as from the de- 
sire of reward ; but the appearance of the en- 
trails gave no encouragement to fight, either to 
the Persians or their confederate Greeks, who 
also had their own appropriate soothsayer, 
Hippomachus of Leucadia. As the Grecian 
army continually increased, Timogenides of 
Thebes, son of Herpys, advised Mardonius to 
guard the pass of Cithseron, representing that 
he might thus intercept great bodies, who were 
every day thronging to the allied army of the 
Greeks. 

XXXIX. The hostile armies had already 
remained eight days encamped opposite to each 
other, when the above counsel was given to 
Mardonius. He acknowledged its propriety, 
and immediately on the approach of night, de- 
tached some cavalry to that part of Cithaeron, 
leading to Platea, a place called by the Boeo- 
tians the " Three Heads," by the Athenians 
the " Heads of Oak." This measure had its 
effect, and they took a convoy of five hundred 
beasts of burden, carrying a supply of provisions 
from the Peloponnese to the army : with the car- 
riages, they took also all the men who conduct- 
ed them. Masters of this booty, the Persians, 
with the most unrelenting barbarity, put both 
men and beasts to death : when their cruelty 
was satiated, they returned with what they had 
taken to Mardonius. 

XL. After this event two days more passed, 
neither army being willing to engage. The 
Barbarians, to irritate the Greeks, advanced as 
far as the Asopus, but neither army would pass 
the stream. The cavalry of Mardonius greatly 
and constantly harassed the Greeks. The The- 
bans, who were very zealous in their attach- 
ment to the Medes, prosecuted the war with 
ardour, and did every thing but join battle ; the 



430 



HERODOTUS. 



Persians and Medes supported them, and per- 
formed many illustrious actions. 

XL I. In this situation things remained for 
the space of ten days : on the eleventh, the 
armies retaining the same position with respect 
to each other, and the Greeks having received 
considerable reinforcements, Mardonius be- 
came disgusted with their inactivity. He ac- 
cordingly held a conference with Artabazus, the 
son of Pharnaces, who was one of the few 
Persians whom Xerxes honoured with his es- 
teem ; it was the opinion of Artabazus that 
they should immediately break up their camp, 
and withdraw beneath the walls of Thebes, 
where was already prepared a magazine of provi- 
sions for themselves, and corn for their cavalry ; 
here they might at their leisure terminate the 
war by the following measures. They had in 
their possession a great quantity of coined and 
uncoined gold, with an abundance of silver and 
plate : it was recommended to send these with 
no sparing hand to the Greeks, and particular- 
ly to those of greatest authority in their respec- 
tive cities. It was urged that if this were done, 
the Greeks would soon surrender their liber- 
ties, nor again risk the hazard of a battle. 
This opinion was seconded by the Thebans, 
who thought that it would operate successfully. 
Mardonius was of a contrary opinion, fierce, 
obstinate, and unyielding. His own army he 
thought superior to that of the Greeks, and 
that they should by all means fight before the 
Greeks received farther supplies : that they 
should give no importance to the declarations 
of Hegesistratus, but without violating the laws 
of Persia, commence a battle in their usual 
manner. 

XLII. This opinion of Mardonius nobody 
thought proper to oppose, for to him, and not 
to Artabazus, the king had confided the 
supreme command of the army. He there- 
fore assembled the principal officers of the 
Persians and confederate Greeks, and asked 
them, whether they knew of any oracle predict- 
ing that the Persians should be overthrown by 
the Greeks. No one ventured to reply, 
partly because they were ignorant of any 
such oracle, and partly because they were fear- 
ful of delivering their real sentiments. Mar- 
donius, therefore, thus addressed them : " As 
either you know no such oracle, or dare not say 
what you think, I will tell you my opinion, 
which I conceive to be well founded : an oracle 
has said, that the Persians, on their entering 
Greece, shall plunder the temple of Delphi, 



and in consequence be destroyed. Being aware 
of this, we will not approach that temple, nor 
make any attempt to plunder it, and thus shall 
avoid the ruin which has been menaced : let 
then all those among you, who wish well to 
Persia, rejoice in the conviction that we shall 
vanquish the Greeks." Having said this, he 
ordered that every thing should be properly dis- 
posed to commence the attack early in the 
morning. 

XL III. The oracle which Mardonius ap- 
plied to the Persians referred, as I well know, 
not to them but to the Illyrians and Enche- 
leans. 1 Upon the event of this battle, this 
oracle had been communicated from Bacis : 
" Thermodon's and Asopus' banks along, 
The Greeks in fight against Barbarians throng ; 
What numbers then shall press the ensanguined field 
What slaughter'd Medes their vital breath shall yield 
These words, and others of Musaeus like them, 
doubtless related to the Persians. The Ther- 
modon flows betwixt Tanagra and Glisas. 8 

XLIV. After Mardonius had thus spoken 
concerning the oracles, and endeavoured to 
animate his troops, the watches of the night 
were set. When the night was far advanced, 
and the strictest silence prevailed through 
the army, which was buried in sleep, Alex- 
ander, son of Amyntas, general and prince of 
the Macedonians, rode up to the Athenian out- 
posts, and earnestly desired to speak with their 
commanders. On hearing this, the greater 
number continued on their posts, while some 
hastened to their officers, whom they informed 
that a horseman was arrived from the enemy's 
army, who, naming the principal Greeks, 
would say nothing more than that he desired 
to speak with them. 

XLV. The commanders 3 lost no time in 



1 Illyrians and Encheleans.y—Vscasam&s, who de- 
scribes with so much exactness the antiquities of Greece, 
does not (in Phocis) say any thing either of the plunder 
of the temple of Delphi, or of the calamities of the people 
concerned in it. Appian says, that the Antanians, who 
were an Illyrian nation, plundered this temple, and were 
destroyed by a pestilence. Something more to the pur- 
pose is found in Euripides : Bacchus discovers to Cad- 
mus an oracle of Jupiter, which predicted to him, that 
when he should retire amongst the Illyrians and Enche- 
leans, he should reign over these people, and they should 
destroy a vast number of cities ; but that, after having 
plundered the temple of Delphi, they should have an 
unfortunate return. If we had the oracle itself, we 
might see in what manner Mardonius applied it to the 
Persians .—Larcher. 

2 Glisas. ]— This place is indifferently written Glisas, 
and Glissas, and was anciently famous for its wine.— T. 

3 The commanders. J— Plutarch, who mentions this 
interview, speaks only of Aristides. " A man on horse- 



CALLIOPE. 



431 



repairing to the advanced guard, where, on their 
arrival, they were thus addressed by Alexander : 
" I am come, O Athenians, to inform you of 
a secret, which you must impart to Pausanias 
only,i lest my ruin ensue. Nor would I speak 
now, were not I anxious for the safety of Greece. 
I from remote antiquity am of Grecian origin, 
and I would not willingly see you exchange 
freedom for servitude ; I have therefore to in- 
form you, that if Mardonius and his army could 
have drawn favourable omens from their victims, 
a battle would long since have taken place : in- 
tending to pay no farther attention to these, it is 
his determination to attack you early in the morn- 
ing, being afraid, as I suppose, that your forces 
will be yet more numerous. Be therefore on your 
guard ; but if he still defer his purpose of an 
engagement, do you remain where you are, for 
he has provisions but for a few days more. If 
the event of this war should be agreeable to 
your wishes, it will become you to make some 
efforts to restore my independence, who on ac- 
count of my partiality to the Greeks, have 
exposed myself to so much danger in thus 
acquainting you with the intention of Mar- 
donius, to prevent the Barbarians attacking you 
by surprise. I am Alexander 5 of Macedon." 
When he had thus spoken, he returned, to his 
station in the Persian camp. 

XL VI. The Athenian chiefs went to the 
right wing, and informed Pausanias of what 
they had learned from Alexander. Pausanias, 
who stood in much awe 6 of the Persians, ad- 



back," says he, " approached silently the Grecian camp, 
and addressing himself to the sentinels, desired to speak 
with Aristides, who came immediately." — Larcher. 

4 To Pausanias only.] — This account is more proba- 
ble than that given by Plutarch, who makes Alexander 
say to Aristides, that he must not communicate the secret 
to any one. — Larcher. 

5 / am Alexander.]— 

Aristides hastes — 
To whom the stranger :— bulwark of this camp, 
Hear, credit, weigh the tidings which I bear : 
Mardonius, press 'd by fear of threat'ning want, 
At night's fourth watch the fatal stream will pass, 
Inflexibly determined, tho' forbid 
By each diviner, to assail your host 
With all his numbers— I against surprise 
Am come to warn you : thee alone I trust, 
My name revealing. I, O man divine, 
I who thus hazard both my realm and life, 
Am Alexander, Macedonian friend 
Of Athens — Kindly on a future day 
Remember me. Athenaid. 

6 In much awe.] — Commenting on this passage, Wes- 
seling asks, if Pausanias had forgotten the noble defence 
of the three hundred Spartans at the straits of Thermo- 
pylae ? and if their glorious deaths had rendered the Per- 
sians more terrible ? To this Larcher replies, in a man- 
ner not entirely satisfactory : he observes that the Spar- 
tans on that occasion being all slain, there was not one 



dressed them thus in reply : " As a battle is to 
take place in the morning, I think it advisable 
that you, Athenians, should front the Persians, 
and we those Boeotians and Greeks who are 
now posted opposite to you. You have before 
contended with the Medes, and know their 
mode of fighting by experience at Marathon ; 
we have never had this opportunity ; but we 
have before fought the Boeotians and Thessa- 
lians : take therefore your arms, and let us ex- 
change situations." " From the first," an- 
swered the Athenians, "when we observed the 
Persians opposed to you, we wished to make 
the proposal 7 we now hear from you ; we have 
only been deterred by our fear of offending you -. 
as the overture comes from you, we are ready 
to comply with it. " 

XL VI I. This being agreeable to both, as 
soon as the morning dawned they changed sit- 
uations ; this the Boeotians observed, and com- 
municated to Mardonius. The Persian gene- 
ral immediately exerted himself to oppose the 
Lacedaemonians with his troops. Pausanias, 
on seeing his scheme thus detected, again re- 
moved the Spartans to the right wing, as did 
Mardonius instantly his Persians to the left. 

XL VIII. When the troops had thus re- 
sumed their former post, Mardonius sent a 
herald with this message to the Spartans: 
" Your character, O Lacedaemonians, is high- 
ly celebrated amongst all these nations, as men 
who disdain to fly ; who never desert your ranks, 
determined either to slay your enemies or die. 
— Nothing of this is true : we perceive you in 



in the army of Pausanias who had been engaged against 
the Persians, and who was acquainted with their mode 
of fighting. 

It seems very singular that M. Larcher should not re- 
member, that there was a man in the army of Pausanias 
who had fought with the Persians, escaped the great de- 
struction of his countrymen, and consequently could have 
informed his fellow soldiers in what manner the Persians 
fought. See chapter lxx. of this book, in which we are 
told, that Aristodemus, who escaped from Thermopylae, 
most-distinguished himself at Platea, m order to retrieve 
his reputation. We find also, that Leonidas had sustain- 
ed many battles with the flower of the Persian army, 
aided by his Grecian allies, before he devoted himself and 
his three hundred to death, dismissing all the rest of his 
army. 

But after all, the most serious objection to this passage 
of Herodotus is, that it evidently militates with the re- 
ceived opinions of the discipline of Sparta, and the patient 
fortitude which was the characteristic feature of that 
singular people. — T. 

7 Make the proposal] — According to Plutarch, the 
Grecian leaders were at first exceedingly offended at this 
conduct of Pausanias, but were pacified by the remon- 
strances of Aristides. 



432 



HERODOTUS. 



the act of retreating, and of deserting your posts 
before a battle is commenced ; we see you dele- 
gating to the Athenians the more dangerous 
attempt of opposing us, and placing yourselves 
against our slaves, neither of which actions is 
consistent with bravery. We are, therefore, 
greatly deceived in our opinion of you ; we ex- 
pected that from a love of glory you would 
have despatched a herald to us, expressing your- 
selves desirous to combat with the Persians 
alone. Instead of this we find you alarmed 
and terrified ; but as you have offered no chal- 
lenge to us, we propose one to you. As you 
are esteemed the most illustrious of your army, 
why may not an equal number of you, on the 
part of the Greeks, and of us on the part of the 
Barbarians, contend for victory ? If it be agree- 
able to you, the rest of our common forces may 
afterwards engage ; if this be unnecessary, we 
will alone engage, and which ever conquers 
shall be esteemed victorious over the whole 1 of 
the adverse army." 

XLIX. The herald, after delivering his 
commission, waited some time for an answer ; 
not receiving any, he returned to Mardonius. 
He was exceedingly delighted, and already an- 
ticipating a victory, sent his cavalry to attack 
the Greeks : these with their lances and ar- 
rows materially distressed the Grecian army, 
and forbade any near approach. Advancing to 
the Gargaphian fountain, which furnished the 
Greeks with water, they disturbed 2 and stop- 
ped it up. The Lacedaemonians alone were 
stationed near this fountain, the other Greeks, 
according to their different stations, were more 
or less distant, but all of them in the vicinity 
of the Asopus ; but as they were debarred from 
watering here, by the missile weapons of the 
cavalry, they all came to the fountain. 

L. In this predicament the leaders of the 



1 Over tlie whole.] — Such partial challenges, as pre- 
venting an unnecessary effusion of blood, seem in cases of 
unavoidable hostilities most consonant to the. dictates of 
humanity, and we find them frequently adopted in the 
earlier ages of the world. The histories of Greece and 
Rome abound with innumerable examples of this kind ; 
as war gradually refined into a science, they came into 
disuse, and in later times have been totally laid aside.— 
T. 

2 Disturbed, $c.]— Bellanger is very angry with M. 
I' Abbe Gedoyn, for making Pausanias say, that Mardo- 
nius on this occasion poisoned the water. " The Per- 
sians, barbarians," says he, " as they were, had a greater 
respect for the laws of nations, and the rights of human- 
ity : — they were not poisoners. " The Greek expression 
in Herodotus is <rvma.%a.Z,a.v x«.t <rwe£&>0-«y. The word 
which Pausanias uses is truvixt&v. — T. 



Greeks, seeing the army cut off from the water, 
and harassed by the cavalry, came in crowds 
to Pausanias on the right wing, to deliberate 
about these and other emergencies. Un- 
pleasant as the present incident might be, they 
were still more distressed from their want of 
provision ; their servants, who had been des- 
patched to bring this from the Peloponnese, 
were prevented by the cavalry from returning 
to the camp. 

LI. The Grecian leaders, after deliberating 
upon the subject, determined, if the Persians 
should for one day more defer coming to an 
engagement, to pass to the island opposite to 
Platea, and about ten stadia from the Asopus 
and the fountain Gargaphie, where they were at 
present encamped. This island is thus con- 
nected with the continent: the river, descend- 
ing from Cithaeron to the plain, divides itself 
into two streams, which after flowing separate- 
ly, for about the distance of three stadia, again 
unite, thus forming the island which is called 
Oeroe', who, according to the natives, is the 
daughter of Asopus. 3 The Greeks by this 
measure proposed to themselves two advan- 
tages ; first to be secure of water, and secondly 
to guard against being further annoyed by the 
enemy's cavalry. They resolved to decamp at 
the time of the second watch 4 by night, lest 
the Persians, perceiving them, should pursue 
and harass them with their cavalry. It was 
also their intention, when arrived at the spot, 
where the Asopian Oeroe is formed by the 
division of the waters flowing from Cithaeron, 
to detach one half of their army to the moun- 
tain to relieve a body of their servants, who, 
with a convoy of provisions, were there en- 
compassed. 

LII. After taking the above resolutions, 
they remained all that day much incommoded 
by the enemy's horse : when these, at the ap- 

3 Daughter of Asopus. ~] — Diodorus Siculus, who men- 
tions the twelve daughters of Asopus, and Apollodorus, 
who speaks of twenty by name, says nothing of this 
Oeroe. — Wesseling. 

Diodorus Sic. speaks of iEgina, as well as Apollodorus, 
which last remarks that iEginais the same with CEnone. 
Perhaps it is a mistake in the text of Herodotus, and 
OSnone is the true reading.— Larcher. 

4 Second watch.] — About four hours after sun-set. 
The Greeks divided the night into three watches. — Lar- 
cher. 

The Romans divided their night into four watchps. 
They had a tessera, upon which something was inscrib- 
ed ; this was given from one centurion to another 
throughout the army, till it returned to the man from 
whom it was first received. — T. 



CALLIOPE. 



433 



proach of evening, retired, and the appointed 
hour was arrived, the greater part of the Greeks 
began to move with their baggage, but without 
any design of proceeding to the place before 
resolved on. The moment they began to 
march, occupied with no idea but that of es- 
caping the cavalry, they retired towards Pla- 
tea, and fixed themselves near the temple of 
Juno, which is opposite to the city, and at the 
distance of twenty stadia from the fountain of 
Gargaphie : in this place they encamped. 

LI II. Pausanias, observing them in motion, 
gave orders to the Lacedaemonians to take their 
arms, and follow their route, presuming they 
were proceeding to the appointed station. The 
officers all showed themselves disposed to obey 
the orders of Pausanias, except Amomphare- 
tus, the son of Poliadas, captain of the band 
of Pitanatae, 5 who asserted that he would not 
fly before the Barbarians, and thus be acces- 
sary to the dishonour of Sparta : he had not 
been present at the previous consultation, and 
knew not what was intended. Pausanias and 
Euryanax, though indignant at his refusal to 
obey the orders which had been issued, were 
still but little inclined to abandon the Pitana- 
tae, on the account of their leader's obstinacy ; 
thinking, that by their prosecuting the measure 
which the Greeks in general had adopted, 
Amompharetus and his party must unavoid- 
ably perish. With these sentiments the Lace- 
daemonians, were commanded to halt, and pains 
were taken to dissuade the man from his pur- 
pose, who alone, of all the Lacedaemonians and 
Tegeatae, was determined not to quit his post. 

LIV. At this crisis the Athenians deter- 
mined to remain quietly on their posts, know- 
ing it to be the genius of the Lacedaemonians 
to say one thing and think another. 6 But as 



5 Pitanat<p.~\ — At this word Larcher quotes from Pau- 
sanias the following- passage.—" There is a port of Sparta 
called the Theometidce, where are the tombs of the prin- 
ces, called Agidae. Near this is a place where the Cro- 
tani assemble, and the Crotani are the body of troops 
named the Pitanatcp. 

Thucydides, on the contrary, asserts that there never 
was a body of troops at Lacedsemon distinguished by 
this name. — See Dicker's edition ofThucyd. p. 17. 

According to Meursius ; see his Miscellanea Laeonica, 
I. ii. c. 2. Thucydides says this of the cohort called 
2*/g/T»3v. See also the same author's Atticae Lectiones. 
1. i. c. 16. 

Herodian, 1. iv. says, that Antoninus Caracalla institut- 
ed a Roman band, which he named Pitanetes. The word 
is derived from Pitana, a daughter of Eurotas, from 
whom a city was called, which was the country of Me- 
nelaus.— T. 

6 Think another.]— Artifice and cunning were adopt- 



soon as they observed the troops in motion, 
they despatched a horseman to learn whether 
the Lacedemonians intended to remove, and 
to inquire of Pausanias what was to be done. 

LV. When the messenger arrived, he found 
the men in their ranks, but their leaders in vio- 
lent altercation. Pausanias and Euryanax were 
unsuccessfully attempting to persuade Amom- 
pharetus not to involve the Lacedaemonians 
alone in danger by remaining behind, when the 
Athenian messenger came lip to them. At 
this moment, in the violence of dispute, Amom- 
pharetus took up a stone with both his hands, 
and throwing it at the feet of Pausanias, ex- 
claimed, " There is my vote for not flying be- 
fore the foreigners ;" so terming the Barbari- 
ans. Pausanias, after telling him that he could 
be only actuated by phrenzy, turned to the 
Athenian, who delivered his commission. He 
afterwards desired him to return, and commu- 
nicate to the Athenians the state in which he 
found them, and to entreat them immediately 
to join their forces, and act in concert, as should 
be deemed expedient. 

LVI. The messenger accordingly returned 
to the Athenians, whilst the Spartan chiefs 
continued their disputes till the morning. Thus 
far Pausanias remained indecisive, but think- 
ing, as the event proved, that Amompharetus 
would certainly not stay behind, if the Lacedae- 
monians actually advanced, he gave orders to 
all the forces to march forwards by the heights, 
in which they were followed by the Tegeans. 
The Athenians keeping close to their ranks, 
pursued a route opposite to that of the Lace- 
daemonians ; these last ; who were in great awe 
of the cavalry, advanced by the steep paths 



ed by Lycurgus in the system of his politics. To ceolize, 
or to deceive, was made a distinguishing note and maxim 
of the Spartan government. AtoXtx, Hesychius explains 
by the word roixiXo;, duplex, a sharper. The care which 
they took at Sparta to train their youth in the arts of 
wiliness and deceit, the applause which was bestowed 
on the young knave who excelled therein, and the chas- 
tisement inflicted on the lad who miscarried, and was 
detected, a; xetxas xXtxrovrx, as one who had not yet 
learned his lesson, show that they were reconciled to 
their name in its worst acceptation. To give it the best 
construction, we ought to consider, that the object Ly- 
curgus had in view, was to render the people expert in 
the stratagems of war. — tou; irctiSx; ronm voXiuuxuTi^ovg. 
Xenoph. de Lac. Rep. The arms of the Spartan mon- 
archy were an eagle holding a serpent: symbolically 
representing a superiority of cunning — Ainoi h^ocKovTce 
vruXvy.ivo; ; with this seal was their letter signed, which 
they sent to Onias the high priest.— See Joseph. A. J. 1. 
xii. c. 5. See also the Trachinhv of Sophocles, where the 
expression AioXo; A^xxuv occurs. — 2". 

3 I 



434 



HERODOTU S. 



which led to the foot of mount Cithseron ; the 
Athenians marched over the plain. 

L VII. Amompharetus, never imagining that 
Pausanius would venture to abandon them, 
made great exertions to keep his men on their 
posts ; but when he saw Pausanias advancing 
with his troops, he concluded himself effectual- 
ly given up ; taking therefore his arms, he with 
his band proceeded slowly after the rest of the 
army. These continuing their march for a 
space often stadia, came to a place called Ar- 
giopius, near the river Moloe's, where is a tem- 
ple of the Eleusinian Ceres, and there halted, 
waiting for Amompharetus and his party. The 
motive of Pausanias in doing this was, that he 
might have the opportunity of returning to the 
support of Amompharetus, if he should be still 
determined not to quit his post. Here Amom- 
pharetus and his band joined them ; the whole 
force of the enemy's horse continuing as usual 
to harass them. As soon as the Barbarians 
discovered that the spot where the Greeks had 
before encamped was deserted, they put them- 
selves in motion, overtook, and materially dis- 
tressed them. 

LVIII. Mardonius being informed that the 
Greeks had decamped by night, and seeing 
their former station unoccupied, sent for Tho- 
rax of Larissae and his brothers Eurypilus and 
Thrasydeius, and thus addressed them : " Sons 
of Aleuas, 1 what will you now say, seeing the 
Lacedaemonians desert their post, whom you, 
their neighbours, asserted to be men who never 
fled, but were above all others valiant. You 
have before seen them change their station in 
the camp, and you find, that in the last night, 
they have actually taken themselves to flight. 
They have now shown, that being opposed by 
men of undisputed courage, they are of no re- 
putation themselves, and are as contemptible as 
their fellow Greeks ; but as you may have had 
some testimony of their prowess, without being 
spectators of ours, I can readily enough forgive 
the praises which you rendered them. But 
that Artabazus, from his terror of these Spar- 
tans, should assert an opinion full of pusillani- 



Sons of Aleuas. 1 — 

Now, Larissaean Thorax, and the rest 

Of Aleuadian race, now, Theban lords, 

Judge ot the Spartans justly. Vaunted high 

For unexampled prowess, them you saw 

First change their place, imposing on the sons 

Of Athens twice the formidable task 

To face my chosen Persians ; next, they gave 

To my defiance no reply ; and last, 

Are fled before me ; can your augurs show 

A better omen than a foe dismay'd ? &a.~-AtheuaiJ. 



mity, and endeavour to prevail on us to leave 
this station, and retire to Thebes, fills me with 
astonishment — The king, however, shall hear 
from me of his conduct ; but of this more here- 
after : let us, therefore, not suffer these men to 
escape, but pursue them vigorously, and chas- 
tise them with becoming severity for their ac- 
cumulated injuries to Persia." 

LIX. Having thus expressed himself, he 
led the Persians over the Asopus, and pursued 
the path which the Greeks had taken, whom he 
considered as flying from his arms. The La- 
cedaemonians and Tegeans were the sole objects 
of his attack, for the Athenians, who had 
marched over the plain, were concealed by the 
hills from his view. The other Persian lead- 
ers seeing the troops moving, as if in pursuit of 
the Greeks, raised their standards, and followed 
the rout with great impetuosity, but without 
regularity or discipline ; they hurried on with 
tumultuous shouts, considering the Greeks as 
absolutely in their power. 

LX. When Pausanias found himself thus 
pressed by the cavalry, he sent a horseman 
with the following message to the Athenians : 
" We are menaced, O Athenians, by a battle, 
the event of which will determine the freedom 
or slavery of Greece ; and in this perplexity 
you, as well as ourselves, have, in the preced- 
ing night, been deserted by our allies. It is 
nevertheless our determination to defend our- 
selves to the last, and to render you such assis- 
tance as we may be able. If the enemy's horse 
had attacked you, we should have thought it 
our duty to have marched with the Tegeatee, 
who are in our rear, and still faithful to Greece, 
to your support. As the w r hole operation of 
the enemy seems directed against us, it becomes 
you to give us the relief we materially want ; 
but if you yourselves are so circumstanced, as 
to be unable to advance to our assistance, at 
least send us a body of archers. We confess, 
that in this war your activity has been far the 
most conspicuous, and we therefore presume 
on your compliance with our request." 

LXI. The Athenians, without hesitation, 
and with determined bravery, advanced to com- 
municate the relief which had been required. 
When they were already on their march, the 
confederate Greeks, in the service of the king, 
intercepted and attacked them ; they were thus 
prevented from assisting the Lacedaemonians, 
a circumstance which gave them extreme un- 
easiness. In this situation the Spartans, to the 
amount of fifty thousand light armed troops, 



CALLIOPE. 



435 



with three thousand Tegeatae, 3 who on no 
occasion were separated from them, offered a 
solemn sacrifice, 3 with the resolution of en- 
countering Mardonius. The victims, how- 
ever, were not auspicious, and in the mean 
time many of them were slain, and more 
wounded. The Persians, under the protec- 
tion of their bucklers, 4 showered their arrows 



2 Tegeata?.]— 

Of the Spartans there were . . . 5,000 

Seven Helots to each Spartan . . 35,000 

Lacedaemonians 5,000 

A light armed soldier to each Lacedae - 

monian 5,000 

Tegeatae 1,500 

Light-armed Tegeatae .... 1,500 

Total . . 53,000 
See chapters xxviii. and xxix. 

3 Sacrifice.] — Plutarch gives various particulars of 
this action omitted by Herodotus, which the reader per- 
haps may as well like to see in the words of Glover, who 
has almost Literally copied Plutarch : 

Slain is the victim, but the inspecting seer 

Reveals no sign propitious. Now full nigh 

The foremost Persian horse discharge around 

Their javelins, darts, and arrows. Sparta's chief, 

In calm respect of inauspicious heaven, 

Directs each soldier at his foot to rest 

The passive shield, submissive to endure 

Th' assault, and watch a signal from the gods. 

A second time unfavourable prove 

The victim's entrails.— Unremitted showers 

Of pointed arms distribute wounds and death. 

A second victim bleeds : the gath'ring foes 

To multitude are grown : the showers of death 

Increase. Then melted into flowing grief 

Pausanian pride — He towards the fane remote 

Of Juno lifting his afflicted eyes, 

Thus suppliant spake: O goddess, let my hopes 

Be not defeated, whether to obtain 

A victory so glorious, or expire 

Without dishonour to Herculean blood — 

The sacrifice is prosperous, &u. 

Potter gives a particular account of the mode of divi- 
nation, by inspecting the entrails. If they were whole 
and sound, had their natural place, colour, and propor- 
tion, all was well ; if any thing was out of order, or 
wanting, evil was portended. The palpitation of the 
entrails was unfortunate ; if the liver was bad they in- 
spected no farther. For other particulars, see Potter. 
The Roman mode of divination by the entrails, was the 
6ame as that of the Greeks. — T. 

4 Their bucklers.] — The Persian bucklers were made 
of osier, and covered with skin. — See Taylor on Demos- 
thenes, vol. Hi. p. 620. 

This passage has perplexed the commentators. Bel- 
langer understands that the Persians made a rampart of 
their bucklers, behind which they used their arrows. 
Larcher approves of this, but it seems attended with 
many difficulties. Did they approach within a given 
distance of the enemy, and then pile up their bucklers by 
way of entrenchment ? If so, in case of defeat, they be- 
came naked and defenceless ; for how, in the tumult of 
action, and the terror of a victorious foe, could they undo 
their entrenchment, and each recover his buckler. In 
Homer we find, that Teucer shot his arrows under the 
protection of the shield of Ajax ; and though I am hardly 



upon the Spartans with prodigious effect. At 
this moment Pausanias, observing the entrails 
still unfavourable, looked earnestly towards the 
temple of Juno at Platea, imploring the inter- 
position of the goddess, and entreating her to 
prevent their disgrace and defeat. 

LXII. Whilst he was in the act of suppli- 
cating the goddess, the Tegeatae advanced 
against the Barbarians : at the same moment 
the sacrifices became favourable, and Pausanias, 
at the head of his Spartans, went up boldly to 
the enemy. The Persians, throwing aside 
their bows, prepared to receive them. The 
engagement commenced before the barricade : 5 
when this was thrown down, a conflict took 
place near the temple of Ceres, which was con- 
tinued with unremitted obstinacy till the for- 
tune of the day was decided. The Barbarians 
seizing their adversaries' lances, broke them in 
pieces, and discovered no inferiority either in 
strength or courage ; but their armour was in- 
efficient, their attack without skill, and their 
inferiority, with respect to discipline, conspicu- 
ous. In whatever manner they rushed upon 
the enemy, from one to ten at a time, they were 
cut in pieces by the Spartans. 

LXII I. The Greeks were most severely 
pressed where Mardonius himself on a white 
horse,* 5 at the head of a thousand chosen Per- 
sians, directed his attack. As long as he lived, 
the Persians, both in their attack and defence, 
conducted themselves well, and slew great num- 
bers of the Spartans ; but as soon as Mardon- 
ius was slain, and the band which fought near 
his person, and which was the flower of the 
army, was destroyed, all the rest turned their 
backs and fled. They were much oppressed 
and encumbered by their long dresses, besides 
which they were lightly armed, to oppose men 
in full and complete armour. 

LXIV. On this day, as the oracle had be- 
fore predicted, the death of Leonidas was am- 
ply revenged upon Mardonius, and the most 

warranted to make the assertion, it by no means seems 
improbable, that with the archers a body of shield 
bearers might be distributed, to enable them to take 
their aim with more steadiness and certainty.— T. 

5 Barricade.] — The former difficulty here recurs ; the 
Greek is «?' t« yt^ot, and the yt»?a are explained to be 
the Persian shields. But whilst the Greeks were endea- 
vouring to overturn this, were the Persians fighting 
without shields ?—T. 

6 White horse.]— 

But fiercest was the contest where sublime 

The son of Oobryas from a snow-white steed 

Shot terror.— There selected warriors charged ; 

A thousand veterans, by their fathers traiu'd, 

Who shared icnown with Cyrui. AiKtnaii, 



436 



HERODOTUS. 



glorious victory' which has ever been recorded, 
was then obtained by Pausanias, son of Cleom- 
brotus, and grandson of Anaxandrides. The 
other ancestors, which he had in common with 
Leonidas, I have before mentioned. Mardon- 
ius was slain by Aimnestus, a Spartan of dis- 
tinguished reputation, who long after this Per- 
sian war, with three hundred men, was killed 
in an engagement at Stenyclerus, in which he 
opposed the united force of the Messenians. 

LXV. The Persians, routed by the Spar- 
tans at Platea, fled in the greatest confusion 
towards their camp, and to the wooden en- 
trenchment which they had constructed in the 
Theban territories. It seems to me somewhat 
surprising, that although the battle was fought 
near the grove of Ceres, not a single Persian 
took refuge in the temple, nor was slain near it ; 
but the greater part of them perished beyond 
the limits of the sacred ground. If it may be 
allowed to form any conjecture on divine sub- 
jects, I should think that the goddess interfer- 
ed to prevent their entrance, because on a for- 
mer occasion they had burned her temple* at 
Eleusis. Such was the issue of the battle of 
Platea. 

LXVI. Artabazus, the son of Pharnaces, 
who had from the first disapproved of the king's 
leaving Mardonius behind him, and who had 
warmly, though unsuccessfully, endeavoured to 
prevent a battle, determined on the following 
measures. He was at the head of no small body 
of troops; they amounted to forty thousand 
men : being much averse to the conduct of 
Mardonius, and foreseeing what the event of an 
engagement must be, he prepared and com- 
manded his men to follow him wherever he 
should go, and to remit or increase their speed 



1 Glorious victory.]— It was principally, says the au- 
thor of the Voyage du Jeune Anach arsis, to the victories 
which the Athenians obtained over the Persians, that they 
owed the ruin of their ancient constitution. After the 
battle of Platea, it was ordered that the citizens of the 
lower classes, who had been excluded by Solon the prin- 
cipal magistracies, should from that time have the privi- 
lege of obtaining them. The wise Aristides, who pre- 
vented this decree, afforded a calamitous example to 
those who succeeded him in command ; they were first 
compelled to flatter the multitude, and finally to bow 
before it, Formerly they disdained to attend the general 
assemblies ; but as soon as government had ordained, that 
a gratification of three oboli should be given to whoever 
assisted at them, they rushed there in crowds, driving 
away the affluent by their presence and their furies, and 
insolently substituting their caprices for laws — T. 

2 Burned her temple.'}— I fear the remark of Mr 
Gibbon, that the style of Herodotus is half sceptical and 
half superstitious, will here be thought true.— T. 



by his example. He then drew out his arm v. 
as if to attack the enemy ; but he soon met the 
Persians flying from them : he then imme- 
diately and precipitately fled with all his troops 
in disorder, not directing his course to the en- 
trenchment or to Thebes, but towards Phocis, 
intending to gain the Hellespont with all pos- 
sible speed. — In this manner did these troops 
conduct themselves. 

LXVIL Of those Greeks who were in the 
royal army, all except the Boeotians, from a 
preconcerted design, behaved themselves ill. 
The Boeotians fought the Athenians with ob- 
stinate resolution : those Thebans who were 
attached to the Medes made very considerable 
exertions, fighting with such courage, that three 
hundred of their first and boldest citizens fell 
by the swords of the Athenians. They fled 
at length, and pursued their way to Thebes, 
avoiding the route which the Persians had 
taken with the immense multitude of confe- 
derates, who, so far from making any exertions, 
had never struck a blow. 

L XVIII. To me it appears, that the con- 
duct of the Barbarians in -general, was decided 
by that of the Persians. Before they had at 
all engaged with the enemy, they took them- 
selves to flight, seeing the Persians do so. The 
whole army, however, fled in confusion, except 
the horse, and those of the Boeotians in parti- 
cular, who were of essential service in covering 
the retreat, being constantly at hand to defend 
their flying friends from the Greeks, who con- 
tinued the pursuit with great slaughter, 

LXIX. In the midst of all this tumult, in- 
telligence was conveyed to those Greeks posted 
near the temple of Juno, and remote from the 
battle, that the event w r as decided, and Pausan- 
ias victorious. The Corinthians instantly, 
without any regularity, hurried over the hills 
which lay at the foot of the mountain, to arrive 
at the temple of Ceres. The Megarians and 
Phliasians, with the same intentions, posted 
over the plain, the more direct and obvious 
road. As they approached the enemy, they 
were observed by the Theban horse, commanded 
by Asopodorus, son of Timander, who, taking 
advantage of their want of order, rushed upon 
them and slew six hundred, driving the rest to- 
wards mount Cithseron. Thus did these perish 
ingloriously. 

LXX. The Persians, and a promiscuous 
multitude along with them, as soon as they 
arrived at the entrenchment, endeavoured to 
climb the turrets, before the Lacedfemonians 



CALLIOPE. 



437 



should come up with them. Having effected 
this, they endeavoured to defend themselves as 
well as they could. The Lacedaemonians soon 
arrived, and a severe engagement commenced 
at the entrenchment. Before the Athenians 
came up, the Persians not only defended them- 
selves well, but had the advantage, as the Lace- 
daemonians were ignorant of the proper method 
of attack ; but as soon as the Athenians ad- 
vanced to their support, the battle was renewed 
with greater fierceness, and long continued. 
The valour and firmness of the Athenians 
finally prevailed. Having made a breach, they 
rushed into the camp: the Tegeatae were the 
first Greeks that entered, and were they who 
plundered the tent of Mardonius, taking from 
thence, among other things, the manger 3 from 
which his horses were fed, made entirely of 
brass, and very curious. This was afterwards 
deposited by the Tegeatae in the temple of the 
Alean Minerva : the rest of the booty was car- 
ried to the spot where the common plunder was 
collected. As soon as their entrenchment was 
thrown down, the Barbarians dispersed them- 
selves different ways, without exhibiting any 
proof of their former bravery : they were, in- 
deed, in a state of stupefaction and terror, from 
seeing their immense multitude overpowered in 
so short a period. So great was the slaughter 
made by the Greeks, that of this army, which 
consisted of three hundred thousand men, not 
three thousand escaped, if we except the forty 
thousand who fled with Artabazus. The La- 
cedaemonians of Sparta lost ninety-one men ; 
the Tegeatae sixteen ; the Athenians fifty- 
two. 4 

LXXI. Of those who most distinguished 
themselves on the part of the Barbarians, are 
to be reckoned the Persian infantry, the Sacian 
cavalry, and lastly Mardonius himself. Of the 
Greeks, the Tegeatae and Athenians were em- 
inently conspicuous; they were, nevertheless, 
inferior to the Lacedaemonians. The proof 
of this with me is, that though the former con- 
quered those to whom they were opposed, the 
hitter vanquished the pride and strength of the 
Barbarian army. The most daring of the Spar- 

3 Manger."}— One of the later Roman emperors, I be- 
lieve it was Caracalla, fed a favourite horse from a man- 
ger of solid gold. — T. 

4 Fifty-two.}— The Greeks, according to Plutarch, lost 
in all 1,360 men ; all those who were slain of the Athen- 
ians were of one particular tribe. Plutarch is much in- 
censed at Herodotus for his account of this battle ; but 
the authority of our historian seems entitled to most 
credit.— T. 



tans, in my opinion, was Aristodemus i the 
same who alone returning from Thermopylae fell 
into disgrace and infamy ; next to him, Posi- 
donius, Philocyon,and Amompharetusthe Spar- 
tan, behaved best. Nevertheless, when it was 
disputed in conversation what individual had on 
that day most distinguished himself, the Spar- 
tans who were present said, that Aristodemus, 
being anxious to die conspicuously, as an ex- 
piation of his former crime, in an emotion of 
fury had broke from his rank, and performed 
extraordinary exploits ; but that Posidonius had 
no desire to lose his life, and therefore his behavi- 
our was the more glorious : but this remark 
might have proceeded from envy. All those 
of whom I have spoken, as slain on this day, 
were highly honoured, except Aristodemus. 
To him, for the reason above mentioned, no 
respect was paid, as having voluntarily sought 
death. 

LXXII. The above were those who gained 
the greatest reputation in the battle of Platea. 
Callicrates, the handsomest man, not only of 
all the Lacedaemonians, but of all the Greeks, 
was not slain in actual engagement ; whilst 
Pausanias was sacrificing he was sitting in his 
rank, and received a wound in his side from an 
arrow. In the heat of the conflict he was car- 
I ried off, lamenting to Aimnestus, a man of 
J Platea, not that he perished for his country, 
but that he died without any personal exertions, 
without performing any deed of valour worthy 
of himself, or his desire of renown. 

LXXIII. The most eminent on this occa- 
sion of the Athenians is said to have been 
Sophanes, the son of Eutychides, of the Dece- 
lean tribe. The Deceleans, at some former 
period, according to the Athenians, did what 
proved for ever of the greatest advantage to 
them. The Tyndaridae had, with a numerous 
force, invaded Attica, to recover Helen, 5 and 
had driven away all the natives, without being 
able to discover where Helen was. On this 
emergence, the Deceleans are reported, and, as 
some say, Deceleus himself, to have discovered 



5 Helen.} — Helen, as every body knows, was the 
daughter of Tyndarus, and the sister of Castor and Pol- 
lux : she was carried off by Theseus, when, according 
to Hellanicus, he was fifty years old. She was not then 
marriageable, probably not more than ten. This event 
consequently happened many years before Menelaus 
married her, and Paris carried her away. The Greeks 
were ten years assembling forces for the .-iegc, which 
continued ten years « This is the twentieth year of my 
arrival at Troy," says Helen, in the Iliad, at which time 
tile must have been in her thirty-sixth year.— Larch"/: 



438 



HERODOTUS. 



what was required, and to have conducted the 
invaders to Aphidnae, which Titacus, 1 a native 
of the place, delivered into his hands. To this 
measure they were induced, partly from a sense 
of the infamy which was occasioned by the 
crime of Theseus, and partly from the fear 
that the whole territories of Attica would be 
ravaged. On account of this action, an im- 
munity from taxes in Sparta, which has con- 
tinued to the present period, was granted to the 
Deceleans, as well as a place of honour in the 
public assemblies. In the war which many 
years afterwards 8 took place between the 
Athenians and the Peloponnesians, the Lace- 
daemonians laying waste the rest of Attica, 
spared Decelea alone. 

LXXIV. Of this people was Sophanes, 
who so greatly distinguished himself among the 
Athenians, though the particulars of his con- 
duct are differently represented. He is report- 
ed by some to have carried before him an an- 
chor of iron, secured by a leathern thong to his 
breast-plate : this, when the enemy approached, 
he threw on the ground, lest their rushing up- 
on him might remove him from his rank : when 
the enemy fled he took up his anchor, and pur- 
sued them. Another report says, that he did 
not carry a real anchor, but merely the impres- 
sion of one upon his shield, which he continually 
moved about. 

LXXV. Another noble action is told of 
this Sophanes : when the Athenians besieged 
iEgina, he challenged, and killed in single 
combat, Eurybates 3 of Argos, who had conquer- 
ed in the Pentathlon. Sometime after this battle 
of Platea, whilst exerting himself with great 
bravery as leader of the Athenians, in conjunc- 
tion with Leagrus, the son of Glaucon, he lost 
his life ; he was slain by the Edonians at 
Datus, 4 in a contest about some gold mines. 



1 Titacus.] — There was a town in Attica called Tita- 
cidse, doubtless so called from this Titacus. — Larcher. 

It is not mentioned by Spon, in his book de Pagis At- 
tids.—T. 

2 Many years afterwards.'] — The battle of Platea took 
place in the second year of the 75th Olympiad ; the Pelo- 
ponnesian war commenced in the spring of the first year 
of the 87th Olympiad, that is, near forty-eight years 
after the battle of Platea. — Larcher. 

3 Eurybates.] — He was conqueror in the Nemean 
games, and Pausanias relates the particular manner in 
which he was slain. See our author, book vi. chap 92. 
This Eurybates must not be confounded with the Eury- 
bates who betrayed Croesus, and whose name became 
proverbial for a traitor. The latter was of Ephesus, the 
former of Argos.— Larcher. 

4 Datus.]— Upon this place Meursius, in hisLcctiones 



LXXVI. After this victory of the Greeks 
over the Barbarians at Platea, a woman hear- 
ing of the event, came to the Greeks as a sup- 
pliant. She was the concubine of Pharandates, 5 
a Persian, the son of Teaspes ; both she and 
her female attendants were superbly dressed in 
habits of the richest embroidery. Descending 
from her carriage, she approached the Lacedae- 
monians, who were still engaged in slaughter, 
and addressing herself to Pausanias, who she 
saw commanded, and whose name and country 
she had before known : " Prince of Sparta," 
said she, embracing his knees, 6 "be my deli- 
verer from servitude : you have already merited 
my gratitude, by exterminating those who re- 
vered neither gods nor demons. I am a Coan 
by birth, daughter of Hegetoridas, grand- 
daughter of Antagoras ; the Persian carried me 
off violently from Cos, and detained me with 
him." " Be under no alarm," answered Pau- 
sanias, " both because you are a suppliant, 7 and 
because, if what you say be true, you are the 
I daughter of Hegetoridas of Cos, to whom, of 
all his countrymen, I am most bound by the 
I ties of hospitality." He then recommended 
j her to the care of the ephori, who were present, 
\ and finally, at her request, removed her to 
iEgina. 

LXXVII. After the departure of this wo- 
man, and when the battle was finally decided, 
the Mantineans arrived. Their not coming in 
time for the engagement they esteemed a seri- 



Atticae, employs a whole chapter, correcting errors 
concerning it committed by Stephanus and Hesychius. 
Stephanus the geographer places it in Thrace, Ptolemy 
in Macedonia, on the confines of Thrace ; Eustathius on 
Dionysius agrees with Ptolemy, placing Datus on the 
banks of the Strymon, a river of Macedonia.— T. 

5 Pharandates.]— This man commanded the Mares 
and Colchians. See b. vii. c 79. 

6 Embracing his knees.]— This was a common, and 
indeed very natural act of extreme humility, and earn- 
est supplications, innumerable instances occur of its be- 
ing practised in ancient writers, and in Homer particu- 
larly. Priam, when he goes to beg of Achilles the 
body of Hector, throws himself at his feet,and embraces 
his knees : 

Unseen by these the king his entry made, 
And prostrate now before Achilles laid ; 
Sudden (a venerable sight) appears, 
Embraced his knees, and bathed his hands in tears ; 
Those direful hands his kisses press'd, imbrued 
E'en with the best, the dearest of his blood. 
These six lines are expressed with much greater 
pathos and beauty by Homer in three.— J. 

7 Suppliant.]— Seethe Odyssey, book vii. 21b\— Pope's 
Translation : 

To raise a lowly suppliant from the ground 
Befits a monarch. 



CALLIOPE. 



439 



oris calamity, and an incident for which they 
ought to undergo a voluntary punishment. — 
Having learned that the Medes, under Arta- 
bazus, 8 had taken themselves to flight, they 
determined to pursue them as far as Thessaly, 
from which they were with some difficulty dis- 
suaded by the Lacedaemonians : afterwards, on 
their return home, they sent their leaders into 
banishment. The Eleans arrived after the 
Mantineans, and expressing the same regret, 
they also returned, and banished their com- 
manders. Such was the conduct of these two 
people. 

LXXVIII. Among the troops of the 
iEginetee, assembled at Platea, was Lampon, 9 
one of their principal citizens, and son of 
Pytheas. This man went to Pausanias, giving 
him the following most impious counsel : " Son 
of Cleombrotus, what you have done is beyond 
comparison splendid, and deserving admiration. 
The deity, in making you the instrument of 
Greece's freedom, has placed you far above all 
your predecessors in glory ; in concluding this 
business, so conduct yourself, that your repu- 
tation may be still increased, and that no Bar- 
barian may ever again attempt to perpetrate 
atrocious actions against Greece. When Le- 
onidas was slain at Thermopylae, Mardonius 
and Xerxes cut off his head, and suspended his 
body from a cross. Do the same with respect 
to Mardonius, and you will deserve the ap- 
plause of Sparta and Greece, and avenge the 
cause of your uncle Leonidas." Thus spake 
Lampon, thinking he should please Pausanias. 

LXXIX. « Friend of ^Egina," replied 
Pausanias, " I thank you for your good inten- 
tions, and commend your foresight ; but what 
you say violates every principle of equity. 10 
After elevating me, my country, and this recent 
victory, to the summit of fame, you again de- 
press us to infamy, in recommending me to 
inflict vengeance on the dead. 11 You say, in- 



8 Artabazus.]— He commanded the Parthian* and 
Chorasmians, consisting of forty thousand men. See 
book vii. c. 66. 

9 Lampon.] — This Lampon was of a family illustrious 
no less for the prizes they obtained at the Isthmean and 
Nemean games, than for their noble origin. He was 
the son of Pytheas, to whom the fifth Nemean Ode of 
Pindar was addressed ; which see. 

10 Of equity.] — Pausanias altered materially afterwards. 
He aspired to the supreme power, became magnificent 
and luxurious, fierce and vindictive. See Thucydides, 
1. L c. 128, 29, 30 Scc.—Larcher. 

11 On the dead.] — This sentiment is frequently express, 
od by ancient and modern authors. Homer says, 

T' insult the dead is cruel and unjust. 



deed, that by such an action, I shall exalt my 
character; but I think; it is more consistent 
with the conduct of Barbarians than of Greeks, 
as it is one of those things for which we re- 
proach them. I must therefore dissent from 
the iEginetae, and all those who approve their 
sentiments. For me, it is sufficient to merit 
the esteem of Sparta, by attending to the rules 
of honour, both in my words and actions : Le- 
onidas, whom you wish me to avenge, has, I 
think, received the amplest vengeance. The 
deaths of this immense multitude must suffi- 
ciently have atoned for him, and for those who 
fell with him at Thermopylae. I would advise 
you in future, having these sentiments, to avoid 
my presence ; and I would have you think it a 
favour that I do not punish you." 

LXXX. Pausanias afterwards proclaimed 
by a herald, that no person should touch any of 
the booty ; and he ordered the helots to collect 
the money into one place. They, as they dis- 
persed 12 themselves over the camp, found tents 
decorated with gold and silver, couches of the 
same, goblets, cups, and drinking vessels of 
gold, besides sacks of gold, and silver cauldrons 
placed on carriages. The dead bodies they 
stripped of bracelets, chains, and scimetars of 
gold ; to their habits of various colours they 
paid no attention. Many things of value the 
helots secreted, and sold them to the iEginetae ; 
others, unable to conceal, they were obliged to 



Dr Young, in his play of the Revenge, makes Zanga say, 

1 war not with the dead. 

And in the Complaint, Night hi. 190, 
What guilt 
Can equal violations of the dead : 
The dead how sacred : sacred is the dust 
Of this heaven labour'd form. 

But perhaps the most forcible and elegant sentiments on 
this subject may be found in the Antigone of Sophocles ; 
where Antigone, in defiance of the edicts of Creon, at the 
peril of her own life, buries the dead body of her brother 
Polyniccs. 

12 As they dispersed.] — This circumstance and beha- 
viour of the helots necessarily remind us of the four le- 
prous men, 2 Kings, chap. vii. ver. 8. 

" And when these lepers came to the uttermost part 
of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and 
drink, and carried thence silver and gold and raiment, 
and went and hid it ; and came again and entered into 
another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid 
it." 

The plunder of the Syrian camp by the king of Israel 
resembles in many other particulars what is here de- 
scribed of the Persian camp by Herodotus. See on the 
events related in this chapter, Diodorus Sic. 1. ii. c. 26 ; 
Plutarch's Life of Aristides; Thucyd. 1. iii. c. 114; -Elian 
V. History, vol. ii. p. 680, where we .are (old that the 
iEginetae were the first coiners of money. — T. 



440 



HERODOTUS. 



produce. The iEginetae from this became 
exceedingly rich ; for they purchased gold of 
the helots at the price of brass. 

LXXXI. From the wealth thus collected, 
a tenth part was selected for sacred purposes. 
To the deity of Delphi was presented a golden 
tripod, l resting on a three-headed snake of 
brass : it was placed near the altar. To the 
Olympian god they erected a Jupiter, 2 ten cubits 
high : fo the god of the Isthmus, the figure of 
Neptune, in brass, seven cubits high. When 
this was done, the remainder of the plunder 
was divided among the army, according to their 
merits : it consisted of Persian concubines, 
gold, silver, beasts of burden, with various 
riches. What choice things were given to those 
who most distinguished themselves at Platea, 3 
has never been mentioned, though certain pre- 
sents, I believe, were made them. It is certain, 
that to Pausanias was given a tenth part of the 
whole, consisting, among other things, of wo- 
men, horses, talents, and camels. 

LXXXII. It is farther recorded, that when 
Xerxes fled from Greece, he left all his equi- 
page to Mardonius : Pausanias seeing this com- 
posed of gold, silver, and cloth of the richest 
embroidery, gave orders to the cooks and do- 
mestics to prepare an entertainment for him, 
as for Mardonius. His commands were execu- 
ted, and he beheld couches of gold and silver, 
tables of the same, and every thing that was 
splendid and magnificent. Astonished at the 
spectacle, he again with a smile directed his 
servants to prepare a Lacedaemonian repast. 



1 Tripod.]— On the subject of ancient tripods, see 
Montfaucon, vol. ii. p. 85. "What Herodotus here says 
is confirmed by Pausanias, in Phoc. book, p. 633. — T. 

2 Jupiter : ] — See Pausanias, Elis. c. xxiii. 

" Near the senate house is a Jupiter without an in- 
scription, and another, which was dedicated by those 
who fought against Mardonius at Platea : the names of 
the states, whose subjects were in that action, being in- 
scribed upon the base of the figure, which was made by 
Anaxagoras of ^Egina. The Lacedaemonians are the 
first, the Athenians next, then the Corinthians, fourthly 
the Sicyonians, then the iEginetoe, &c. — Larcher. 

3 At Platea.'] — That sagacious and entertaining tra- 
veller, Mr Coxe, relates in his vol. i. of Switzerland, 
that the people of Glari*, to the amount only of three 
hundred and fifty, assisted by thirty Svvitzers, not only 
repulsed, but Vanquished with a prodigious slaughter, 
an army of fifteen thousand Austrians. " This surpris- 
ing victory," says he, " gained by a handful of men, 
against an enemy so superior in number (instances of 
which are by no means rare in the history of Switzer- 
land) render the wonderful combats of Marathon and 
Platea perfectly credible." — T. 

This battle took place on the fourth of the month 
Boedromion, which corresponds with our September. 



When this was ready, the contrast was so 
striking, that he laughing sent for the Grecian 
leaders : when they were assembled, he showed 
them the two entertainments : " Men of 
Greece," said he, " I have called you together 
to bear testimony to the king of Persia's folly, 
who forsook all his luxury to plunder us who 
live in so much poverty." 1 These were the 
words which Pausanias is said to have used to 
the Grecian leaders. 

L XXXIII. In succeeding times, many of 
the Plateans found on the field of battle, chests 
of gold, silver, and other riches. This thing 
also happened : when the flesh had fallen from 
the bones of the dead bodies, the Plateans, in 
removing them to some other spot, discovered 
a scull of one entire bone, without any suture. 5 
Two jaw-bones also were found with their 
teeth, which though divided were of one entire 
bone, B the grinders as well as the rest. The 
bones of a man also were seen five cubits high. 

LXXXIV. The body of Mardonius was 
removed the day after the battle : but it is not 
known by whom. I have heard the interment 
of Mardonius ascribed to various people of dif- 
ferent nations : and I know that many persons 
received on this account liberal presents from 
Artontas, his son ; but who it actually was 
that privately removed and buried the body of 
Mardonius, I have never been able to ascertain. 
It has sometimes been imputed to Dionysio- 
phanes, a native of Ephesus. 

LXXXV. The Greeks, after the division 
of the plunder of Platea, proceeded to inter their 
dead, each nation by themselves. 7 The Lace- 
daemonians 8 sunk three trenches ; in the one 



4 Poverty.] — If this remark were made with truth 
with respect to the Greeks, how much more pertinent 
does it appear, comparing the Scythians with the Per- 
sians, against whom Darius unsuccessfully led a numer- 
ous army. 

5 Without any sutit?-e.] — Father Hardouin, in a note 
on a passage of Pliny, observes, that Albert, Marquis of 
Brandenburg, surnamed the German Achilles, had a 
scull without a suture. — Larcher. 

Natural historians have remarked this peculiarity in 
the sculls of many persons. It has also been affirmed of 
the celebrated cardinal Ximenes. — T. 

G Entire bone.] — Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, had his 
teeth of one entire bone, though distinct from each 
other. It has been related also of many. — Larcher. 

7 By themselves. 2 — The Lacedaemonians and Athenians 
had an appropriate burial; the other Greeks were in- 
terred promiscuously. — Larcher. 

8 The Lacedcemonians.y-We learn from r.'utarch, 
that it was not unusual to separate the commanders 
from the common men. — See Montfaucon, vol. v. 14, 15, 



CALLIOPE. 



441 



they deposited the bo-lies of their priests, 9 
f.mong whom were Posidonius, Amompbare- 
tus, Philocyon, and Callicrates : in the second 
were interred the other Spartans ; in the third 
the helots. The Tegeatae were buried by 
themselves, but with no distinction ; the Athe- 
nians in like manner, and also the Megarians 
and Phliasians who were slain by the cavalry. 
Mounds of earth were raised over the bodies of 
all these people. With respect to the others 
shown at Platea, I am told they were raised by 
those, who being ashamed of their absence 
from the battle, wished to secure the esteem of 
posterity. There is here a monument said to 
be that of the iEginetae, but this I have been 
informed was raised ten years after the battle, 
by Cleades of Platea, the son of Autodicus, 
at the particular request of the iEginetae, to 
whom he was bound by the ties of hospitality. 

LXXXVI. Having buried their dead on 
the plain of Platea, the Greeks, after serious 
deliberation, resolved to attack Thebes, and 
demand the persons of those who had taken 
part with the Medes. Of these the most dis- 
tinguished were Timegenides and Attaginus, 
the leaders of the faction. They determined, 
unless these were given up, not to leave 
Thebes, without utterly destroying it. On the 
eleventh day after the battle, they besieged the 
Thebans, demanding the men whom we have 
named. They refused to surrender them ; in 
consequence of which, their lands were laid 
waste, and their walls attacked. 

LXXXVII. This violence being continued, 
Timegenides, on the twentieth day, thus ad- 
dressed the Thebans : " Men of Thebes, 10 
since the Greeks are resolved not to retire from 
Thebes till they shall either have destroyed it, or 
you shall deliver us into their power, let not 
Bceotia on our account be farther distressed. 
If their demand of our persons be merely a pre- 



9 Their priests.']— For rov; !otcc;, Valcnaer thinks we 
may read rev; Ittio.;, the knights of whom we learn, b 
viii. c. 12k These were three hundred. — T. 

10 Men of Thebes.]— The gallant behaviour of Time- 
genides on this occasion will remind the English reader 
of the siege of Calais by Edward the Third, when Eus- 
tace de St Pierre, one of the principal inhabitants, be- 
haved precisely in a similar manner. He declared him- 
self willing to suffer death for the safety of his friends and 
fellow citizens. The entreaties of Philippa, Henry's 
queen, induced the English monarch to behave with 
more magnanimity than we find Pausanias did. The 
citizens of Calais saved their lives, received magnificent 
presents, and were dismissed in safety. See the story 
admirably told by Hume, vol. ii. p. 442. 



tence to obtain money, let us satisfy them from 
the wealth of the public, as not we alone, but 
all of us have been equally and openly active on 
the part of the Medes ; if their real object in 
besieging Thebes, is to obtain our persons, we 
are ready to go ourselves and confer with them." 
The Thebans approving his advice sent im- 
mediately a herald to Pausanias, saying they 
were ready to deliver up the men. 

L XXXVIII. As soon as this measure was 
determined, Attaginus fled, but his children 
were delivered to Pausanias, who immediately 
dismissed them, urging that infants could net 
possibly have any part in the faction of the 
Medes. The other Thebans who were given 
up, imagined they should have the liberty of 
pleading for themselves, and by the means of 
money hoped to escape. Pausanias, expecting 
such a thing might happen, as soon as he got 
them in his power, dismissed all the forces of 
the allies ; then removing the Thebans to Co- 
rinth, he there put them to death. 

LXXXIX. These things were done at 
Platea and Thebes. Artabazus, son of Phar- 
naces, fled from Platea to the Thessalians. 
They received him with great hospitality, and 
entirely ignorant of what had happened, inquir- 
ed after the remainder of the army. The Per- 
sian was fearful that if he disclosed the whole 
truth, he might draw upon him the attack of 
all who knew it, and consequently involve him- 
self and army in the extremest danger. This 
reflection had before prevented his communica- 
tion of the matter to the Phoceans : and on the 
present occasion he thus addressed the Thessa- 
lians : "lam hastening, as you perceive, with 
great expedition to Thrace, being despatched 
thither from our camp with this detachment, 
on some important business. Mardonius with 
his troops follows me at no great distance : 
show him the rites of hospitality and every 
suitable attention. You will finally have no 
occasion to repent of your kindness." He then 
proceeded through Thessaly and Macedonia, 
immediately to Thrace, with evident marks of 
being in haste. Directing his march through 
the midst of the country, he arrived at Byzan- 
tium, with the loss of great numbers of his 
men, who were either cut in pieces by the 
Thracians, or quite worn out by fatigue and 
hunger. From Byzantium, he passed over his 
army in transports, and thus effected his return 
to Asia. 

XC. On the very day of the battle of Pla- 
tea, a victory was gained at Mycale in Ionia. 
3 K 



442 



HERODOTUS. 



Whilst the Grecian fleet was yet at Delos, 
under the command of Leutychides the Lace- 
daemonian, ambassadors came to them from 
Samos. These were Lampon the son of 
Thrasyales, Athenagoras, son of Archestrati- 
das, and Hegesistratus, son of Aristagoras, 
who were employed on this occasion without 
the knowledge of the Persians or of Theomes- 
tor,' son of Androdamas, whom the Persians 
had made prince of Samos. On their arrival, 
they sought the Grecian leaders, whom Hege- 
sistratus addressed with various arguments. 
He urged, that as soon as they should show 
themselves, all the Ionians would shake of 
their dependence, and revolt from the Persians : 
he told them that they might wait in vain for 
the prospect of a richer booty. He implored 
also their common deities, that being Greeks, 
they would deliver those who were Greeks also 
from servitude, and avenge them on the Bar- 
barian. He concluded by saying, that this 
might be easily accomplished, as the ships of 
the enemy were slow sailers, and by no means 
equal to the Greeks. He added, that if they 
had any suspicions of treachery, they were 
ready to go on board their vessels, and there 
remain as hostages. 

XCI. Whilst the Samian continued his im- 
portunities, Leutychides, either for the sake of 
some omen, or by accident, Providence so or- 
dering it, asked him his name. He replied, 
" Hegesistratus." If he had intended saying 
any more, Leutychides prevented him, by ex- 
claiming, " My Samian friend, I accept the 
omen of your name, you may therefore return, 
after promising us on behalf of yourself and 
your companions, that the Samians will prove 
themselves zealous allies." 

XCI I. Saying this, he proceeded to execute 
what was proposed. The Samians, with an 
oath, engaged to become the confederates of 
the Greeks. Leutychides then dismissed them 
all except Hegesistratus, who on account of his 
name, 2 he chose to take along with him. The 



1 Tkeomestor.] — It may be seen in book viii. c. 15. 
what it was that induced the Persians to give this man 
the government of Samos. — Larcher. 

2 On account of his name.~\ — The ancients paid great 
attention, Greeks as well as Romans, to the presages to 
be drawn from names. When Augustus was proceeding 
to the battle of Actium, he met a man driving an ass ; the 
man's name was Eutychus, which means fortunate, the 
name of the ass was Nicon, which signifies victory. He 
accepted this as a favourable omen, and after his con- 
quest of Anthony, he constructed a temple, in which he 



Greeks, after remaining that day on their sta- 
tion, on the next sacrificed with favourable 
omens ; Deiphonus, son of Evenius of Apol- 
lonia, in the Ionian gulf, being their minister. 

XCIH. To this Evenius the following thing 
happened. There are in Apollonia, sheep sa- 
cred to the sun, which by day are fed on the 
banks of a river, that, flowing from mount Lac- 
mon, passes through Apollonia, and empties 
itself into the sea, near the harbour of Oricum. 
By night they are kept by men, one of whom 
is every year chosen from the noblest and 
wealthiest of his fellow citizens. To these 
sheep, on account of some oracle, the people of 
Apollonia pay the greatest reverence, and they 
are every night secured in a cave at some dis- 
tance from the city. Evenius being once 
elected to this office, was so remiss as to fall 
asleep, when some wolves entered, and de- 
stroyed nearly sixty of his sheep. On discov- 
ering the accident, he made no person acquaint- 
ed with what had happened, intending to buy 
an equal number to substitute in their room. 
It could not however be concealed from the 
people of Apollonia, who, bringing Evenius to 
trial, condemned him to lose his eyes for sleep- 
ing on his duty. After they had inflicted this 
punishment upon him, their cattle ceased to 
bring forth, and their lands to be fruitful. This 
had been before predicted by the oracles of 
Dodona and Delphi. The prophets being in- 
terrogated concerning the occasion of the pre- 
sent calamity, replied, " That it was because 
they had unjustly deprived of his sight, Even • 
ius, the keeper of the sacred sheep." They 
were the persons they said who had sent the 
wolves ; nor would they cease their vengeance 
till Evenius should be satisfied in whatever 
manner he desired. They added, that they 
themselves would afterwards make him such a 
present as would induce most men to think 
him happy. 

XCIV. This reply was made by the oracles 
to the people of Apollonia. They, concealing 
this, commissioned some of their citizens to 
compound the business. The method they 
took was this : they visited Evenius in his 
house, and seating themselves by him, talked 
of indifferent matters, till they at length began 
to pity his misfortune. When this was intro- 
duced, they asked him what compensation 



placed figures of the ass and its master. Mary similar 
examples are to be found. — T. 



CALLIOPE. 



443 



would satisfy him, if the Apolloniatse would 
engage to make it ? As he knew nothing of the 
oracle, he expressed his wish to have the lands 
of two citizens, whom he specified, which he 
believed to be the best in the country ; to this 
he added the most splendid house in the city. 
If he had but these, he said, he should be per- 
fectly content, and no longer feel any resent- 
ment. When Evenius had made this reply, his 
visitors interrupted him : " Accept," said they, 
" what you require, and what, in compliance 
with the oracle, your countrymen are disposed 
to give you as an atonement for depriving you 
of sight." Evenius, on hearing the matter ex- 
plained, was greatly incensed at the deception. 
The farms which he had wished for were pur- 
chased of their owners, and given him. He 
had afterwards the power of divination, whence 
he became famous. 

XCV. Deiphonus was the son of this Eve- 
nius, whom the Corinthians had brought with 
them as soothsayer to the army. I have been 
informed that Deiphonus performed this office 
in Greece, availing himself of the name of Eve- 
nius, whose son he really was not. 

XCVI. The Greeks having sacrificed fa- 
vourably, set sail from Delos towards Samos. 
On their arrival at Calami 3 of Samos, they 
drew themselves up near the temple of Juno, 
and prepared for a naval engagement. When 
the Persians heard of their approach, they 
moved with the residue of their fleet towards 
the continent, having previously permitted the 
Phenicians to retire. They had determined, 
after a consultation, not to risk an engagement, 
as they did not think themselves a match for 
their opponents. They therefore made towards 
the continent, that they might be covered by 
their land forces at JVIycale, to whom Xerxes 
had intrusted the defence of Ionia. These, to 
the amount of sixty thousand, were under the 
command of Tigranes the Persian, one of the 
handsomest and tallest of his countrymen. To 
these troops the commanders of the fleet re- 



3 Calami. — Larcher in his Memoire sur Venus, p. J 46, 
says, there was a temple at Samos erected to Venus, in a 
place full of reeds, which occasioned the goddess to be 
called Venus among the reeds, 'iv ei /juv tv tcnXoc/xois 
xot.>ov<nv. This, says the learned Frenchman, is a valu- 
able piece of intelligence, for we learn that there was a 
place in Samos called Ka.Xot/j.01, Calami, which explains 
this passage in Herodotus, concerning which the two 
last editors have not said a syllable; neither has any 
geographer or author spoken of this place ; but it is evi- 
dent from Athenaeus, 1. xiii. c. 4. that it ought to be read 
*•{«$ KxXctfj.«i(ri. — T ' [ 



solved to retire : it was also their intention to 
draw their vessels on shore, and to throw up 
an intrenchment round them, which might 
equally serve as a protection to their vessels 
and themselves. 

XCVII. After the above resolution, they 
proceeded on their course, and were carried 
near the temple of the Eumenidae at Mycale, 
contiguous to Ga^son and Scolopees. In this 
place is a temple of the Eleusinian Ceres, 
built by Philistus, son of Pasicles, who accom- 
panied Neleus the son of Codrus, when he 
founded Miletus. Here the Persians drew 
their ships to land, defending them with an 
intrenchment formed of stones, branches of 
fruit-trees cut down upon the spot, and pieces 
of timber closely fitted together. In this po- 
sition they were ready to sustain a blockade, 
and with the hopes of victory, being prepared 
for either event. 

XCVIII. When the Greeks received in- 
telligence that the Barbarians were retired to 
the continent, they considered them as escaped 
out of their hands. They were exceedingly 
exasperated, and in great perplexity whether 
they should return or proceed towards the Hel- 
lespont. N Their ultimate determination was 
to follow the enemy towards the continent. 
Getting therefore all things ready for an en- 
gagement by sea, and providing themselves 
with scaling ladders, and such other things as 
were necessary, they sailed to Mycale. When 
they approached the enemy's station, they per- 
ceived no one advancing to meet them ; but 
beheld the ships drawn on shore, secured within 
an intrenchment, and a considerable body of 
infantry ranged along the coast. Leutychides 
upon this advanced before all the rest in his 
ship, and coming as near the shore as he could, 
thus addressed the Ionians by a herald : " Men 
of Ionia, all you who hear me, listen to what 
I say, for the Persians will understand nothing 
of what I tell you. When the engagement 
shall commence, remember first of all our com- 
mon liberties ; in the next place take notice, 
our watch-word is Hebe. Let those who hear 
me, inform all who do not." The motive of 
this conduct was the same with that of The- 
mistocles at Artemisium. These expressions, 
if not intelligible to the Barbarians, might 
make the desired impression on the Ionians ; 
or if explained to the former, might render the 
fidelity of the latter suspected. 

XCIX. When Leutychides had done this, 
the Greeks approached the shore, disembarked, 



444 



HERODOTUS. 



and prepared for battle. The Persians observ- 
ing this, and knowing the purport of the ene- 
my's address to the Ionians, took their arms 
from the Samians, suspecting them of a secret 
attachment to the Greeks. The Samians had 
purchased the freedom of five hundred Athe- 
nians, and sent them back with provisions to 
their country, who having been left in Attica, 
had been taken prisoners by the Persians, and 
brought away in the Barbarian fleet. The 
circumstance of their thus releasing five hun- 
dred of the enemies of Xerxes made them 
greatly suspected. To the Milesians, under 
pretence of their knowledge of the country, the 
Persians confided the guard of the paths to the 
heights of Mycale; their real motive was to 
remove them to a distance. By these steps 
the Persians endeavoured to guard against 
those Ionians, who might wish, if they had the 
opportunity, to effect a revolt. They next 
heaped their bucklers upon each other, to make 
a temporary rampart. 

C. The Greeks being drawn up, advanced 
to attack the Barbarians : as they were pro- 
ceeding, a herald's wand was discovered on the 
beach, and a rumour circulated through the 
ranks, that the Greeks had obtained a victory 
over the forces of Mardonius in Bceotia. 
These things which happen l by divine inter- 
position, are made known by various means. 
On the same day that their enemies were 
slaughtered at Platea, and were about to be 
defeated at Mycale, the rumour of the former 
victory being circulated to this distance, ren- 
dered the Greeks more bold, and animated 
them against every danger. 

CI. It appears farther worthy of observa- 
tion, that both battles took place near the 
temple of the Eleusinian Ceres. The battle 
of Platea, as I have before remarked, was in 
the vicinity of the temple of Ceres ; the one 
at Mycale was in a similar situation. The 
report of the victory of the Greeks under Pau- 
sanias came at a very seasonable moment ; the 
engagement at Platea happening early in 
the morning, that at Mycale towards the even- 
ing. It was soon afterwards ascertained, that 
these incidents occurred on the same day of 



1 Wh ich happen.'] — It is unnecessary to remark, that 
the superstition of the writer is in this passage conspi- 
cuous. Diodorus Siculusis most sagacious, when he says 
that Leutychides, and those who were with him, knew 
nothing of the victory of Platea ; but that they contrived 
this stratagem to animate their troops. Polyaenus re- 
lates the same in his Stratagemata.— Larcher. 



the same month. Before the arrival of this 
rumour at Mycale, the Greeks were in great 
consternation, not so much on their own ac- 
count, as from the fear that Greece would not be 
able to withstand the exertions of Mardonius ; 
but after they had heard this news, they ad- 
vanced to combat with greater eagerness and 
courage. The Barbarians testified equal reso- 
lution, and both seemed to consider the islands 
and the Hellespont as the reward of victory. 

CI I. The Athenians, who, with those that 
accompanied them, constituted one half of the 
army, advanced by the coast, and along the 
plain : the Lacedaemonians and their auxiliaries, 
by the more woody and mountainous places. 
Whilst the Lacedaemonians were making a 
circuit, the Athenians in the other wing were 
already engaged. The Persians, as long as 
their intrenchment remained uninjured, defend- 
ed themselves well, and without any inferiority ; 
but when the Athenians with those who sup- 
ported them, increased their exertions, mutually 
exhorting one another, that they and not the 
Lacedaemonians might have the glory of the 
day, the face of things was changed ; the ram- 
part was thrown down, and a sensible advan- 
tage obtained over the Persians. They sus- 
tained the shock for a considerable time, but 
finally gave way, and retreated behind their in- 
trenchments. The Athenians, Corinthians, 
Sicyonians, and Troezenians, rushed in with 
them ; for this part of the army was composed 
of these different nations. When the wall was 
carried, the Barbarians gave no testimony of 
their former prowess, but, except the Persians, 
indiscriminately fled. These last, though few 
in number, vigorously resisted the Greeks, who 
poured in upon them in crowds. Artayntes 
and Ithamitres, the commanders of the fleet, 
saved themselves by flight; but Mardontes, 
and Tigranes the general of the land forces, 
were slain. 

CHI. Whilst the Persians still refused to 
give ground, the Lacedaemonians and their 
party arrived, and put all who survived to the 
sword. Upon this occasion many of the 
Greeks were slain, and amongst a number ot 
the Sicyonians, Perilaus their leader. The Sa- 
mians, who were in the Persian army, and from 
whom their weapons had been taken, no sooner 
saw victory incline to the side of the Greeks, 
than they assisted them with all their power. 
The other Ionians seeing this, revolted also, 
and turned their arms against the Barbarians. 



CALLIOPE. 



445 



CIV. The Milesians had been ordered, the 
better to provide for the safety of the Persians, 
to guard the paths to the heights, so that in 
case of accident, the Barbarians, under their 
guidance, might take refuge on the summits of 
Mycale ; with this view, as well as to remove 
them to a distance, and thus guard against 
their perfidy, the Milesians had been so dis- 
posed ; but they acted in direct contradiction to 
their orders. Those who fled, they introduced 
directly into the midst of their enemies, and 
finally were active beyond all the rest in put- 
ting them to the sword. In this manner did 
Ionia a second time revolt from the Persian 
power. 

CV. In this battle the Athenians most dis- 
tinguished themselves, and of them Hermoly- 
cus, the son of Euthynus, a man famous in the 
Pancratium. This man afterwards was slain 
in a battle at Cyrnus of Carystus, in the war 
betwixt the Athenians and Carystians, a and 
was buried at Gersestum. Next to the Athe- 
nians, they who obtained the greatest reputa- 
tion were the Corinthians, Trcezenians, and 
Sicyonians. 

CVL The greater number of the Barba- 
rians being slain, either in the battle or in the 
pursuit, the Greeks burned their ships, and to- 
tally destroyed their wall : the plunder they 
collected upon the shore, amongst which was a 
considerable quantity of money. Having done 
this, they sailed from the coast. When they 
came to Samos, they deliberated on the pro- 
priety of removing the Ionians 3 to some other 
place, wishing to place them in some part of 
Greece where their authority was secure ; but 
they determined to abandon Ionia to the Bar- 
barians. They were well aware both of the 
impossibility of defending the Ionians on every 
emergence, and of the danger which these 
would incur from the Persians if they did not. 
The Peloponnesian magistrates were of opinion, 
that those nations who had embraced the cause 



2 Caiystians.2— The Athenians had war also with the 
Carystians, in which the rest of Eubcea took no part. 
It finished by a treaty. See Thucydides, 1. i. c. 98. 

3 Removing the Ionians^— Twice, says the Abbe Bar- 
telemy, in his Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis, might this 
people have withdrawn themselves from the dominion 
of Persia ; once by following the counsel of Bias, the 
other in complying with the will of the Lacedaemonians, 
who after the Persian war offered to transport them into 
Greece. They constantly refused to forsake their resi- 
dence ; and if it be permitted to judge from their popu- 
lousness and wealth, independence was not essential to 
their happiness.— fj 



of the Medes should be expelled, and their 
lands given to the Ionians. The Athenians 
would not consent that the Ionians should be 
transported from their country, nor would they 
allow the Peloponnesians to decide on the de- 
struction of Athenian colonies. Seeing them 
tenacious of this opinion, the Peloponnesians 
no longer opposed them. Afterward the peo- 
ple of Samos, Chios, Lesbos, and the other 
islands who had assisted with their arms in the 
present exigence, were received into the general 
confederacy, having by an oath promised con- 
stant and inviolable fidelity. This ceremony 
performed, they sailed towards the Hellespont, 
meaning to destroy the bridge, which they ex- 
pected to find in its original state. 

CVII. The Barbarians who saved them- 
selves by flight, came to the heights of Mycale, 
and thence escaped in no great numbers to 
Sardis. During the retreat, Masistes, son of 
Darius, who had been present at the late unfor- 
tunate engagement, severely reproached Ar- 
tayntes the commander-in-chief : amongst other 
things, he said, that in the execution of his duty 
he had behaved more like a woman 4 than a man, 
and had materially injured the interest of his 
master. To say that a man is more dastardly 
than a woman, is with the Persians the most 
infamous of all reproaches. Artayntes, after 
bearing the insult for some time, became at 
length so exasperated, that he drew his scymitar, 
intending to kill Masistes. He was prevented 
by Xenagoras, son of Praxilaus, a native of 
Halicarnassus, who happening to be behind 
Artayntes, seized him by the middle, and threw 
him to the ground : at the same time the guards 
of Masistes came up. Xenagoras by this 
action not only obtained the favour of Masistes, 
but so much obliged Xerxes, by thus preserv- 
ing his brother, that he was honoured with the 
government of all Cilicia. Nothing farther of 
consequence occurred in their way to Sardis, 
where they found the king, who after his retreat 
from Athens, and his ill success at sea, had 
there resided. 

CVHI. Xerxes, during his residence at 



4 Like a ux>7nan.~\— This reproach seems anciently to 
have been considered as the most contemptuous that 
could be imagined. Xerxes with this inveighed against 
his troops at Salamis. See also the speech of Thersites 
in the second book of the Iliad : 

O women of Achaia, men no more, 
Hence let us fly, and let him waste his store 
In loves and pleasures on the Phrygian shore. 

The expression in Greek is AgauidK wxtr' A^ata. t 



446 



HERODOTUS. 



Sardis, had attached himself to the wife of 
Masistes, who happened to be there at the same 
time. He was unable to obtain his wishes by 
presents, and out of respect to his brother he 
forbore to use violence. The woman, con- 
vinced that he would not force her, was re- 
strained by the same consideration. Xerxes, 
perceiving his other efforts ineffectual, resolved 
to marry his own son Darius to the daughter of 
this woman by Masistes, thinking by these 
means to obtain the more easy accomplishment 
of his desires. The marriage being solemnized 
with the accustomed ceremonies, he departed 
for Susa. On his arrival here, his son's wife 
was received into his palace : the wife of Ma- 
sistes no longer engaged his attention, but 
changing the object of his passion, he connected 
himself with the wife of his son, the daughter 
of his brother. Her name was Artaynta. 

CIX. This intrigue was afterwards discov- 
ered in the following manner : Amestris 1 the 
wife of Xerxes presented her husband with a 
large embroidered and beautiful vest, which she 
herself had made ; Xerxes was much delighted 
with it, and putting it on, went to visit Ar- 
taynta ; in an emotion of love, he desired her 
to ask as a compensation for her favours what- 
ever she wished, promising faithfully to gratify 
her. To this, impelled by the evil destiny of 
her whole family, she replied ; " And will you 
really, Sir, grant me what I shall ask ?" Xer- 
xes, never supposing she would require what 
she did, promised with an oath that he would. 
The woman confidently demanded his robe. 
Xerxes at first refused her, fearing that Ames- 
tris would thus be convinced of what she had 
long suspected. Instead of what she solicited, 
he promised her cities, a prodigious quantity of 
gold, and the sole command 3 of a large body of 
troops : which last is amongst the Persians 
esteemed a most distinguished honour. Unable 

1 Amestris.] — Many learned men, and Scaliger among 
others, pretend that this princess is the same with queen 
Esther. A vain similitude of name, the cruelty of 
Amestris, of which Herodotus gives various examples, 
the barbarity with which Esther treated the ten children 
of Haman, and the enemies of the Jews, have given rise 
to this supposition ; but Esther was of a Jewish, Ames- 
tris of a Persian family. The father of this last was a 
satrap, named Onophas, according to Ctesias, and Otanes, 
according to Herodotus. If any stress were to be laid on 
a mere name, we might as well affirm that Esther was 
the same as Atossa, for she was also called Hadassa ; 
but in my opinion, we ought not to conclude that Darius 
was the same with Ahasuerus. — Larcher. 

2 Sole command.'} — Evelthon, king of Cyprus, was 
more wise : he gave to Pheretima any thing rather than 
an army.— See b. iv. 162.— Larcher. 



to change her purpose, he gave her the robe ; 
delighted with which, she wore it with exulta- 
tion. 

CX. Amestris soon heard of her having it, 
and thus learning what had happened, was 
exasperated, not against the young woman her- 
self, but against her mother, whom alone she 
considered as criminal, and the cause of the 
mischief: she accordingly determined on her 
destruction. Waiting therefore for the solem- 
nity of the royal festival, which is held once in 
every year, on the birth-day of the king, she 
took this opportunity of requesting Xerxes to 
give her the wife of Masistes. This festival is 
called in the Persian tongue Tycta, in the Greek 
Teleion, or Perfect, upon which the king alone 
decorates his head, and makes presents to the 
Persians. Xerxes however thought the giving 
away the person of his brother's wife both cruel 
and detestable. He was satisfied that she was 
innocent of the crime imputed to her, and he 
could not be ignorant with what motive Ames- 
tris had made her request. 

CXI. Conquered at length by her impor- 
tunity, as well as by the law of custom, which 
compelled the king on every occasion of this 
festival to give what was required of him, he 
granted what she asked, though with extreme 
reluctance : giving therefore the woman to his 
wife, he told her to use her as she might think 
proper ; but he immediately sent for his bro- 
ther, whom he thus addressed : " Masistes, you 
are a son of Darius, and my brother, and besides 
this you enjoy a fair reputation : do not any 
more connect yourself with your present wife ; 
I will give you my daughter in her place. It 
is my pleasure that you accept of her, and re- 
pudiate the other." « Sir," replied Masistes, 
in great astonishment, " what am I to under- 
stand from this discourse ? would you have me 
reject a woman agreeable to me in all respects, 
by whom I have had three sons as well as 
daughters : one of whom you have married to 
your own son : and doing this afterwards marry 
your daughter? Indeed, O king, though I 
esteem your offer as the highest honour, I can- 
not accept it. Do not compel me to this mea- 
sure, for you can have no motive for doing so ; 
you may find a husband for your daughter no 
less suitable than myself; suffer me therefore 
to live with my wife as usual. " To this Xerxes 
in great anger made answer: "You shall neither, 
Masistes, marry my daughter, nor continue to 
enjoy your present wife, that you may learn in 
future to accept what I propose." Masistes 



CALLIOPE. 



447 



upon this retired, saying only, " you have not, 
O king, taken away my life." 

CXII. Whilst Xerxes was engaged in this 
conference with his brother, Amestris, sending 
for the royal guards, mutilated the wife of 
Masistes, cutting off her breasts, and throwing 
them to the dogs. 3 She afterwards cut off her 
nose, her ears, her lips, and her tongue, and in 
this condition sent her home. 

CXIII. Masistes, entirely ignorant of what 
nad happened, yet fearful of some impending 
calamity, returned hastily to his house. When 
he saw the situation of his wife, he immediately, 
after consulting with his children, fled with 
some adherents to Bactria, with the intention 
of exciting that province to revolt, and of do- 
ing the king essential injury. If he had once 
arrived in Bactria, among the Sacae, this I be- 
lieve would have been accomplished ; he was 
the governor of Bactria, and exceedingly beloved 
in his province. But Xerxes having intelli- 
gence of his designs, sent a body of forces against 
him, who intercepting him in his progress, put 
him, his children, and his followers, to death. 
So much for the amour of Xerxes, and the 
death of Masistes. 

CXIV. The Greeks, sailing from Mycale 
towards the Hellespont, were obliged by con- 
trary winds to put in at Lectum ; thence they 
proceeded to Abydos. Here they found the 
bridge, which they imagined was entire, and 
which was the principal object of their voyage, 
effectually broken down. They on this held a 
consultation ; Leutychides, and the Lacedae- 
monians with him, were for returning to Greece ; 
the Athenians, with their leader Xanthippus, 
advised them to continue where they were, and 

3 To the dogs.]— This horrid act of female cruelty in 
some degree j ustifies the strong expression of Ovid : 

Sed neque fulvus aper media tarn saevus in ira est, 

Fulmineo rapidos dum rotat ore canes, 
Nee lea quura catulis lactantibus ubera praebet, 

Nee brevis ignaro vipera lsesa pede, 
Fcemina quam socii deprehensa pellice lecti 

Audet, et in Vultu pignora mentis habet, 
In ferrum flammasque ruit. 

See some instances of extraordinary female cruelty reeord- 
edby Stephens,inhis Apology for Herodotus,one of which 
is so horrible, as almost to exceed the imagination. A 
young woman deserted by her lover,by whom she was with 
child,used violence to make herself miscarry three months 
before her time, and then murdered her infant with the 
most shocking and terrible barbarity. It is impossible, 
says Dr Prideaux, that a woman of so vile and abomina- 
ble a character as this Amestris was, could ever have 
been that queen of Persia, who by the name of Esther is 
so renowned in Holy Writ, and is there recorded as the 
instrument by which God was pleased in so signal a man- 
ner to deliver his people from that utter destruction 
which was designed against them.— .71 



make an attempt on the Chersonese. The 
Peloponnesians returned ; but the Athenians, 
passing from Abydos to the Chersonese, laid 
siege to Sestos. 

CXV. To this place, as by far the strongest 
in all that district, great numbers had retired 
from the neighbouring towns, as soon as it was 
known that the Greeks were in the Hellespont : 
among others was CEobazus of Cardia, a Per- 
sian who had previously collected here what 
remained of the bridge. The town itself was 
possessed by the native iEolians, but they had 
with them a great number of Persians and other 

allies. 

CXVI. The governor of this place under 
Xerxes, was Artayctes, a Persian, of a cruel 
and profligate character. He had circumvented 
Xerxes when on his way to Athens, and had 
fraudulently taken from Elaeos the wealth of 
Protesilaus 4 the son of Iphiclus. In Elaeos 
of the Chersonese, was a tomb of Protesilaus, 
in the centre of a shrine which had been erected 
to his honour. Here were considerable riches, 
a number of gold and silver vessels, besides 
brass, vests, and many votive offerings : of all 
these Artayctes possessed himself, having first 
insidiously obtained the king's sanction. — 
" Sir," said he, " there is in this country the 
house of a Greek, who entering your dominions 
with an armed force, met with the death he 
merited. Give it to me, as an example to 
others, not to commit hostilities in your em- 
pire." The king, having no suspicion of his 
object, was without difficulty persuaded to 
grant him the house. Artayctes asserted that 
Protesilaus had committed hostilities within the 
king's dominions, because the Persians con- 
sider all Asia as their own, 5 and the property 
of the reigning monarch. Having by the king 
been rendered master of all this wealth, he re- 
moved it to Sestos, the ground which it had 
before occupied at Elaeos, he ploughed and 
planted ; and as often as he went there after- 
wards, he enjoyed his wives in the sanctuary. 
At this time he was closely besieged by the 
Greeks, unprepared for defence, and not ex- 



4 Protesilaus.]— He was a Thessalian ; he went to 
the siege of Troy at the head of the troops of Phylace, 
Pyrrhasus, Itene, &c. He was killed by a Trojan as he 
disembarked. Various opinions are found in the Scho- 
liast on Homer on this subject. Some affirm, according 
to that, that the Trojan who slew him was JEneas, 
others that it was Euphorbus. Some assign to Hector 
the honour of his death, others to Achates.- Larc/ier. 

5 As their own.]— See book i. c. 135. 



448 



HERODOTUS. 



peering these enemies, who came upon him by 
surprise. 

CXVII. Whilst they were prosecuting the 
siege, the autumn arrived. The Athenians, 
unable to make themselves masters of the 
place, and uneasy at being engaged in an expe- 
dition so far from their country, entreated their 
leaders to conduct them home. They, in re- 
turn, refused to do this, till they should either 
succeed in their enterprise, or be recalled by 
the people of Athens, so intent were they on 
the business before them. 

C XVIII. The besieged, who were with 
Artayctes, were reduced to such extremity of 
wretchedness, that they were obliged to boil for 
food, the cords of which their beds were com- 
posed. When these also were consumer' 
Artayctes, (Eobazus, with some other Per- 
sians, fled, under cover of the night, escaping 
by an avenue behind the town, which happened 
not to be blockaded by the enemy. When 
the morning came, the people of the Chersonese 
made signals to the Athenians from the tur- 
rets, and opened to them the gates. The 
greater part commenced a pursuit of the Per- 
sians, the remainder took possession of the 
town. 

CXIX. (Eobazus fled into Thrace ; but he 
was here seized by the Apsinthians, and sacri- 
ficed, according to their rites, to their god 
Pleistorus i 1 his followers were put to death in 
some other manner. Artayctes and his adhe- 
rents, who fled the last, were overtaken near 
the waters of ^Egos, where, after a vigorous de- 
fence, part were slain and part taken prisoners. 
The Greeks put them all in chains, Artayctes 
and his son with the rest, and carried them to 
Sestos. 

CXX. It is reported by the people of the 

1 Pleistorus.~\ — This deity, barbarous as the people by 
whom he was worshipped, is totally unknown. The sa- 
crifices offered him induce me to conjecture, that it was 
the god of war, whom the Scythians represented under 
the form of a sword. These people, over a large vessel, 
cut the throat of every hundredth prisoner, wetting the 
sword with their blood. The same custom prevailed 
among the Huns. — See Ammianus Marcellinus, 1. xxxi. 
v. 2. The Cilicians paid the god of war a worship sa- 
vage like this ; they suspended the victim, whether a 
man or an animal, from atree, and going to a small dis- 
tance, killed it with their spears. — Lurcher. 

Cruel as these customs may appear, yet prevailing 
among a rude and uncivilized people, they are more to 
bejustified, than the unprovoked and unnatural inhu- 
manity practised at Tauris. Here every stranger, 
whom accident or misfortune brought to their coast, 
was sacrificed to Diana. — See The Iphigenia in Tauris 
of Euripides. — T. 



Chersonese, that the following prodigy hap- 
pened to one of those whose business was to 
guard the prisoners. This man was broiling 
some salt fish ; having put them on the fire, 
they moved and skipped about like fish lately 
taken ; the standers-by expressing their aston- 
ishment at this, Artayctes, who also beheld the 
prodigy, sent for the man to whom it had hap- 
pened, and spoke to him as follows : " My 
Athenian friend, be not alarmed at this pro- 
dig)', it has no reference to you, it regards me 
alone. Protesilaus of Eleseos, although dead 
and embalmed in salt, shows that he has power 
from the gods to inflict vengeance on the man 
who injured him. I am therefore disposed to 
satisfy him for my ransom. In place of the 
money, which I took from his temple, I will 
give him a hundred talents ; for my son's life, 
and my own, I will give the Athenians two 
hundred more." These offers had no effect 
upon Xanthippus the Athenian general; he 
was of himself inclined to put the man to death, 
to which he was farther importuned by the 
people of Eleseos, who were very earnest to 
have the cause of Protesilaus avenged. Con- 
ducting him therefore to the shore where the 
bridge of Xerxes had been constructed, they 
there crucified him ; though some say this was 
done upon an eminence near the city of Mady- 
tus. The son was stoned in his father's pre- 
sence. 

CXXI. The Athenians after the above 
transactions, returned to Greece, carrying with 
them, besides vast quantities of money, the 
fragments of the bridge, to be suspended in 
their temples. During the remainder of the 
year they continued inactive. 

CXXII. Of this Artayctes, who was cru- 
cified, the grandfather by the father's side was 
Artembares, who drew up an address for the 
Persians, which they approving, presented to 
Cyrus ; it was to this effect : " Since, O Cyrus, 
Jupiter has given to the Persians, and by the 
degradation of Astyages to you, uncontrolled 
dominion, suffer us to remove from our present 
confined and sterile region to a better. We 
have the choice of many, near and at a distance; 
let us occupy one of these, and become exam- 
ples of admiration to the rest of mankind. 
This is a conduct becoming those whose supe- 
riority is conspicuous ; we can never have a 
fairer opportunity of doing this, being at the 
head of so many people, and masters of all 
Asia." Cyrus, though he did not approve 
what they said, told them they might do so : 



CALLIOPE. 



449 



but he added, that by taking such a step, they 
must learn in future not to command but to 
obey. It was the operation of nature, that 
luxurious countries should render men effemi- 
nate, 2 for delicacies and heroes were seldom 



2 Effeminate.] — Hippocrates confirms what is here as- 
serted by Herodotus. After describing the advantages 
which the temperate parts of Asia possess over Greece ; 
he adds, that the men there are not naturally valiant, 
and are unwilling to support fatigues and hardships. 
This sentiment is approved by experience. Greece sub- 
dued Asia, the Romans became masters of both those 
countries, and if they also conquered the Gauls, the 
Germans, and other nations of the north, it was because 
these were undisciplined and ignorant of the art of war. 
When they became so, they in their turn subdued the 
lords of the world, and dismembered their empire. The 
Franks vanquished the Gauls, the Lombards, and the 
Visigoths of Spain. In a word, it is always to be ob- 
served, that the people of the north have the advantage 
over those of the south. — Larcher. 



the produce of the same soil. The Persians 
yielded to these sentiments of Cyrus and aban- 
doned their own. They chose rather a less 
pleasant country with dominion, than a fairei 
one with servitude. 



The ninth cannot be thought the least interesting of 
the books of Herodotus. The battles of Platea and My- 
cale would alone claim attention, without those beautiful 
moral sentiments which we find every where interspersed 
in it. The behaviour of Pausanias after his victory, his 
dignity, moderation, and modesty, are admirably describ- 
ed ; his continence, with respect to the mistress of Pha- 
randates, may, for any thing I see to the contrary in 
either history, well be put on a par with the so much 
vaunted temperance of Scipio on a similar* occasion. 
The concluding sentiment, which teaches that the dis- 
positions of men should be conformed to the nature of 
the soil and climate in which they are born, is alike ad- 
mirable for the simplicity with which it is conveyed, and 
the philosophic truth which it inculcates. — T. 



3 L 



/ 



INDEX. 



Abantes, why they cut off their hair before, 46, n. 

A ban's, story of, 199. 

Abdera, many singularities related of, 51, n.— stigmatized 

by Juvenal, 347, n. 
Abderites, Xerxes makes a treaty of friendship with, 410. 
Abrocomns and Hyperunthes brothers of Xerxes, fall in 

contending for the body of Leonidas, 376. 
Abyssinia, lapidation a punishment in, 420, n. 
Abyssinians, said to eat raw flesh from the living ox 9 

170, n. 
Acanthians presented by Xerxes with a Median vest, S4S. 
Acephali have their eyes in their breasts,- 240. 
Aces, the river, its passage prevented by the Persians, 176. 
Achcemenes, son of Darius, 133 — is intrusted by Xerxes 
with the government of Egypt, 323 — his advice relative 
to the Grecian war is pursued by.Xerxes, 380 — treats 
the body of Leonidas with barbarity, ib. — is slain by 
Inarus,.323. 
Achelous, a river in Egypt, 70. 
Acheron, 391, n. 
Adimantus, the Athenian, had an honourable epitaph 

inscribed on his tomb, 331, n. 
Adimantus, the Corinthian, is prevented by Themis-. 
tocles from flying before the Persians, 381 — is reproved 
by Themistocles, 393 — said to have fled at the com- 
mencement of the battle of Salamis, 103. 
Adonis, his rites in Phrygia represented the access and ; 

recess of the sun, 421, n. 
Adoption always performed by the Spartans in presence 
of the king, 296 — more frequent amongst the Romans 
than amongst the Greeks, ib. n. 
Adrastus, son of^Gordius, having unwillingly killed his | 
brother, receives expiation from Crcesus, 12 — is in- i 
trusted by Croesus with the care of his son Atys in the : 
hunting of a wild boar, 13— missing his aim at the boar j 
kills Atys, ib.— kills himself on the tomb of Atys, 14. 
Adrastus, the son of Talaus, sacrifices and festivals ap- 
propriated to him by the Sicyonians, assigned by Clis- 
thenes to Melanippus, 264. 
Arlyrmachidce, a people of Africa, their customs, 233, & n. 
TEaces, son of Syloson, prevails on all the Samian lead- 
ers, except eleven, to withdraw their assistance from 
the lonians, 284— the Phenicians ordered by the Per- 
sians to replace him in Saraos as a reward of his 
services, 288. 
Macidce, 269, 391. 
JEacw, an edifice erected by the Athenians sacred to 

him, 271 — his aid entreated by the Greeks, 394. 
JEgaleos, mount, Xerxes viewed the battle of Salamis 

from, 402. 
Mgeus, sou of Panel ion, 53. 

/Egicke. whence their name, 228— build a shrine to the 
Furies, ib. 



JEgineta, their resentment to the Samians, 155— assist 
the Thebans against the Atheuians, 269— occasion of 
their enmity with the Athenians, ib.— by their compli- 
ance with the demands of Darius, give great offence 
to the Athenians, 293— are accused by the Athenians 
at Sparta of betraying the liberties of Greece, 294— 
oppose and repulse Cleomenes, who endeavoured to 
seize the persons of the accused, ib.— send hostages to 
Cleomenes, 301— commit an act of violence on the 
Athenians at Simium, 306— are betrayed to the Athe- 
| nians by Nicodromus, ib — for their impiety against 
the temple of Ceres Thesmophoros are driven from 
j iEgina, ib — are defeated by the Aihenians, and denied 
; assistance by the Argives, 307— obtain a victory over 
j the Athenian fleet, ib.— supply the Greeks with thirty 
vessels, 390— are Dorians, ib.— distinguish themselves 
j in the battle at Salamis, 403— their offering at Delphi, 
410— become exceedingly rich by their purchases of 
the spoil after the battle of Platea, 440. 
Mgis, derivation of the word, 239. 
JEgium, answer of the oracle to the people of, 46, n. 
Molians subdued by Croesus, 3— their offer of allegiance 
rejected by Cyrus, 44— their cities, 47— send ambassa- 
dors to Sparta to request assistance from the Lacedae- 
monians against Cyrus, ib— who refuse it, and yet 
threaten Cyrus for any injury to the Grecian cities, 
48— Datis the Mede takes them with his army agaiust 
Eretria, 308— assist Xerxes with sixty ships, 313— 
called Pelasgi at the siege of Troy, 52. 
/Eschylus, 125. 

JEsop, his conversation with Solon at Sardis, II, n.— the 

fables under his name not his, 116, n.— little concerning 

him can be ascertained as fact, ib. n. — not deformed, 

ib. n.— called Theta, 272, n. 

/Ethiopia, rain and ice unknown in, 75 — rain, &c. known 

in. ib. — its produce, 175. 
/Ethiopians, 77 — eighteen of them kings of Egypt, 102— 
from time immemorial used circumcision, 103— not 
possible to say whether they or the Egyptians first 
introduced circumcision, ib. — subdued by Cambyses, 
169— their customs, ib. — assist Xerxes in his expedi- 
tion to Greece, 340 — difference between the eastern 
and western, ib. 
^Ethiopians, Macrobian, 111 — term of their lives, 113 — 
their food, ib. — Cambyses marches against them with 
a part of his army, and loses a considerable number 
of men, 14k 
Mtolians, a shocking character of them, 398, n. 
Africa, first discovered by Necho, king of Egypt, to be 
surrounded by the sea, 200 — Sataspes desists from 
sailing round it, ib. — barren of wood, 236 — various 
nations of, 233 — its animals, 241 — in some parts it 
never rains, 239 — in goodness of soil not comparable 
to Asia or Europe, 213. 



452 



INDEX. 



Africans, nearest to Egypt, submit to Cambyses, 139— 
prevent the Greeks from seeing Irasa, 231 — from 
Egypt as far as lake Tritonis lead a pastoral life, aud 
live on flesh and milk, 239— to the west of the lake 
Tritonis, not shepherds, ib. — customs of the African 
shepherds with respect to their children, ib. — Africans 
more exempt from disease than other men, ib. — their 
mode of sacrifice, ib. — all adore the sun and moon, ib. 

Agarista, daughter of Clisthenes, mode of her father's 
disposing of her in marriage, 316— given by her father 
to Megacles, son of Alcmseon, 318. 

Agarista, daughter of Hippocrates, 318. 

Agasicles, of Halicarnassus, violated the custom of the 
temple of Triope, 45. 

Agathocrgoi, 21. 

Agathyrsi, 218, 222. 

Age, reverence paid to by the Egyptians and Lacedae- 
monians, 96. 

Agetus, son of Alcides, his wife from being remark- 
able for her ugliness, becomes exceedingly beautiful, 
297— his wife is by artifice obtained by Ariston, who 
by her has Deinaratus, ib. 

Agylla, men and cattle seized with convulsions on ap- 
proaching a certain spot, 51. 

Ahasuerus, the subject of much etymological investiga- 
tion, 56, n. 

Ajax, son of Telamon, 264 — invoked by the Greeks at 
Salamis, 394 — a vessel consecrated to him by the 
Greeks, 3S0. 

Aim7iestus slays Mardonius in the battle of Platea, 433. 

Alabaster, whence its name, 141, n. 

Alcceus, the son of Hercules, 3. 

Alcceus, the poet, fled from the field, 274 — some account 
of, ib. n. 

Alcmceon, son of Megacles, by the permission of Croesus 
takes with him from Sardis all the gold he can 
carry, 316. 

Alcmceonidce, construct the temple of Delphi, 262— bribe 
the Pythian to propose to every Spartan who con- 
sulted her the deliverance of Athens, ib. — a shield said 
to be held up by one of them as a signal to the Per- 
sians on their retreat from Marathon, 314 — but this an 
incredible story, 316 — always amongst the most distin- 
guished characters of Athens, ib. — the family raised by 
Clisthenes, ib. 

Aleuadcc send messengers from Thessaly, imploring 
Xerxes to invade Greece, 323 — the first Greeks who 
submitted to Xerxes, 351. 

Alexander, son of Priam, resolves to obtain a wife from 
Greece, 2, 

Alexander, son of Amyntas, by stratagem procures the 
death of seven Persians sent by Megabyzus to de- 
mand earth and water, 250 — gives his sister in mar- 
riage to Bubaris, and thus prevents an inquiry into 
the assassination of the seven Persians, ib.— dissuades 
the Greeks from proceeding towards Thessaly to 
defend the Olympic straits against Xerxes, 365— a 
golden statue of him at Delphi, 410 — is sent ambas- 
sador by Mardonius to procure an alliance with the 
Athenians, 413— his descent from Perdiccas, 414— his 
speech at Athens, 415— betrays Mardonius to the 
Greeks, 430. 

Alexander the Great, his order to his troops to cut off 
their hair, 46, n.— story of his birth similar to that of 
the birth of Demaratus, 299, n.— by an act of violence on 
the Pythian, obtained the answer he wished for 303, n. 

Alger ines, their ceremony in marriage, 235 n. 

Allegory, partiality of the ancients to, 224 ii. 

Alliances ratified by ancient and modern nations by 
drinking their own blood, 24, n. — how made by the 
Arabian^, 137— by the Scythians, 203. 



Altar of the twelve deities at Athens, 69, 312— at Delphi, 
presented by the Chians, 116— of Hercules, 365— of 
Jupiter Forensis, 257 — of Orthosian Diana, 241 — of 
the winds, 365. 

Altars, none among the Persians, 41— first erected by 
the Egyptians, 68. 

Alyattes, king of Sardis, 6— resumes his father's war 
against the Milesians, ib. — and puts an end to it, 7 — 
erects two temples to Minerva, ib. — his death, 8 — 
his sepulchre described, 31 — story of him and a Thra- 
cian woman, 248. 

Amasis rebels against Apries king of Egypt, 127— takes 
Apries prisoner, and treats him with kindness, till 
the Egyptians strangle him, 128 — succeeds to the 
throne of Egypt, 129 — instance of his political sagacity, 
130 — his regulation of his time, ib. — erects a magnifi- 
cent portico in honour of Minerva, ib — brings an 
edifice from Elephantine constructed of one entire 
stone, 131 — colossal statues placed by him, ib. — built 
the temple of Isis at Memphis, ib. — partial to the 
Greeks, ib. — gives 1000 talents of alum towards re- 
building the temple of Delphi, 132 — makes an ami- 
cable confederacy with the Cyrenians, ib. — marries 
Ladioe, ib. — is afflicted with imbecility, but his vigour 
is restored, ib. — his liberality to Greece, ib. — sends his 
portrait to Cyrene, ib — the first that conquered Cyprus, 
133 — Cambyses leads an army against him, 135 — dies 
before Cambyses advances to Egypt, 138 — succeeded 
by Psammenitus, ib. — his dead body insulted by Cam- 
byses, 140 — his advice to Polycrates, 149— his motives 
for withdrawing his alliance with him, 150 — foretold 
the death of Polycrates, 179 

Amasis, a Maraphian, intrusted by Ariandes with the 
conduct of an army against the Barceans, 233 — his 
stratagem at the siege of Barce, 243. 

Amathusia besieged by Onesilus, 277 — a name of Cyprus, 
ib. n. 

Amazons, by the Scythians called menslayers, 219— 
subdued by the Greeks at Thermodon, 427 — plunder 
the Scythians, 220 — conciliated to the Scythians, ib. — 
their manners and customs, 221. 

Atnbassadors, their persons sacred, except at Constan- 
tinople, 156, n. 

Amber carried from Europe into Greece, 175 — its name 
and uses, ib. n. 

America, whence peopled, 206, n. 

Amestris, wife of Xerxes, commanded fourteen Persian 
children of illustrious birth to be interred alive, 348 
— discovers the intrigue of Xerxes with Artaynta, 416 
— not the same with queen Esther, ib. 447, n. — her 
cruelty to the wife of Masistes, 447. 

Amilcar, conquered by Gelon and Theron, disappeared 
and was never seen afterwards, 362— according to 
Polysenus destroyed by Gelon by stratagem, ib. n. — 
honoured by the Carthaginians as a divinity, ib. 

Ami?iias of Pallene, 403. 

Aminocles, son of Cratinus, 369. 

Ammon, 237, n. 

Afnmonians, 237— their fountain of water, ib— derivation 
of their name, ib. n. 

Amompharetus, son of Poliadas, 433 — behaves well at 
the battle of Platea, 437. 

Amphiaraus, his oracle, 14, & n.— Croesus sends presents 
to him, 16— no Theban allowed to sleep in his temple, 413. 

A?nphictyons, 262, n. 371, n. 

Amphilochus, his oracle, 168, n. 

Amphytrion, his present to the temple of the Ismcniaa 
Apollo at Thebes, 262. 

Amyntas gives the Persians earth and water, 249. 

Amyrtams discovers the island Elbo, 118. 

Anacharsis, the Scythian, his superior learning and ac- 



INDEX. 



453 



coniphshraents, 202— visits a large part of the habitable 
world, and returns to Scythia, 210 — institutes the rites 
in honour of Cybele which he had seen performed at 
Cyzicus, ib. — is killed by Saulius, the Scythian king, 
211— his descent, ib. 

Anacreon of Teos, 177— many doubt whether the works 
ascribed to him are genuine, ib. n. 

Anaxandrides, king of Sparta, married two wives, and 
had two separate dwellings, contrary to the usage of 
his country, 255 — his sons by each of his wives, ib. — an 
apothegm of his, ib. n. 

Anaxilaus, prince of Rhegium, persuades the Samians to 
possess themselves of Zancle, 287. 

Anchunolius, son of Aster, conducts the Lacedaemonian 
army against the Pisistratidae, 262— is killed, 263. 

A?ichcrs, particulars respecting, 284, n. 

Ancients, their paintings, 132, n.— their engravings on 
precious stones, 150, n.— their works in miniature, ib. 
n. — their modes of counting, 216, n. — fond of an enig- 
matical way of speaking and actiug, 224-, n. — in their 
military expeditions made use of persons of loud voices, 
226, n. — their curious contrivances for conveying secret 
intelligence, 254, n. — their various uses of the olive, 
258, n. — their notions respecting dreams and visions, 
260, n. — gave the letters of the alphabet as nicknames, 
272, n. — their customs respecting hospitality, 286, n. — 
their superstition in the belief of prodigies, 289, n. — 
frequently considered madness as annexed by the gods 
to more atrocious acts, 301, n. — generally deemed fire 
an auspicious omen, 303, n. — thought the safety of a 
nation might be secured, or the life of an individual be 
preserved, by the voluntary death of one or more per- 
sons, 352, n.— originally used only the four cardinal 
winds, 368, n. — in more remote times sat at table, 423,' 
n.— their sentiments on the bodies of the dead remain- 
ing unburied, 426, n. — their symbols of their deities, 326. 

Andromeda, 339. 

Androphagi, 218. 

Andros besieged by the Greeks, 408. 

Androsphynges, 130. 

Aneristus, son of Sperthies, put to death by the Athen- 
ians, 353. 

Animals, their figures first engraved on stone by the 
Egyptians, 68 — live promiscuously with the Egyptians, 
80 — their heads imprecated by the Egyptians in sacri- 
fice, 82— their heads never eaten by the Egyptians, ib, 
— none sacrificed by the Egyptians except swine, bulls, 
male calves without blemish, and geese, 84— held sa- 
cred and cherished by the laws of Egypt, 89 — great 
number of domestic, in Egypt, 90 — buried by the Egyp- 
tians, 91— none put to death by the Aritonian Indians, 
170, & n. — fierce and venomous, less prolific than oth- 
ers, 173— disproportion between the hind and fore legs 
in various, 241. 

Anointing the body practised by the Scythians, 210 — ne- 
cessity of it in hot climates, ib. n. 

Antayctes, governor of Sestos, crucified alive, 331. 

Antigone, her piety towards her brother's corpse, 176, n. 

Ants, in India, bigger than a fox, and cast up sand mixed 
with gold dust, 170. 

Anubis, why represented with a dog's head, 91, n. — had 
the name of Mercury among the Egyptians, 1 18, n. 

Anysis, king of Egypt, succeeds Asychis, 117 — flies before 
the army of Sabacus, who obtains his authority, ib.— 
resumes his government, 118— is succeeded by Sethos, 
ib. 

Apaturian festival, 46. 

Apis, edifice built for, by Psammetichus, 12-1 — Egyptians 
rejoice on his appearance, 115— particulars concerning, 
b. n. — cleared the Peloponnese of serpents, whence 
called Serapis, 398, n. 482, n. 



Apollo, his statue at mount Thornax, 22— preserved by 
Latona, 125— the crow sacred to, 194, n. — his fountain 
in Africa, 231— Carnian festival in honour of, 372, n. 

Apollo, of Delphi, his oracle without appeal, 14, n.— his 
oracle reproached by Croesus, 29. 

Apollo, Didymean, his magnificent temple, 14, n.— why 
so called, 285, n. 

Apollo, Ismenian, 30— inscriptions on tripods in his tem- 
ple at Thebes, 261. 

Apollo Orus, 120, 125— his oracle in Egypt, 97. 

Apollo Paean, 245, n. 

Apple carved by the Babylonians on the tops of their 
walking sticks,. 60. 

Apries, king of Egypt, attacks Cyrene, where his army 
is routed, 231— succeeds his father, 127 -in scripture, 
Pharaoh Hophra, ib. n.— his ill success, ib.— taken pri- 
soner by Amasis, 128— strangled by the Egyptians, 129 
—passages of scripture alluding to him, ib. n. 

Apsinthians, sacrifice (Eobazus to their god Pleistorus, 
448. 

Arabia, its products, 173— infested by flying serpents, ib. 

Arabians, ceremonies used by them in making alliances, 
137— Bacchus and Urania the only deities they venerate, 
137— their independence always a theme of praise and 
admiration, 167, n. 

Araxes, river, customs of the islanders in, 62— its vio- 
lence, ib. n. 

Arcadia, particulars respecting, 398, n. 

Arcadians opposed the claim of the Athenians to anti- 
quity, 361, n.— conjecture of their original name, ib. n. 

Arcesilaus, king of the Cyreneans, strangled by his bro- 
ther Aliarchus, 231— son of the lame Battns, and king 
of the Cyreneans, flies to Samos, 232 — returns to Cy- 
rene, and recovers his authority, ib. — is put to death 
at Barce, having violated the injunctions of the oracle, 
233. 

Archetimus, story of him and Cydias, 305, n. 

Archias, his valour, 254. 

Archidice, a Grecian courtesan, 1 16 — story of her, ib. n. 

Archilochus, of Paros, 5. 

Archimedes, whence he derived the idea of his screw, 
104, n. 

Ardys, son of Gyges, conquers the Prienians, and attacks 
Miletus, 6. 

Areopagus, the court of the, 392, n. 

Arganthonius, king of the Tartessians, lived to the age 
of one hundred and twenty, 50. 

Argippcei, account of, 195. 

Argis, an Hyperborean virgin, honoured by the Delians, 
198. 

Argives, battle between them and the Lacedaemonians 
for Thyrea, 26— the most skilful musicians of Greece, 
181 — advance to the sea to repel Cleomenes, 302 — their 
women taking arms repel Cleomenes with the loss of 
numbers, ib. n.— are attacked by stratagem, and those 
who escape take refuge in the grove of Argos ; but 
fifty of them are enticed out by Cleomenes, and put to 
death, 303 — the rest not appearing when called, Cleo- 
menes burns the wood, ib. — the slaves, usurping the 
management of affairs, are expelled, and retire to 
Tyrinthes, but are at last subdued, 304 — refuse assist- 
ance to the Athenians against /Egina, 306 — evade giv- 
ing assistance to the Greeks against Xerxes, 356 — 
Xerxes claims kindred with, ib. — said to have first in- 
vited the Persian to invade Greece, 357— invite Me- 
lampus to cure a madness among their women, 428. 

Argonautic expedition, 236, 

Argonauts, their posterity, expelled from Lemnos, settle 
among the Lacedaemonians, 227 — arc cast into prison 
for their intemperance, but escape by an artifice of 
their \\ ives, ib. 



451 



INDEX. 



Argos, formerly the most famous state of Greece, 1 — 
whence its name, 302, n. 398, n. — Cleomenes sets fire 
to the sacred wood of, 303. 

Ariabignes, son of Darius, 344, 402. 

Arimaspi, a people of Europe said to have but one eye, 
175, 193. 

A Hon, the Methymnaean, carried to Tsenarus on the back 
of a dolphin, 8 — excelled on the harp, ib. 

Aristagoras, governor of Miletus, 252 — prevails on Ar- 
taphernes to procure forces from Darius against 
Naxos, 253 — revolts against Darius, 255— establishes a 
republican form of government in Ionia, ib. — sails to 
Lacedaemon to procure allies, ib — attempts to induce 
Cleomenes, king of Sparta, to undertake the conquest 
of Asia, 257 ; but is dismissed without success, 259 — 
goes to Athens, which had recovered its liberty, 260 — 
recommends to the Athenians a war with Persia, 275 
— procures the return of the Paeonians, taken captive 
by Megabyzus, to their native country, 276— joined by 
the Athenians and Eretrians, commences an expedi- 
tion against Sardis, ib. — resolves on flight, 280 — leaves 
Miletus to the care of Pythagoras, ib. — takes posses- 
sion of a district in Thrace, proceeds to the attack of 
another place, and falls with his army by the hands of 
the Thracians, ib. 

Aristeas, the poet, 193 — strange story of, ib. 

Aristides, son of Lysimachus, his share in the victory of 
the Athenians at Marathon, 313, n. — banished by a vote 
of the people, 399— lays aside his animosity towards 
Theraistocles for the good of his country, 400— during 
the battle of Salamis lands at Psittaleia, and puts every 
Persian there to death, 404: — commauds 8000 Athen- 
ians at the battle of Platea, 427. 

Aristodemus, son of Aristomachus, said by the Lacedae- 
monians to have first introduced them into the region 
which they inhabit, 294. 

Aristodemus, of Sparta, receives the opprobrious name 
of trembler, 377 — at the battle of Platea, atones for his 
former conduct, 378 — has no respect paid him after the 
battle of Platea, 43. 

Aristogiton, with Harmodius, puts Hipparchus to death, 
260. 

Ariston, king of Sparta, marries three wives, 297 — art- 
fully obtains the wife of his friend Agetus, and by her 
has Demaratus, ib. — dies, and is succeeded by Dema- 
ratus, 29S. 

Aristotle, reported to have destroyed himself at Euripus 
from mortification, 267, n. 

Arithmetic,'^ first introduction uncertain, 216, n. — mode 
of counting used by the ancients, ib. n. 

Aritonians, 170, and n. 

Ark of Noah considered as prophetic, and a kind of 
temple of the deity, 120, n. 

Armenians, said to have great plenty of cattle, 258. 

Anns, the highest degree of honour annexed to the ex- 
ercise of, 128. 

Army, reflections on a standing one,ib. n. — how disposed 
by the Romans in attacking an enemy, and by the 
Greeks, 324, n. 

Artabanus, son of Hystaspes, endeavours to dissuade 
Darius from his expedition against Scythia, 213— his 
speech to Xerxes against the Athenian war, 325 — in 
consequence of a vision recommends to Xerxes the 
prosecution of the Athenian war, 328— his conversation 
with Xerxes on his weeping at the sight of his army, 
335 — expresses his fears of success in the Athenian 
war, ib. — is dismissed by Xerxes to Susa, 336. 

Artalazanes, son of Darius, disputes with Xerxes the 
succession to the throne, 321. 

Artahazus, son of Pharnaces, leader of the Parthians and 
Chorasmians, 339 — accompanies Xerxes in his retreat 



over the Hellespont, 411— besieges Potidaea, and takes 
Olynthus, ib. — is compelled by an inundation to retire 
from Potidaea, 412— joins Mardonius in Thessaly, ib. 
— his advice to Mardonius previous to the battle of 
Platea, 430 — his measures with respect to Mardonius, 
436 — flies with his troops towards Phocis after the 
battle of Platea, ib. — flies from Platea to the Thessa- 
lians, 441 — by artifice escapes to Asia, ib. 

Artachcees buried by Xerxes with great magnificence, 348. 
Artanes, brother of Darius, 376. 

Artaphernes, son of Hystaspes, and brother of Darius, 
is left governor of Sardis, 251 — with Otanes, takes Cla- 
zomenae and Cyma, 280 — his expression to Histiaeus 
on the fate of Aristagoras, 281— intercepts letters from 
Histiaeus to certain Persians at Sardis, and puts a great 
number of Persians to death, 282— with Harpagus, 
crucifies Histiaeus the Milesian, 289 — his useful regu- 
lations among the Ionians, 292 — son of Artaphernes, 
together with Datis, is commanded by Darius to sub- 
due Eretria and Athens, 307— with Datis, carries the 
captive Eretrians to Susa, 315. 

Artaxerxes, meaning of his name, 308. 

Artayctes, his cruelty and profligacy, 447 ; taken captive 
by the Greeks, 448 ; his son stoned, himself crucified, 
ib. 

Artaynta, Xerxes' intrigue with, how discovered, 446. 

Artayntes reproached by Masistes for behaving like a 
woman, 445. 

Artembares, 448. 

Artembaris, 37. 

Artemisia, daughter of Lygdamis, serves in the Grecian 
expedition under Xerxe3, 344 — two of this name, ib. 
n. — her free advice to Xerxes, against risking a battle 
with the Greeks, 396— her stratagem in the battle of 
Salamis, 401 — is pursued by Aminias, a price being set 
on her head by the Greeks ; but escapes to Phalerum, 
403— her advice to Xerxes concerning the continuance 
of the Grecian war, 405 — is directed by Xerxes to re- 
tire to Ephesus with his children, 406. 

Artemisium, 365. 

Artybius, his horse taught to assist him in battle, 278 — 
his horse's feet cut off" by the servant of Onesilus, dur- 
ing his combat with Artybius, ib. 

A rty stone, daughter of Cyrus, married to Darius, 167 — a 
golden statue erected in her honour, by Darius, 340. 

Aryandes condemned to death by Darius, for issuing a 
coin in imitation of him, 233. 

Asbystce remarkable for their chariots drawn by four 
horses, 234, 243, n. 

Ascalon, ancient temple of Venus there, 34. 

Asia considered by the Persians as their own peculiar 
possession, 2 — the entire possession of it gained by the 
Scythians, 34— recovered from the Scythians by the 
Medes, 35— its figure and size, 199— a considerable part 

discovered by Darius, 201 — whence called Asia, ib. 

divided into Asia Major and Minor, ib. n.— barbarians 
of, practise the same ceremonies with the Lacedae- 
monians on the death of their kings, 296. 

Asopus, his sons and daughters, 268, n. 432, n. 

Asopus, the river, the Grecian army encamped on the 
banks of, previous to the battle of Platea, 427. 

As.-emblies, popular, remarks on, 164, n. 

Asses, impatient of cold, n. 196— none in England in 
Holingshed's time, ib. n. — the English breed compara- 
tively less beautiful, ib. n.— not produced in Scythia, 
223 — by their braying, greatly distress the horses of 
the Scythians, ib. — in Africa with horns, 240 — in Africa 
some which never drink, 241— chariots of war drawn 
by wild asses, 342. 

Assyria, has little rain, 59 — how fertilized, ib. — most 
fruitful in corn, ib. 



INDEX. 



455 



Assyrians vanquished by Cyaxares, 34— part of them sub- 
dued by the Medes, 35 — Cyrus marches against them, 
54 — their army put to flight by means of mice, 104 — 
by the Greeks are called Syrians, 339. 

Astyages, son of Cyaxares, detained in captivity by Cy- 
rus, 23— succeeds to the throne of his father, 35 — mar- 
ries his daughter Mandane to Cambyses, ib. — com- 
mands Cyrus, as soon as born, to be put to death, ib. — 
but his intention is defeated by Mitridates, 37— dis- 
covers Cyrus, ib. — sends Cyrus to his parents in 
Persia, 39 — Cyrus prevails on the Persians to revolt 
against him, and his army is defeated, 40 — crucifies the 
Magi, ib. — is taken prisoner by the Persians, and the 
greater part of his army destroyed, 40 — his reply to the 
insult of Harpagus, ib. — said by Isocrates to have been 
put to death by Cyrus, 41, n. 

Asychis, king of Egypt, succeeds Mycerinus, 217 — his 
ordinance for borrowing money, ib. — builds a pyramid 
of brick, ib. — is succeeded by Anysis, ib. 

Athainas, son of iEolus, the eldest of his descendants, 
forbidden by the Achaians to enter their prytaneum, 
370. 

Athenades slays Ephialtes, 374. 

Athenians, anciently took only two repasts in the day, 
19, n. — recover their liberty, 260 — and become greater 
than ever, 263— are divided into factions, 264 — send 
ambassadors to form an alliance with the Persians, 
who agree to send Darius earth and water, 267 — march 
with their army against the Peloponnesians at Eleusis, 
who all retire, ib. — obtain a complete victory over the 
Boeotians at the Euripus, and over the Chalcidians in 
Eubcea, 268— continue to increase in number and im- 
portance; happy effects of their liberty, ib.— sustain 
considerable injury from the Thebans assisted by the 
iEginetae, 269 — occasion of their enmity with the iEgi- 
netae, ib. — warned by the oracle to refrain from all hos- 
tilities with the iEginetae for thirty years, 271— pre- 
paring to revenge- themselves on the JEgmetse, are 
impeded by the Lacedaemonians, ib. — after various en- 
counters with the Mitylenians, by the award of Peri- 
ander, retain Sigeum, 275— refusing to recal Hippias, 
are considered as the enemies of Persia, ib. — their 
number 30,000, ib.— by the persuasion of Aristagoras, 
assist the Ionians with 20 vessels of war against the 
Persians, ib. — but the expedition not proving success- 
ful, withdraw themselves entirely from the Ionians, 
277— their uneasiness on the destruction of Miletus, 
286 — greatly offended by the compliance of the JEgine- 
tae with the demands of Darius, accuse them at Sparta 
of betraying the liberties of Greece, 293— refuse to de- 
liver hostages to Leutychides, 305— an act of violence 
committed by the iEginetae on some of the most ill us- 
trious Athenians at Sunium, 306— a quinquereme at 
Sunium, full of the most illustrious Athenians, taken 
by the iEginetee, ib.— determine on the ruin of JEgina, 
which Nicodromus agrees to deliver into their hands, 
ib.— conquer the iEginetoe, ib.— are defeated by the 
JEginetae, 307— assist the Eretrians against Darius, 308 
—but on their not acting with firmness, return home, 
309— on the arrival of the Persian army at Marathon, 
advance thither, ib.— despatch Phidippides to Sparta, 
in consequence of whose vision they build a temple to 
Pan, 310— are deprived of the assistance of the Lace- 
daemonians, by an inveterate custom, 311— are joined 
by the Plateans, in return for assistance afforded them 
against the Thebans, 312— their Polemarch 'nterposes 
in favour of an engagement with the Per. ns, ib.— 
disposition of their army previous to the battle of Ma- 
rathon, 313— vow to sacrifice goats to Diana, ib. — the 
first Greeks who ran to attack an enemy, ib.— obtain 



a complete victory over the Persians at Marathon, ib. 
— prevent the designs of the Fersians, who had retired 
with their fleet and endeavoured to arrive at Athens 
before the Athenians, 314 — their loss of men in the 
battle of Marathon, ib. — are congratulated on their 
victory by 2000 Lacedaemonians, 315 — Clisthenes, son 
of Megacles, divided them into tribes, and introduced 
a democracy, 318 — expelled the Pelasgi from Attica, 
319 — their females, while celebrating the feast of 
Diana near Brauron, surprised and taken captive, and 
afterwards with their children, put to death by the 
Lemnians, 320 — throw the messengers of Darius into 
their pit of punishment, 351 — consult the oracle of 
Delphi on the approach of Xerxes and his army 
against Greece, 354 — advised by Themistocles, in con- 
sequence of the oracle, to prepare for a naval engage- 
ment, 355 — employ their fleet against Xerxes, origi- 
nally intended against JEgina, ib. — seud to several of 
the Grecian states for assistance against Xerxes, ib. — 
their claim to antiquity, ib. n. — on the approach of Xer- 
xes' army, proclaimed by a herald, that every Athe- 
nian was to preserve his family and effects, by the best 
means in his power, 389 — their original names Pelasgi 
and Cranai, afterwards Cecropidae, and Athenians, 
390 — their hospitality to strangers, 411, n. — Mardonius 
courts an alliance with them, 443 — which they refuse, 
416 — stone Lycidas, a senator, and his wife and chil- 
dren, 420— on the arrival of Mardonius in Boeotia, re- 
move to Salamis, ib. — send envoys to Lacedsemon for 
assistance against Mardonius, ib.— the Spartans 6end 
5000 men to assist them against Mardonius, ib.— dis- 
pute between them and the Tegeans, previous to the 
battle of Platea, 425— owed the ruin of their ancient 
constitution principally to their victories over the 
Persians, 436— the freedom of 500, purchased of the 
Persians by the Samians, 443— besiege and take Ses- 
tos, 447— return from the battles of Platea and Mycale 
to Greece, 448— observations on them, 416. 

Athens, a body of 2000 Lacedaemonians arrive at, and 
congratulate the Athenians on their victory at Mara- 
thon, 315— the citadel taken and burned by Xerxes, 
392 — possessed a second time by Mardonius, 419— 
burned by Mardonius, 422— its various fates, ib. n.— 
derivation of the name, 417. 

Athos, mount, proposed by Stesicrates to be converted 
into the statue of Alexander, 125, n.— Mardonius suf- 
fers a considerable loss of ships and men near, 293— 
description of it, ib. n.— detachments of the army of 
Xerxes compelled to dig a passage through it, 329— this 
incredible, ib. n. 

Atlantes, have no distinction of names, 2S8— execrate 
the sun, ib.— said never to feed on any thing that has 
life, and never to dream, 239— distinct from the Atlan- 
tei, ib. n. 

Atlas, mount, its loftiness, 238— mentioned by Homer, 
239, n. 

Atossa, daughter of Cyrus, is cured of an ulcer by De- 
mocedes, 181— urges Darius to an expedition against 
Greece, ib. 408, n. 

Atossa, the name applied by Pope to Sarah duchess of 
Marlborough, 322, n. 

Attaginics, son of Phrymon, gives a magnificent enter- 
tainment to Mardonius and fifty Persians of the high- 
est rank, at Thebes, 422— his person demanded by the 
Greeks after the battle of Platea, 441— flies, ib. 

Atys, son of Croesus, his death intimated to his father in 
a vision, 11. 

Atys, his aid against a wild boar requested by the My- 
sians, 12 — in the hunting of which he is killed, 13 

Atys, sonof Menes, famine in Lydiain his reign, 31. 



456 



INDEX. 



Averroes, his imprecation, 161, n. 
Augila abounds in dates, 238— still retains its ancient 

name, ib- n. 
Ausenses, their customs, 237, 240. 
Automoli, origin of, 77. 
Autonous, hero of Delphi, 389. 
Auxesia, a name of Proserpine, 269, n. 
Aziris, a colony settled there by the Thereans, 231 — 

written Azilis by Callimachus, 234, 
Azotus,Vs&mmetie\\us spends 29 years in the siege of,125. 



Babylon, the royal residence after the destruction of 
Nineveh, 54 — described, ib — taken by Cyrus, 58 — a 
proof of its power and greatness, ib. — besieged by 
Darius, 185— taken by a stratagem of Zopyrus, 187. 

Babylonians, their clothing, 60 — wear their hair long, 
covered with a turban, ib. — lavish in perfumes, ib. — 
their walking-sticks, ib.— their laws, ib. — sell their 
young women by auction to the men, ib. — their laws 
concerning the sick, 61 — their funeral rites, ib. — their 
purifications, ib. — their abominable custom at the 
temple of Venus, ib. — three of their tribes live on fish, 
62 — revolt from Darius, 185 — destroy most of their 
females, ib. — three thousand of their most distin- 
guished nobility crucified by order of Darius, 187. 

Bacchiadcehad formerly the government of Corinth, 272. 

Bacchus, his name and sacrifice first taught the Greeks 
by Melampus, 85— and Ceres, considered by the 
Egyptians as the great deities of the realms below, 
110 — erroneous representation of, by modern artists, 
116, n. — of the third rank of gods of Egypt, 121 — said to 
be the son of Semele, daughter of Cadmus, ib. — said 
by the Greeks to have been carried by Jupiter in his 
thigh to Nysa, ib. — worshipped in Thrace, 246 — deri- 
vation of his name Iacchus, 395, n. — why the fan car- 
ried before his image, ib.n. — a volume on his rites writ- 
ten by Nonnus, 212, n. 

Bacis, oracle of, 385. 

Back or chine of sacrificed animals assigned by the 
Spartans to their princes in war, 295. 

Bactra, formerly a place of importance, now unknown, 
283, n. 

Baldness, Egyptians prevent, by shaving their heads 
from a very early age, 138. 

Banishment, a punishment at a very early period of the 
world, 168, n. — its effects on the greatest and wisest 
of mankind, ib. n. — an offender sent into, among the 
Romans, was interdicted the use of fire and water, 
223, n. — called ostracism, 399, n. — called petalism, ib. n. 

Bai-barians, a term used by the ancients in a much 
milder sense than by us, 1, n. 421, n. 

Barce, its founders, 231 — besieged by the Persians, and 
entered by stratagem, 243 — a portion of land of the 
same name in the Bactrian district, 244 — supposed to 
be the ancient Ptolemais, 234, n. 

Barceans, hostilities commenced against them by Ary- 
andes, 233 — their women abstain from the flesh of 
heifers and of swine, 239 — such of them as had been 
instrumental in the death of Arcesilaus put to death, 
244. 

Bards, English, resembled the ancient rhapsodists, 264,n. 

Baris, the name of the mountain on which Noah's ark 
rested, 101, n. 

Barley, a liquor fermented from, drank by the Egyp- 
tians, 95— wine, Osiris the inventor of, 120, n.— the 
straw of, used in sacrifice to the regal Diana, 16S. 

Barrows, the practice of raising, over the bodies of the 
deceased, almost universal in the earlier ages, 247, n. 

Bassaria, animals in Africa, 241. 



Baths, the offices of, performed by femalee, 285, n. 

Bats, the language of the Troglodyte like the scream- 
ing of, 238. 

Bathes, son of Polymnestus, 229 — some account of him, 
230— founds the city Platea, 231— establishes a co- 
lony at Aziris, in Africa, ib. — removes to a better si- 
tuation, ib — is succeeded by his son Arcesilaus, ib- 

Battus, the lame, son of Arcesilaus, succeeds his father 
to the government of the Cyreneans, 232. 

Beans, why not eaten by the Pythagoreans, 81, n. — not 
eaten by the Egyptians, ib. — what implied in the Py- 
thagorean precept to abstain from them, 224, n. 

Bears rarely seen in Egypt, 91 — said by Pliny not to be 
produced in Africa, 240, n. — lions called bears by the 
Romans, ib. n. 

Beasts. See animals. 

Beavers, their skins used by the Budini to border their 
garments, 219. 

Beauty, personal, honoured in various places, 257, n. 

Becket, Thomas a, the riches of his shrine met with a 
fate similar to those of the temple of Delphi, 388, n. 

Beer, British, superior to aay other, 95, n. 

Bees, said to possess the parts beyond the Ister, 247 — 
impatient of cold, ib. 

Beetle considered as an emblem of the sun, 145, n. 

Behemoth of scripture, generally supposed the hippopo- 
tamus, 93, n.— according to Mr Bruce, the elephant, 
92, n. 

Bess?, interpreters of the oracle of Bacchus, 348. 

Bias, of Priene, his memorable reply to Croesus, 9 — his 
good advice to the Ionians, 51. 

Bias, brother of Melampus, receives a third part of the 
kingdom of the Argives, 429. 

Biblos, when scarce, supplied by the skins of goats and 
sheep, 261 — Xerxes provides cordage for his bridges 
over the river Strymon, made of its bark and of white 
flax, 330. 

Birds, superstition of the ancients respecting their 
sight or flight, 162, n. 

Birth of a child, the Trausi lament over, 245. 

Bisaltica, king of, his unnatural action to his sons, 409. 

Bito and Cleobis, their reward for drawing their mother 
in a carriage to the temple of Juno, 10. 

Blood, ancient and modern nations of the East ratify 
alliances by drinking their own, 24,n. — of a human vic- 
tim mixed with wine, accompanied the most solemn 
forms of execration among the ancients, 138, n. — of 
bullocks, taken fresh from the animal x considered by 
the ancients as a powerful poison, 140, n. — Scythians 
drink the blood of their enemies, 206. 

Boar, wild, does much injury to the Mysians, 12 — its 
ravages considered by the ancients as most formidable, 
ib. n. — never seen in Africa, 241 — the chief food of the 
lion, ib. n. 

Boats, Armenian, used in Babylonia, described, 59 — 
anciently made of skins of beasts by all the inhabi- 
tants of the sea coasts, 59. 

Boeotians overcome by the Athenians at the Euripus, 
268 — take part with the Medes against Greece, 388— 
fight the Athenians at Platea, with obstinate resolu- 
tion, 436. 

Boges, governor of Eion, and his descendants, honour- 
ably regarded in Persia, 347 — besieged by the Athen- 
ians, and reduced to extremity, slays his family, and 
then himself, ib. 

Boreas considered by the Athenians as their son-in-law, 
368— a shrine erected to him, ib.— married Orithya, 
368— beautiful use of this fable by Milton, ib. n. 

Boryes, animals in Africa, 241. 

Borysthenes, the river, 204—- next to the Nile the most 
productive, ib. 



INDEX. 



457 



Bosphoru's, 196— a bridge thrown over it at Chalcedon, 
by Darhis, in his expedition against Seythia, 233 — 
point of its erection, 214. 

Botticeans, their origin, 367, n. 

Bowls, game of, invented by the Lydians, 31. 

Boys, passion for, learned by the Persians from the 
Greeks, 42— not permitted by the Persians to see their 
fathers till their fifth year, 43. 

Bracelets of the orientals remarkably heavy, 142, n. — 
formerly an ensign of royalty, ib. 

Branchidae, temple of, 14, n. 

Brass the scarcest of all meta's with the Ethiopians, 143 
— none possessed by the Scythians, 209 — said by Lu- 
cretius to have been formerly preferred to gold, 258, n. 

Brauronia, a feast of the Athenians every five years, 
320, n. 

Bridge, ancient method of constructing, 24, n. — of Nito- 
cris, 56— one constructed over the Bosphorus, by com- 
mand of Darius, 213— origin of the name in Greek, 262, 
n.— one constructed over the Hellespont by Xerxes, 
331— another, 332. 

Britain, Great, its government, 165, n.— supposed to be 
one of the islands called Cassiterides, 175, n. 

Britomartis, a name of Diana, 155, n. 

Brother, the life of one preferred to those of a husband 
and children, 182. 

Brundusium, 217. 

Brygi of Thrace, attack and wound Mardonius, but are 
reduced by him, 293. 

Bubaris, son of Megabyzus, Alexander gives his sister 
in marriage to, 250— with Antaehaeus, conducted the 
work of digging through mount Athos, 329. 

Bubastis, temple at, 117— in Greek synonymous with 
Artemis or Diana, ib. — Diana, so called by the Egyp- 
tians, 125. 

Bucklers, Persian, 435, n. 

Budini, a numerous people, paint their bodies, have a 
town built of wood, 219. 

Buffon, anecdote of, 325, n. 

Bulis and Sperthies, present themselves before Xerxes to 
make atonement for the Persian ambassadors put to 
death at Sparta, 353. 

Bullock, its fresh blood considered by the ancients as a 
powerful poison, 140, n. 170, n. 

Bulls sacrificed by the Egyptians, 84— their flesh never 
eaten by the Africans from Egypt as far as lake Tri- 
tonis, 239 — one sacrificed by Cleomenes to the ocean, 
302 — the usual victims to the Dii Magni ; not frequent- 
ly, if ever, sacrificed to Jupiter, ib. n. — one sacrificed 
to the Egyptian Typhon, gave occasion to the golden 
calf of the Israelites, ib. n. 

Burial alive, a common custom in Persia, 348 — of the 
dead. See Funerals. 

Burning, wives in India burn themselves on their hus- 
bands' funeral pile, 246, n. — of the dead. See Funerals. 

Busiris, temple of Diana at, 88. 

Butos, shrine of Latona at, of one solid stone, 125. 

Butter unknown to the Greeks and Romans, 190, n. 

Byblus of Egypt, its uses, 100. 

Byssus means cotton, 98, n. 366, n.— improperly rendered 
• linen' by the translators of the English Bible, ib. n. 

Byzantium reduced by Otanes, 251— reduced by the Ion- 
ians, 277. 



Cabaleis, a name of the Lycians, whence derived, 209, n. 

Cabiri, mysteries of, 86 — their temple entered, and sta- 
tues burnt by Cambyses, 148 — derivation of the word, 
86, n. 

Cadmean victory, 51 



Cadmus, son of Scythes, an instance of his rectitude, 361. 

Cadytis, possessed by Necos, king of Egypt, 126— Jeru- 
salem, ib. n. 

Cceneus, his story, 272, n. 

Cairo, its air unwholesome, 95, n. — its canal opened an- 
nually with great pomp, 97, n. 

Calacte, 286. 

Calais, behaviour of one of its principal inhabitants at a 
siege, 441, u. 

Calami, in Samos, derivation of its name, 443, n. 

Calchas killed himself, 343, n. 

Callias, the son of Phaenippus, his hatred of tyrants, 315 
— a whimsical story of him from Plutarch, ib. n. — his 
honours at the Olympic games, ib.— his liberality to his 
daughters, 316. 

Callicratis mortally wounded by an arrow, while sitting 
in his rank at a sacrifice, 437. 

Callitnachus of Aphidnae, an Athenian polemarch, 312 — 
by his interposition the Athenians determine on an 
engagement with the Persians at Marathon, ib. — lose3 
his life in the battle of Marathon, 313. 

Calves, male, without blemish, sacrificed by the Egyp- 
tians, 84. 

Cambyses, son of Cyrus, marries Mandane, 35 — succeeds 
his father, 67— undertakes an expedition against Egypt, 
ib.— leads an army against Amasis, king of Egypt, 135 
— his parentage, 136 — engages Psammenitus, son of 
Amasis, and defeats him, 138 — insults the dead body of 
Amasis, 140 — determines to commence hostilities 
against the Carthaginians, the Ammonians, and the 
Macrobian Egyptians, 141 — sends Ichthyophagi to the 
Ethiopians with a message to the prince, ib. — suddenly 
marches his army against the Ethiopians, 144 — sends 
part of his army against the Ammonians, ib. — abandons 
his design against the Ethiopians, ib — fate of his army 
against the Ammonians, ib. — puts to death the magis- 
trates of Memphis, 145 — mortally wounds Apis, and 
punishes his priests, ib. — said in consequence to have 
become insane, 146 — puts his brother Smerdis to death, 
146 — marries his sister, and not long afterwards a se . 
cond, whom he puts to death, ib. — other instances of 
his frenzy, ib. — his brothers excite a revolt against 
him while in Egypt, 156 — his brother Smerdis is placed 
on the throne, ib. — in leaping hastily on his horse is 
mortally wounded by his own sword, 157 — his speech 
to the Persians previous to his death, 158 — his death, 
ib.— succeeded by his brother Smerdis, ib. — was the 
Ahasuerus in Ezra, who obstructed the work of the 
temple, 159, n. 

Camel hated by the horse, 26— this disproved, ib. n. — in- 
teresting description of, 171, n. — certain camels conse. 
crated to Mahomet, ib. n. — particulars concerning, ib. 
— several destroyed by lions, 350 — has no separate sto- 
mach or reservoir different from those of all ruminat- 
ing animals, 171, n. 

Camicus, besieged by the Cretans, 363. 

Canals, Babylonian, 59 — intersecting Egypt, 104 — one 
hundred and twenty thousand Egyptians perished in 
making one to the Red Sea, 126. 

Candaules, king of Sardis, 3 — his proposal to Gyges, 4 — 
is murdered, and his empire seized by Gyges, 5 — his 
fate resented by the Lydians, 6. 

Cappadocians, their cavalry esteemed, 370, n. 

Caravanseras, 259, n. 

Cardia, why so called, 291. 

Carians, resentment of certain of their women for the 
death of their parents, 45— originally islanders, 52, 
384, n. — their ingenuity, 52 — the first who added crests 
to their helmets, and ornaments and handles to their 
shields, ib. 124, n. — rewarded by Psammitichus, king 
of Egypt, for their assistance, 121— preserved a con- 

3 M 



458 



INDEX. 



stant communication between Egypt and Greece, 125 
— the first who let out troops for hire, 264, n. — the 
greater part of them join the Ionians against the Per- 
sians, 277 — are overcome by Daurises, a Persian gen- 
eral, on the banks of the Mar&yas, 279 — assisted by the 
Milesians, engage the Persians a second time, and are 
defeated, 280 — in a subsequent action somewhat repair 
their former losses, ib. — subdued by the Persians, 288. 

Carnian festival, 372. 

Carnivorous and cruel, a common association, 202, n. 

Carthaginians, their fleet engages with the Phoceans, 
50 — Cambyses is prevented from sending an armament 
against them, 141 — mode of their commerce with a 
people beyond the columns of Hercules, 242 — frequent- 
ly gave the title of king to their generals, 361, n. — sa- 
crifice to Amilcar, 362. 

Carystians, besieged by the Persians, surrender, 308 — 
their lands wasted by the Greeks, 410 — a war between 
them and the Athenians, 445. 

Casia, 173, n. — how procured by the Arabians, 174. 

Casius, mount, now mount Tenere, 137, n. 

Caspian sea communicates with no other, 62, 

Cassandane, the mother of Cambyses, 136. 

Cassiterides, the islands, 175. 

Castor and Pollux, not among the Egyptian gods, 83 — 
entertained by Euphorion, 317. 

Castration, in a very early period, a punishment for va- 
rious crimes, 283, n. — practised by the Persians on the 
Ionian youths, 289 — practised by the Hottentots, 283, n. 

Cats venerated by the Egyptians, 90 — their increase, how 
frustrated in Egypt, ib. — their death lamented by the 
Egyptians, ib. — buried by the Egyptians, 91. 

Cavalry, excellence of the Cappadocian and Paphlagoni- 
an, 370, n. — why compared in Jeremiah to a rough cat- 
erpillar, 26, n. 

Caucasus, the largest mountain in the world, 62. 

Caves, subterraneous, very frequent in the east, 388, n. 

Caunians, account of, 52.- 

Causeway erected by Cheops, 111. 

Cecrops, the first among the Greeks who erected a statue 
to Minerva, 155, n. — under him the Athenians took the 
name of Cecropidae, 390 — said to have been of a twofold 
nature, ib. n. 

CeltcB, except the Cynetse, the most remote inhabitants 
in the west of Europe, 203. 

Cercopes, robbers ; Homer said to have written a poem 
on them, 374, n. 

Ceres, in the Greek tongue the name of Isis, 88 — Rhanip- 
sinitus plays at dice with, 110 — and Bacchus esteemed 
by the Egyptians as the great deities of the realms be- 
low, ib. — called Isis by the Egyptians, 125 — her mys- 
teries, 129, 285, 395— her temple in Scythia, 204— called 
Damia, 269, n. — certain Chians put to death by the 
Ephesians for approaching the city during the celebra- 
tion of her mysteries, 285 — Athenian rites in honour of 
her and Proserpine, 395— her grove in the Theban ter- 
ritories, 436. 

Ceres, Achaean, her edifice and mysteries at Athens, 262. 

Ceres Amphictyonis, 371. 

Ceres Eleusinian, 434. 

Ceres Thesmophoros, 306. 

Cesarius, a magistrate of high rank, goes post from An- 
tioch to Constantinople, 404, n. 

Chalcedon, its fine situation, 227, n. — reduced by Otanes, 
251. 

Chalcidians lay waste the Athenian territories, 267 — 
overcome by the Athenians in Eubcea, 268— join the 
army of Xerxes, 367 — become masters of Olynthus, 41 1. 

Chaldeans in the army of Xerxes, 339. 

Challenge given by Mardonius to the Spartans at Platea, 
431 — frequently adopted in earlier ages, 432, n. 



Charaxus, brother of Sappho, purchases the liberty of 
Rhodopis, 116 — satirized by Sappho, ib. 

Chaiiots, one of brass placed by the Athenians at the 
entrance of the citadel, 268 — of war, 278, n. — one sacred 
to Jupiter drawn in the procession of Xerxes' army 
from Sardis, 334— lost by him in Macedonia, 409— that 
of Xerxes drawn by Nisaean horses, 334. 

diaries I. his last word to Dr Juxon, 307. 

Cheese, according to Pliny, neglected by the barbarous 
nations, 190, n. 

Chemmis, in Egypt, 99— the same with Panopolis and 
Akmim, ib. n.— the Egyptians affirm the island of 
Chemmis to be a floating island, 125. 

Chenalopex, a bird venerated by the Egyptians, 93. 

Cheops, king of Egypt, succeeds Rhampsinitus, 111— his 
profligacy, ib.— makes the Egyptians labour servilely 
for himself, ib. — works carried on in Egypt during his 
reign, ib.— prostituted his daughter, 113— a pyramid 
built with stones procured by his daughter's prostitu- 
tion, ib.— succeeded by his brother Chephren, 114. 

Chephren, king of Egypt, succeeds his brother Cheops, 
114— builds a pyramid, ib.— is succeeded by Myceriuus, 
sou of Cheops, ib. 

Chersonese, except Cardia, reduced by the Phenicians, 
290— origin of its subjection to Miltiades, son of Cypse- 
lus, ib.— its length, 291— becomes subject to Stesagoras, 
ib.— and to Miltiades, son of Cimon, 292. 

Chians assist the Milesians in their war with the Lydi- 
ans, 7— their honourable conduct in a sea fight near 
Miletus, 284— several put to death by the Ephesians, 
for approaching the city when the women were cele- 
brating the rites of Ceres, 285— subdued by HistiaBus, 
288. 

Children, two brought up by a shepherd without speak- 
ing before them, to know what word they would first 
pronounce, 67 — two sacrificed by Menelaus to appease 
the winds, 108— fourteen Persian, of illustrious birth, 
interred alive by order of Amestris, wife of Xerxes, in 
honour of the deity under the earth, 348— sacrificed to 
Saturn, 362, n. 

Chileus prevails on the Spartans to assist the Athenians 
against Mardonius, 421. 

Chine always considered by the ancients as the honour- 
able portion, 295, n. 

Chios famous for purple, 406, n. 

Chirurgery among the ancients, 97, n. 

Chivalry possibly of Grecian origin, 316, n. 

Choaspes, the kings of Persia drank no water but this, 
117— Milton's assertion doubted, that its water was the 
drink of none but kings, 57, n. 

Chorus, tragic, some account of, 265, n. 

Chronology of the Egyptians greatly embarrassed, 110, n. 

Chymistry carried to a high degree of perfection by the 
Egyptians, 97, n. 

Cilicians said to pay annually a tribute of five hundred 
talents, 258— supply Xerxes with one hundred ships, 
343— derive their name from Cilex, ib. 

Cimmerian darkness, 189, n. 

Cimmerians, their incursion into Ionia, 3— possess Sar- 
dis, 6— driven out of Asia, ib.— when expelled their 
country by the Scythians, fled to the Asiatic Cherso- 
nese, 192— their descent, 3. 

Cimon, son of Stesagoras, driven from Athens by the in- 
fluence of Pbistratus, 509— his victories in the Olympic 
games, ib.— assassinated, 310. 

Cinnamon, 173— how collected by the Arabians, 174. 

Cinyps, the river, its rise, 236— district of, equal to any 
country in the world for its corn, 243— a colony found- 
ed near it by Dorieus, son of Cleomenes, 255. 

Circumcision practised in Egypt, 80— used from time 
immemorial by the Colchians, Egyptians, and Ethio- 



INDEX. 



459 



pians, 103 — borrowed from Egypt by the Phenicians 
and Syrians of Palestine, ib. — by other Syrians and the 
Macrones, from the Colchians, ib. — not known whe- 
ther Egypt or Ethiopia first introduced it, ib. 

Citharcedus, distinction between that term and Citharis- 
tes, 8, n. 

Clasps, a man killed by wounds from them, by the hands 
of Atheniau women, 270— general form of those worn 
by the ancients, ib. n. 

Clazomence invaded by Alyattes, 6— taken by Artapher- 
nes and Otanes, 280. 

Cleades, the son of Autodicus, raises the monument <>f 
the iEginetae at Platea, 441. 

Oleander, son of Pantareus, assassinated by Sabyllus, 
558. 

Cleobis and Bito, rewarded for drawing their mother in 
a carriage to the temple of Juno, 10. 

Clcombrotus, son of Cleomenes, his birth, 255. 

Cleomenes, son of Anaxandrides, and king of Sparta, in- 
stance of his self-denial, 1S5 — his birth, 255 — is prefer- 
red to the sovereignty, ib. — his reign short, 257 — rejects 
the solicitations of Aristagoras to make an incursion 
into Asia, 258, 259 — restores the Athenians to their 
liberty, 2G3— his stratagem on that occasion, ib. n. — at 
the instance of Isagoras, pronounces sentence of ex- 
pulsion against Clisthenes and other Athenians, 2G6 — 
sends into exile seven hundred Athenian families ; 
proceeds to dissolve the senate, but is opposed ; and, 
after seizing the citadel, is besieged by the Athenians, 
and compelled to accept terms and depart, ib.— levies 
forces against the Athenians in different parts of the 
Peloponnese, and takes possession of Eleusis, 267 — is 
repulsed from iEgina, 294 — persecuted by Demaratus 
during his absence at iEgina, 297 — together with Leu- 
tychides asserts the illegitimacy of Demaratus, and 
procures from the oracle of Delphi a declaration of it, 
298— in consequence of which Demaratus is deprived 
of his dignity, 299 — proceeds with Leutychides against 
iEgina, 300— fearing the resentment of the Spartans, 
flies to Thessaly, thence to Arcadia, where he endea- 
vours to raise a commotion against Sparta, 301 — is in- 
vited back to Sparta, ib. — is seized with madness, ib. — 
in confinement procures a sword, with which he cuts 
off his flesh till he dies, ib. — his death ascribed to vari- 
ous crimes committed by him, ib. — set fire to the sacred 
wood of Argos, 302 — punished the priest who inter- 
rupted him in offering sacrifice at the temple of Juno, 
303 — offered sacrifice at the temple of Juno, ib. — was 
accused by the Spartans of bribery, and of neglecting 
to take Argos, but acquitted, ib. 

Clinius, son of Alcibiades, distinguishes himself in a sea 
fight between the Persians and Greeks, 384. 

Clisthenes of Athens, contending with Isagoras for su- 
periority, divides the Athenian state into factions, 264 
— divides the four Athenian tribes into ten, ib. 265 — 
sentence of expulsion pronounced against him and 
other Athenians, 266 — the first who was punished by 
the law of ostracism, which he had introduced, ib. n. 
— is recalled from banishment, 267. 

Clisthenes, prince of Sicyon, abolishes at Sicyonthe poeti- 
cal contests of the rhapsodists, 264 — brings back to 
Sicyon the relics of Melanippus, and assigns to him the 
sacrifices and festivals which before had been appro- 
priated to Adrastus, 265 — at the Olympic games offers 
his daughter in marriage to the most worthy, 316 — 
gives her to Megacles, and a talent of silver to each of 
the other candidates, 318. 

Clysters, how invented, 94, n. 

Cnidians, their attempt to reduce their country into the 
form of an island, 53. 

Cobon, son of Aristor !ian(ef=, prevails on the priestess of 



Apollo to say what Cleomenes desired against Demar- 
atus, 299. 

Cocalus suffocates Minos in a hot bath, 363, n. 

Cochineal, by its discovery we far surpass the colours of 
antiquity, 63, n. 

Codrus of Athens, story of, 268, n. 

Coes, son of Erxander, his advice to Darius, 216 — made 
prince of Mitylene for his advice to Darius, 248— taken 
captive by Iatragoras, 254— stoned by the Mitylenians, 
255. 

Coffins of crystal used by the Ethiopians, 143 — used in the 
east, ib. n. — when introduced in England, 143, n. — of 
glass, ib. n. 

Coin, gold, of the ancients, one-fiftieth part is supposed 
to have been alloy, 169, n. 

Colas, his skill in diving, 382, n. 

Colchians, of Egyptian origin, 103— used circumcision, 
ib. — their similarity to the Egyptians in many respects, 
ib. 

Colchos, the king of, demands the restitution of Medea, 
2. 

Cold, excessive, in Scythia, 196. 

Colony, ceremonies previous to founding one, 255, n. 

Colophon taken by G yges, 6. 

ColopJionians build Smyrna, ib.— excluded from the Apa- 
turian festival, 46— certain of them driven from their 
country, take possession of Smyrna, 47. 

Columns erected by Sesostris, to commemorate his vic- 
tories, 103 — erected for various uses in the earlier age3 
of antiquity, 284, n. 

Combat, naval, exhibited before Xerxes, 334 — those of 
the Romans constituted one of their grandest shows, 
ib. n. 

Commerce, mode of, between the Carthaginians and a 
people beyond the columns of Hercules, 242. 

Compass, puints of the, 368, n. 

Constantinople, ill treatment there of ambassadors in case 
of war, an exception to the general rule of nations, 
156, n. — its situation well expressed by Ovid, 226, n. — 
most satisfactory account of it in Mr Gibbon's History, 
ib. n. 

Convulsio?is cured in the children of the African shep- 
herds, by goat's urine, 239. 

Cookery in remote times performed by a queen for her 
husband, 414. 

Corey ra built by the Corinthians, 152. 

Corcyreans, three hundred children of their principal 
families sent by Periander to Sardis, to be made eu- 
nuchs, protected and sent back by the Samians, 152 — 
put the son of Periander to death, 154 — delude the 
Greeks in their war with Xerxes, 362. 

Corinth, treasury of, 6. 

Corinthians contribute to an expedition of the Lacedae- 
monians against Samos, 152 — their government under 
the Bacchiadae, 272— oppose the restoration of Hippias 
to Athens, 274 — furnish the Athenians with twentj 
ships against iEgina, 306 — interfere between the The 
bans and Plateans, 312 — said to have fled at the com 
mencement of the battle of Salamis, 403 — their w omen 
celebrated for their beauty, 181, n. 

Corn, Babylonia fruitful in, 59. 

Cornucopia, whence, 70, n. 

Corobius, of Itanus, goes with certain of the Thereans to 
the island Tlatea in Africa, to found a colony there, 
229. 

Corontea, moles never seen in, 268. 

Correspondence, method of, between Timoxenus and 
Artabazus, at the siege of Potidaea, 412— see Epistles 

Corcyrian cave, 3SS. 

Cotton, the byssus of the ancients, 98, n. 173, n. SC^n, u. 

Countries, luxurious render men effeminate, 449. 



460 



INDEX. 



Courtesans, great profits of those of antiquity, 84 — of 
Naucratis generally beautiful, 116. 

Cowardice, the people of Cyzicus remarkable for, 193, n. 

Coivs, why venerated by the Egyptians above all other 
cattle, 82 — their urine applied in some dangerous ob- 
structions, 239, n. 

Crassus, his wealth, 330, n. 

Crates, his famous verses, describing part of the accounts 
of a man of fortune, 180, n. 

Cream, neither Greeks nor Latins had a term to express 
it, 190, n. 

Cretans, carried away Europa, 2— refuse to assist the 
Greeks against Xerxes, 362 — their good government, 
363— consequences of their siege of Camicus, ib. — their 
defeat of the Tarentines, 364 — punished for their as- 
sisting Menelaus in the Trojan war, ib. 

Crius, son of Polycritus, opposes Cleomenes, 294 — deli- 
vered to Cleomenes as a hostage, 301— repulses Cleo- 
menes from iEgina, 294. 

Crocodile described, 91, and n. — Herodotus's account of 
it confirmed by modern travellers, ib. n. — supposed to 
be the leviathan of Job, ib. n. — esteemed sacred by 
some of the Egyptians, by others treated as an enemy, 
92 — singular story of one, ib. n. — an article of food in 
or near Elephantine, ib. — had many names, ib. n. — 
various methods of taking it, ib. n.— city of, 121 — land 
crocodiles in Africa, 211. 

Croesus, son of Alyattes, his descent, 3 — the first Barba- 
rian prince who exacted tribute from Greece, ib. — his 
family, ib. — his riches, whence, 6, n. — succeeds to the 
throne of Lydia, 8— enters into an alliance with the 
Ionians of the islands, 9 — his conquests, ib. — entertains 
Solon, 10 — dismisses him with indifference, 11 — his two 
sons, ib. — sees a vision menacing the death of Ms son 
Atys, ib.— consents to his son Atys' assisting the My- 
sians against a wild boar, 13 — his behaviour on the 
loss of Atys, ib. — consults the oracles of Greece and 
Lybia, 14 — sacrifices to the oracle at Delphi, 15 — 
sends presents to Delphi, ib. — his gratitude to his 
bread-maker, ib. n. — his presents to Amphiaraus, 16 
— consults the oracle at Delphi and of Amphiaraus 

concerning an expedition against the Persians, ib 

his repeated liberality to Delphi, and his privileges 
there in consequence, ib. — consults the Delphian 
oracle a third time, ib.— receives information of the 
oppression of Athens by Pisistratus, 17 — and of 
the Lacedaemonians, 20 — forms an offensive alliance 
with the Spartans, 22— arrives in Pteria, a part of 
Cappadocia, 24 — almost exterminates the Syrians, ib. 
— engages with Cyrus on the plains of Pteria, 25 — 
returns to Sardis, ib. — is taken captive by Cyrus, 27 — 
his dumb son recovers his speech on seeing his father's 
life in danger, ib. — condemned by Cyrus to be burned, 
28 — but a storm of rain extinguishes the flames, ib. — 
and he is released by order of Cyrus, who treats him 
with respect, 29 — sends the Lydians to reproach the 
oracle at Delphi, and receives an answer, ib.— other 
sacred offerings of, 30— goes with Cyrus into Asia, 48— 
his advice to Cyrus on a revolt of the Lydians, ib.— his 
advice to Cyrus in attacking the Massagetae, 63— 
which proves fatal to Cyrus, 65— his complimentary 
speech to Cambyses, 147— his advice to Cambyses, ib. 
—by order of Cambyses, is to be put to death, but is 
preserved, 148— by his menaces to the people of Lamp- 
sacum, procures the liberty of Miltiades, 291— permits 
Alcmseon to take with him from Sardis as much gold 
as he can carry, 316 — represented by Spenser among 
the captives of pride, 148, n. 

Crotona, eminence of its physicians, 181 — its people, as- 
sisted by Dorieus, take Sybacis, 256. 



Crotoniatce assist Greece with one vessel, 391 — of Achaean 
origin, ib. 

Crow sacred to Apollo, 194, n. 

Crucifixion, by the Persians generally preceded by be- 
heading or slaying, 178, n. — the particular manner of 
the punishment unknown, 289, n. 

Crystal abounds in Egypt, 143. 

Custom styled by Pindar the universal sovereign, 149 — 
distinction between it and habit, ib. 

Customs, all men tenacious of their own, 148 — Barbarous 
in barbarous nations, and similar in nations which 
have no communication, 209, n. 

Cyanean islands, said by the Greeks to have floated, 21?. 

Cyaxares, son of Phraortes, at war with Alyattes, 6 — 
with his guests, partakes of human flesh, served up by 
a number of fugitive Scythians, in revenge for his as- 
perity, 23 — which occasions a war between the Ly- 
dians and Medes, ib. — succeeds Phraortes in the go- 
vernment of the Medes, 34 — the first who trained the 
Asiatics to military service, ib. — his engagement with 
the Lydians interrupted by an eclipse, ib. — vanquishes 
the Assyrians, ib. — besieges Nineveh, ib. — is defeated 
by the Scythians, and loses his empire, ib. — but re- 
covers it, 35 — his death, ib. 

Cybele, her rites instituted in Scythia by Anacharsis, 210 
— the truest idea of her rites, whence to be obtained, 
211, n. — her temple at Sardis destroyed, 276. 

Cyclades, each of them distinguished for some excellence, 
154, n. 

Cydias, his perfidy and premature death, 305, n. 

Cydon, in Crete, by whom built, 151. 

Cydrara, a pillar built at, by Croesus, to define the boun- 
daries of Phrygia and Lydia, 331. 

Cylon, of Athens, with a number of young men of the 
same age, put to death for a design on government, 
266. 

Cyma taken by Artaphernes and Otanes, 280. 

Cyncegirus, son of Euphorion, dies of his wounds in the 
battle of Marathon, 314. 

Cynetce the most remote inhabitants in the west of Eu- 
rope, 203. 

Cynics, whence so called, 263, n. 

Cyno, wife of Mitridates, preserves the life of Cyrus, 
37. 

Cynocephali have their eyes in their breasts, 340. 

Cynosarges gave name to the sect of the Cynics, 263, n. 
— origin of its appellation, ib. n. 

Cyprian verses, not Homer's, 107. 

Cyprians, their custom respecting women, 62— first con- 
quered by Amasis, king of Egypt, 133— submit to the 

Persians, and serve in the Egyptian expedition, 141 

occasion of their revolt from the Medes, 277 — a de- 
cisive victory over them by the Persians off Cyprus, 
279— supply fifty vessels to Xerxes, 343. 

Cypselus, son of Eetion, his story, 273. 

Cy ranis, the island, gold dust drawn from its lake, 242. 

Cyrene, presents sent to, by Amasis, 132— eminence of 
its physicians, 181— whence its name, 231, n.— Greeks 
settle there, ib. — few traces of it remaining, 234, n. — 
its limits not defined, 243, n. 

Cyrenians repel Apries, 127 — make an alliance with 
Amasis, 132— submit to Cambyses, 139— their friend- 
ship with the Samians, 229— the Greeks settle among 
them, 231 — defeat the Egyptians, and revolt from 
Apries, ib. — defeated by Arcesilaus, ib. — consu't the 
oracle on their calamities, ib. — their form of govern- 
ment settled by Demonax, 232 — their women esteem 
it impious to touch a heifer, 239 — for eight months in 
the year, employed in reaping the produce of their 
land-, 243. 



I xN D E X. 



461 



Cyrsilu aod his wife stoned to death by tlio Athenians, 
420, n. 

Ci/rns, son of Carabyses, as soon as horn, is delivered to 
Harpagus, by command of Astyages, to be destroyed, 
36— is delivered by Harpagus to Mitridates to be ex- 
posed, ib. — is preserved by Mitridates, 37 — discovered 
at ten years of age, ib. — is sent by Astyages to his 
parents in Persia, 39 — is invited by Harpagus to seize 
on the dominions of Astyages, ib. — by a stratagem 
prevails on the Persians to revolt from the Medes, ib. 
— is said by Isocrates to have put Astyages to death, 
41, n. — his increasing greatness excites the jealousy 
of Croesus, 14 — said to consult the prophet Daniel on 
his war with Croesus, 24, n. — engages with Crcesus on 
the plains of Pteria, 25 — follows Crcesus to Sardis, ib. 
— his stratagem at Sardis, ib. — takes Sardis, and 
Crcesus captive, 27 — condemns Crcesus to be burnt, 
28— but relents, ib. — and on the flames being extin- 
guished by a storm of rain, orders him to be released, 
ib. — rejects an offer of allegiance from the Ionians and 
jEolians, 44 — his reflection upon the Greeks, 47 — | 
commits the care of Sardis to Tabalus, and proceeds 
with Crcesus to Ecbatane, 48 — consults with Crcesus , 
on a revolt of the Lydians under Pactyas, ib.— sends { 
Mazares to the Lydians, and prescribes to them certain j 
observances, by which he effects a total change in 
their manners, ib. — on the death of Mazares, appoints 
Harpagus to the command of his army in Ionia, 49 — 
becomes roaster of the upper parts of Asia, 54— wastes I 
a summer in revenge on the river Gyndes, 58 — be- j 
sieges Babylon, and takes it, ib — proceeds to conquer 
the Massagetae, 62 — by advice of Crcesus, accepts the 
proposal of Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae, and 
inarches into her country, 63 — appoints his son Cam- 
byses his successor, 64 — is alarmed by a vision, ib. — 
defeats a part of the army of the Massagetae by a stra- 
tagem, ib. — but is himself defeated by the remainder of 
their forces, and slain, 65 — different accounts of his 
death, ib. n.— on his wife's death, commanded public 
marks of sorrow, 67— dissuaded the Persians from re- 
moving to a better country, 449. 

Cythnians, 390- 

Cytissorus, son of Phrixus, the anger of Jupiter Laphys- 
tius falls on his posterity, 370. 

Cyzicus, its people remarkable for their cowardice, 
193, n. — Anacharsis touches at, in his passage over 
the Hellespont, 210. 



D 



Dacians, the Getae so called, 215, n. 

Dcedalus, account of, 363, n. 

Damia, a name of Ceres, 269, n. 

Danaus, 101 — the Thesmosphoria, in honour of Ceres, 
introduced among the Pelasgi by his daughters, 1^9 — 
his daughters erected the temple of Minerva at Lin- 
dus, 133. 

Dunces of the Mantinseans preferred for the quickness 
with which they moved their hands, 287, n. 

Dancing, the Athenians deemed those impolite who re- 
fused to exercise themselves in, when proper oppor- 
tunities occurred, 318, n. — a part of the funeral cere- 
monies of the ancients, ib. n. 

Danube, account of, 202 — the river of Noah, 203, n. — 
inferior to the Nile, ib. 

DaricR, coin so called, 233, n. 

Darius; son of Hystaspes, endeavours to get possession 
of a golden statue in the temple of Jupiter at Baby. 
Ion, 55— opens the tomb of Nitocris, 57 — a vision of 
Cyrus, intimating the succession of Darius to his 
power, 64 — not permitted to place his own stahie be- 



fore those of Sesostris and his family, 105— joins in a 
conspiracy against Smerdis, the pretended son of 
Cyrus, 260 — is made king of Persia, 1 66— his wives, 
167 — divides Persia into provinces, ib. — annual tribute 
paid to him, 168 — his mode of depositing his riches, 
169 — puts Intaphernes and part of his family to death, 
177 — dislocates his ancle, 179 — is cured by Democedes, 
a slave of Orcetes, and rewards him, 180 — sends De- 
mocedes with fifteen Persians to examine the sea- 
coast of Greece, 182 — who return without their con- 
ductor, ib. — besieges and takes Samos, 183 — having 
formerly received a cloak from Sylosou, ib. — in return 
gives him Samos, 184 — which he receives almost 
without an inhabitant, 185 — besieges Babylon, ib. — 
and by a stratagem of Zopyrus, takes it, 187 — levels 
the walls of Babylon, and takes away its gates, ib.~ 
rewards Zopyrus, 188 — undertakes an expedition 
against Scythia, ib. — sends Scylax to ascertain where 
the Indus meets the ocean, 201 — who discovers a con- 
siderable part of Asia, ib. — advances from Susa, with 
his army, against Scythia, 213 — puts to death the three 
sons of CEbasus, ib. — surveys the Euxine, ib. — exa- 
mines the Bosphorus, near which he orders two co- 
lumns to be erected, inscribed with the names of the 
different nations, which followed him against Scythia, 
214 — rewards Mandrocles for erecting a bridge over 
the Bosphorus, ib. — passes into Europe, ib. — erects a 
column near the river Teams, 215— raises a pile of 
stones near the river Artiscus, ib. — reduces the Thra- 
cians of Salmydessus, and several others, with the 
Getae, ib — passes the Ister, 216— by the advice of 
Coes, leaves the Ionians to guard the bridge erected 
by them over the Ister, ib. — proceeds with his army, 
222 — and arrives in Scythia, ib. — challenges the Scy- 
thians, 223 — the Scythians make several attacks on his 
army, ib. — receives a present from the Scythians, 224 
— the meaning of which is explained by Gobryas, ib. 
— his stratagem for effecting a safe return from the 
pursuit of the Scythians, ib. — arrives at the Ister, and 
finds the bridge broken down, 226 — with the assistance 
of Histiaeus, passes the Ister, and escapes from the 
Scythians, ib. — passes into Asia, ib. — leaves Megaby- 
zus at the head of some troops in Europe, 227 — who 
reduces all who were in opposition to the Medes, ib. — 
issues a coin of the purest gold, 233 — condemns Ary- 
andes to death for issuing a coin of silver, ib. — the 
Perinthians, and all Thrace, reduced under his power 
by Megabyzus, 245 — having crossed the Hellespont, 
goes to Sardis, 247 — rewards Histiaeus and Coes, 248 
— requires Megabyzus to remove the Paeonians from 
Europe to Asia, ib. — who accordingly invades them 
and executes his orders, ib — by advice of Megabyzus, 
diverts Histiaeus from building a city in Thrace, and 
takes him with him to Susa, leaving his brother Ar- 
taphernes governor of Sardis, and Otanes commander 
of the sea coast, 251 — sends forces against Naxos, 
253 — who lay siege to it, but after four months return 
without success, ib. — Miletus revolts against him, 254 
— Athenian ambassadors agree to send him earth and 
water, for which, on their return to Athens, they are 
severely reprehended, 267 — his conduct on being in- 
formed of the burning of Sardis by the Athenians and 
Ionians, 277 — deluded by Histianis, sends him into 
Ionia against Aristagoras, 278— Histiaeus takes the 
command of the Ionian forces against him, 281 — treats 
the Milesians with great humanity, 285 — receives 
Scythes, the Zanclean prince, 2SS — humanity one of 
his most conspicuous qualities, 2S9, n. — disapproves 
of the crucifixion of Histiaeus the Mihvian, ib.— his 
kindness to Mvtiochus, son of Miltiades, 292 — sends 
Mardonius, husband of his daughter Arlozostra, to 



462 



INDEX. 



Ionia, to supersede his other commanders, ib. — orders 
the Thasians to pull down their walls, and remove 
their ships to Abdera, 293— sends emissaries to differ- 
ent parts of Greece to demand earth and water, and 
orders the cities on the coast, who paid him tribute, to 
construct vessels of war and transports for cavalry, ib. 
— honourably receives Demaratus expelled from Spar- 
ta, 300— his domestic regularly bids him remember the 
Athenians, 307 — appoints two of his officers to com- 
mence an expedition against Eretria and Athens, ib. — 
signification of his name, 308 — treated his captives with 
lenity, 309, n. — shows no further resentment to the 
captive Eretrians brought to Susa by Datis and Arta- 
phernes, but appoints them a residence, 315— after the 
battle of Marathon, is more inclined to invade Greece ; 
and on the revolt of the Egyptians, who had been re- 
duced by Cambyses, prepares against both nations, 321 
— a violent dispute amongst his sons concerning the 
succession to the throne, ib. — declares Xerxes his suc- 
cessor, and dies, 322 — genealogy of his family, 326, n. 

Darius, son of Xerxes, married Artaynta the daughter 
of Masistes, 446— not the same with Ahastierus, ib. n. 

Datis, together with Artaphernes, commanded by Da- 
lius to subdue Eretria and Athens, 307 — goes to Delos 
and restores a golden image of Apollo, 315 — with Ar- 
taphernes carries the captive Eretrians to Susa, ib. 

Daiism, a Greek barbarism, 307, n. 

Daurises, with other Persian generals, attack the Ionians 
concerned in the expedition against Sardis, 279 — turns 
his arms against the cities of the Hellespont, ib. — slain 
by the Carians in an ambuscade, ib. 

D-nj, its division into twelve parts, received by the 
Greeks from the Babylonians, 105 -journey of a, 217 — 
and night, enig-ma on, 2, n. 

Dead, their bodies eaten by the Massagetse, 65— time of 
mourning for, in Egypt, 98, n. — their bodies why cm- 
banned by the Egyptians, 140 — commemorated by the 
Greeks on the anniversaries of their deaths, 196, n. — 
honours paid by the Spartans to their deceased princes, 
296— to bring off their bodies in battle, considered by 
the ancients as a high point of honour, 425, n. — senti- 
ments of the ancients with respect to their bodies re- 
maining unburied, 426, n. — to inflict vengeance on, 
deemed infamous by Pausanias, 439. See Funerals. 

Death never inflicted by the Persians for a single offence, 
43 — of aged persons accelerated, 65, n. — never made a 
punishment during the reign of Sabacus in Egypt, 117 
— voluntary, of one or more persons, supposed by the 
ancients to secure a nation, or preserve the life of an 
individual, 352, n. 

Debt, to be in, disgraceful among the Persians, 43. 

Debts secured by pledging the body of a father in the 
reign of Asychis king of Egypt, 117— remitted on the 
death of a Lacedaemonian and a Persian king, 297. 

Deceleans, why exempted from taxes in Sparta, 438. 

Deioces reputed for his wisdom, 32 — chosen king of the 
Medes, ib. — the first who forbade access to the royal 
person, 33— Ms mode of administering justice, ib. — suc- 
ceeded by his son Phraortes, ib. 

Delos purified by Fisistratus, 20— certain sacred offering 
of the Hyperboreans received there, 198 — rites cele- 
brated by the Deleans in honour of Hyperborean vir- 
gins, ib. — its inhabitants fly to Tenos on the approach 
of Datis with the Persian fleet, 308— the island affected 
by a tremulous motion on the departure of Datis, ib. — 
a golden image of Apollo restored by Datis to the tem- 
ple, 315. 
Delphi, Midas and Gyges send presents to, 6— the name 
'among the subjects of controversy between Boyle and 
Bentley, ib. n.— Alyattes' offering at, 8— oracle ol 
Apollo at, 14, n.— answer of the oracle to Croesus, 15- 



who offers a magnificent sacrifice to it, ib. — and sends 
thither valuable presents, 16— again consulted by Crue. 
sus, ib. — and a third time, ib. — the oracle reproached 
by Croesus, 29 — the temple consumed by fire, 13a — the 
temple constructed by the Alcmaeonidae, 262 — the ora- 
cle bribed by Lycurgus, 299, n. — a statue erected there 
by the Greeks after the battle of Salamis, 410— offering 
of the iEginetae on the same occasion, 411 — always 
written Delphos by Swift, 6, 11. — the riches of the tem- 
ple met with a fate similar to those of Thomas a Beck- 
et's shrine at Canterbury, 388, n. 

Delphians assign to Crcesus and the Lydians the privilege 
of first consulting the oracle, 16 — why they supplicate 
the winds, 366— on the approach of Xerxes' army, are 
instructed by the oracle not to remove their treasures, 
but remove their wives and children into Achaia; and 
themselves, except sixty men, entirely desert the city, 
388. 

Deluge, the ceremony in the ancient mysteries of carry- 
ing about a kind of ship or boat, related to it, 101, n. 

Demaratus, son of Ariston, and a prince of Sparta, cir- 
culates a report at Sparta to the prejudice of Cleo- 
menes, 294— who, on his return from iEgina, endea- 
vours to degrade his rival, 297 — his birth, ib. — the cir- 
cumstance to which he owed his name, 298 — succeeds 
his father, ib. — his illegitimacy asserted by Cleomenes 
and Leotychides, and by collusion pronounced by the 
oracle of Delphi, ib. — loses his dignity, 299 — insulted 
by Leotychides, who had been elected king in his room, 
ib.— conjures his mother to discover his true father, 
ib. — who informs him, he is either the son of the hero 
Astrobacus, or of Ariston, 300 — is pursued and seized 
by the Lacedaemonians ; but by the interference of the 
Zacynthians is suffered to pass over to Asia, where he 
is honourably received by Darius, ib. — alone of all the 
kings of Sparta obtained the prize in the Olympic 
games, in the chariot-race of four horses, ib. — deprived 
of the crown of Sparta, flies from Lacedeemon, and 
arrives at Susa, 322 — his conversation with Xerxes, on 
the probability of his success in the Grecian war, 344 — 
l'.is advice to Xerxes on the conduct of the Grecian 
war, after the battle at Thermopylae, 379 — his extraor- 
dinary mode of informing the Lacedaemonians with the 
intentions of Xerxes against Greece, 380. 

Democedes, the son of Calliphon, the most skilful physi- 
cian of his time, 178 — restores to Darius the use of his 
foot, and is rewarded by him, 180— account of, ib. — 
cures Atossa, wife of Darius, of au ulcer, 181 — procures 
himself to be sent by Darius, with fifteen Persians, to 
examine the sea-coast of Greece, 182 — arriving at Cro- 
tona, the people refuse to deliver him up to the Per- 
sians, who return back to Darius deprived of their 
conductor, ib. 

Democracy, arguments in favour of, 164. 

Demonax divides the Cyreneans into tribes, 232. 

Desart, a vast sandy one in Africa, 237. 

Devotion, veiling the head a part of the ceremony of, 
among the Romans, 299. 

Dials of the ancients, 105, n. 

Diana, the Ephesians dedicate their city to, 8— her oracle 
in Egypt, 97 — by the Egyptians called Bubastis, 125 — 
the daughter of Ceres, according to iEschylus, ib. — 
300 Corcyrean children protected in her temple at 
Samos, 152 — called Dictynna and Britomartis, 155, n. 
— worshipped in Thrace, 246 — her feast near Brauron, 
319. 

Diana, Orthosian, young men of Lacedaemon permitted 
themselves to be flagellated at her altar, 214, n. 

Diana, Regal, barley-straw used in sacrifice to, 198. 

Dicceus, from a prodigy, infers the defeat of Xerxes' 
army, 395. 



I N D E X. 



463 



Dice, game at, invented by the Lydians, 31— Rhampsini- 
tus plays at, with Ceres, 110. 

Dictyes, animals in Africa, 241. 

Dictynna, a name of Diana, 155, n. 

Didymus, temple at, 285. 

Dieneces, the Spartan, distinguishes himself in an en- 
gagement with the Persians at Thermopylae, 377— his 
speech before it, ib. 

Dionysius, the Phocaean leader, his speech to the Ionians 
at Lade, 283— after the defeat of the Ionians by the 
Phenicians, retreats to Phenicia, thence sails to Sicily, 
and there exercises a piratical life, 285. 

Dioscuri not among the Egyptian gods, 83. 

Dioscurus, pun on, 342, n. 

Diphtera;, books so called by the Ionians, 261. 

Dipodes, a species of African mice, 241. 

Disease, the female, the Scythians afflicted with, for 
plundering the temple of Venus, 34. 

Disease, sacred, Cambyses laboured under from his 
birth, 147. 

Dithyrambic measure, 8, n. 

Divers, remarkable, 382, n. 

Divination, in Egypt, confined to certain deities, 97 — 
how practised by the Scythians, 207 — various mod us 
of it, 208, n. — three diviners sent for, on the indisposi- 
tion of the Scythian monarch, ib. — Scythian mode of 
punishing false diviners, ib. — mode of, practised by the 
Nasamones, 235— inventors of various kinds, 303, n. — 
diviners sold their knowledge at a very high price, 
428, n. — mode of, by inspecting the entrails, 435, n. — 
its antiquity, 207, n. 

Dodona, oracle of, 14, n. — the most ancient of Greece, 
8G — its origin according to the assertion of its priestes- 
ses, 87. 

Dogs, Indian, an immense number supported by four 
towns in Babylonia, 59 — Indian, celebrated among the 
ancients, 58, n. — their death lamented by the Egyp- 
tians, 90 — why not suffered to enter the precincts of 
the temple of Jerusalem, ib. n. — now considered in the 
east as defiling, 91, n. — the females buried by the Egyp- 
tians, ib.— men with the heads of, 240, n. 

Dolonci, Thracian, elect Miltiades the son of Cypselus 
their prince, 291 — restore their prince Miltiades, the 
son of Cimon, 292. 

Door of a house, sitting before it usual in the East, 
290, n. 

Dorians, those situate in Asia subdued by Croesus, 3 — 
origin of, 17 — descent of their princes, 294. 

Dorieus, son of Cleomenes, his birth, 255 — leaves Sparta, 
and founds a colony, ib. — is expelled from thence, 256 
— is advised by Anticharesto found Heracleain Sicily, 
ib. — consults the oracle of Delphi, and on a favourable 
reply sails to Italy, ib.— lost his life in acting contrary 
to the express commands of the oracle, ib. 

Doriscus, the Persian army marshalled there, and num- 
bered by Xerxes, 338. 

Dragon, in the Old Testament, generally signifies a 
crocodile, 91, n. 

Dreams, the Atlantes said never to have, 239 — notion of 
the ancients concerning a distinct one, 260, n. — to 
dream of lying with one's mother considered as fortu- 
nate, 311, n. — Mr Locke's words on, 327, n. 

Dress, variety of fashions in, 170, n. 

Drinking, to make parties for, esteemed highly merito- 
rious among the Caunians, 52— alternately from each 
other's hands, the ceremony used by the Nasamones 
in pledging their word, 235— the only ceremony in the 
marriages of the Algerines, ib. n. — intemperate, cha- 
racteristic of the Scythians and Thracians, 301, n.— 
intemperate, its effects well described by Prior, ib. n. 



—the Greeks never drank till they had done eating, 

317 n. 
Dupin, his ridiculous translation of a passage in Pliny, 

174, ii. 
Dutch, their offer to make the Tagus navigable as far as 

Lisbon, why rejected by the Spaniards, 53, n. 
Dyras, the river, said to have risen spontaneously in aid 

of Hercules when burning, 371. 



Earth, the, adored by the Persians, 41 — divided by the 
Greeks into three parts, 73— the notion of its circum- 
ference ridiculed by Herodotus, 199— worshipped by 
the Scythians, 205. 

Earth and water, bringing to an enemy, in the East, an 
acknowledgment of his superiority, 233— required by 
Megabyzus of Amyntas, 249— demanded by Darius 
from different parts of Greece, 293— demanded in 
Greece by the heralds of Xerxes, 331. 

Earthquake, at Delos, 308. 

Earthquakes, ascribed to Neptune, 351. 

Ecbatana, in Media, built, 33. 

Ecbatana, in Syria, Cambyses mortally wounded at, 
157. 

Echidna, Spenser's description of, 191, n. 

Eclipse at an engagement between the Lydians and the 
Medes, foretold by Thales, 24— during an engagement 
between Cyaxares and the Lydians, 34— during the 
march of Xerxes' army against Greece, 333 — effect 
of one on Cleombrotus, 421 — in early ages deemed an 
inauspicious omen, ib. n. 

Edifice built by Rhampsinitus to contain his riches, 109 
— of one entire stone, brought by 2000 men in three 
years from Elephantine to Sais, 236— a subterranean 
one, built by Zamolxis, 215. 

Eel venerated by the Egyptians, 93— and why, ib. n. 

Effeminacy the product of luxurious countries, 449. 

Egypt described, 68— has large additions of land from the 
mud of the Nile, ib.— this denied, 69, n.— its extent, 69 
— its soil, ib. n. — its pyramids. See Pyramids — an acrid 
matter exudes from its soil, which injures the pyra- 
mids, 71 — blindness caused by the nitrous quality of its 
atmosphere, ib. n. — never fertilized by rain,72 — fertility 
of the country below Memphis, ib. — formerly called 
Thebes,73 — constitutes the natural and proper limits of 
Asia and Africa, ib. — claims admiration beyond all 
other countries, 79 — visited by several eminent Greeks, 
85, n. — its modern annual fairs, 88, n. — great number 
of its domestic animals, 90 — increase of cats, how frus- 
trated there, ib. — the crocodile, 91 — hippopotamus, 92 
— phoenix, 93 — serpents, ib. — ibis, 94 — healthiness of its 
climate, 95 — has no vines, ib. — this contradicted, ib. n. 
— the lotos, 100— byblus, ib. — fish, their mode of propa- 
gation, ib. — kings of Egypt, 101, 102 — its canals, 104 — 
its kings had many names and titles, 110, n. — no ruins 
of bricks burned in the fire, such as the Israelites 
made, 117, n. — its cities, by what means elevated in 
the reign of Sabacus, ib. — temple of Bubastis, ib. — its 
kings must not be ignorant of sacred affairs, 118, n. — 
in former times governed by immortal beings, 120 — its 
twelve kings, 121 — labyrinth near Moeris, ib. — lake 
Moeris, 122 — canal leading to the Red Sea, 126 — is di- 
vided into provinces, 127 — in the reign of Annals, 
contained 20,000 cities well inhabited, 131 — three mil- 
lions of inhabitants, according to Diodorus Siculus, ib. 
n.— number of its inhabitants at present, ib. n.— Nau- 
cratis formerly its sole emporium, ib. — its utter de- 
struction threatened by Cambyses, when only ten 
years of age, 136 — rain at the Egyptian Thebes a pro- 



46* 



INDEX. 



. digy, 138— its tribute to Darius, 168— infested by flying 
serpents, 173— more effectually reduced by Xerxes 
than it had been by Darius ; and the government of 
it intrusted to Achsemenes, 323. 

Egyptians, ancient, had no statues in their temples, 41, 
n. — esteemed the Phrygians more ancient than them- 
selves, and themselves than the rest of mankind, 67— 
first defined the measure of the year, 68— invented the 
names of the twelve gods, ib. — first erected altars, 
shrines, and temples, and engraved the figures of ani- 
mals on stone, ib. — most ancient of the human race, 73 
—their singular institutions and manners, 79— occupa- 
tions of the men and women, ib. — their men have the 
management of the loom, 79 — manner of wearing 
their hair, 79 — animals live promiscuously with them, 
80 — their corn, ib. — circumcise their males, ib. — the 
men have two vests, the women only one, ib. — write 
from left to right, 81 — have two sorts of letters, ib. — 
their superstitions, ib. — their linen, ib. — their priests, 
ib. — will not eat beans, ib. — esteem bulls sacred to Epa- 
phus, ib. — their mode of sacrifice, 82 — imprecate the 
heads of beasts, ib. — will not eat of the head of any 
beast, ib. — worship Isis, ib. — venerate cows beyond all 
other cattle, ib. — their aversion to the Greeks, ib. — 
would not eat with strangers, ib. n. — put no cattle to 
death, 83 — their god Osiris the Grecian Bacchus, ib. — 
why their statues of Jupiter represent him with a 
ram's head, ib. — worship Hercules, ib. — animals sacri- 
ficed by them, 84 — the Mendesians refuse to sacrifice 
goats out of reverence to Pan, ib. — regard the hog as 
unclean, 84 — sacrifice swine to Bacchus and Luna, 85 
— communicated to Greece the names of almost all the 
gods, 86 — names of gods not familiar in Egypt, ib. — 
their public festivals, 88 — have no festivals without 
illuminations, ib. n. — do not connect themselves with 
women in their temples, 89 — regard all beasts as sacred, 
ib. — are compelled by their laws to cherish them, ib. — 
great number of their domestic animals, 90 — venerate 
cats, ib. n. — lament the deaths of cats and dogs, ib. — 
bury their animals, 91 — some esteem the crocodile sa- 
cred, others treat it as an enemy, 92 — the Egyptians of 
Papremis esteem the hippopotamus sacred, ib. — vener- 
ate otters, the fish lepitodus, and the eel, and the birds 
chenalopex, and the phoenix, 93 — worship serpents, ib. 
— often represented the gods with the body and tail of a 
serpent, ib. n. — hold the ibis in great reverence, 94 — 
pay great attention to the improvement of their mem- 
ory and to their health, ib. — their bread, 95 — drink a 
liquor fermented from barley, ib. — live principally upon 
fish, ib. — a custom at their entertainments, ib. — averse 
to foreign manners, ib. — an ancient song among them, 
ib. — their reverence to age, 96 — their dress, ib. — first 
imagined what month or day was to be consecrated to 
each deity, ib. — cast nativities, ib. — their oracles, 97 — 
medicine, ib. — funerals, ib. — modes of embalming, ib. — 
their great knowledge of chymistry, ib. n. — their rules 
concerning embalming, 98 — worship the Nile, ib. n. — 
manners of those who inhabit the marshy grounds not 
materially different from those in the higher parts, 99 
— confine themselves to one wife, ib. — their use of the 
lotos, 100— their use of the byblus, ib. — those in the 
lower parts make use of the oil kiki, ib. — their remedy 
against gnats, 101 — their vessels of burden, ib. — the 
ancient Egyptians, real negroes, 103, n. — from time 
immemorial used circumcision, ib. — not possible to say 
whether they or the Ethiopians first introduced cir- 
cumcision, ib. — their linen like that of the Colchians, 
ib. — detested human sacrifices, 108, n. — their chronolo- 
gy, by what means greatly embarrassed, 110, n. — their 
festival on the return of Rhampsinitus from the infer- 
nal regions, ib. — the first who defended the immortality 



of the soul, 111— many marks of resemblance between 
them and the Indians, ib. n. — believe the metempsy- 
chosis, ib. — are forbidden to offer sacrifices, and op- 
pressed by Cheops, ib.— the pyramids a proof of their 
slavery, ib. n. — their oppression under Cheops, and his 
brother Chephren, continued for 106 years, 114 — are 
again permitted to offer sacrifice by Mycerinus, the 
successor of Chephren, ib. — their kings must not be 
ignorant of sacred affairs, 118, n. — were divided into 
three classes, 119, n. — from their first king to their last, 
a period of 341 generations, ib. — every high priest pla- 
ces a wooden figure of himself in a temple, 120 — held 
two principles, one good, the other evil, ib. n. — esteem 
Pan the most ancient of the gods, ib. — profess always 
to have computed the years, and kept written accounts 
of them, 121 — on the death of Sethos, choose twelve 
kings, ib.— who banished Psammitichus, one of their 
number, 124 — but are at length expelled by him, ib. — 
term all barbarians who speak a language different 
from their own, 126 — are divided iuto seven classes, 
127 — the sons of certain artists obliged to follow the 
profession of their father, 128, n. — their soldiers and 
priests, the only ranks honourably distinguished, ib. — 
in the reign of Amasis, had 20,000 cities well inhabited, 
131— three millions of inhabitants in the time of Dio- 
dorus Siculus, ib. n. — their number at present, ib. n. — 
every one obliged, once in the year, to explain to the 
chief magistrate the means of his subsistence, ib. — con- 
tributed largely to the rebuilding the temple of Delphi, 
132 — defeated by the Persians under Cambyses, 138 — 
shave their heads from a very early age, ib. — after their 
defeat by Cambyses, fly to Memphis, ib. — destroy the 
crew of a Mitylenian ship at Memphis, ib. — are be- 
sieged by Cambyses at Memphis, and surrender, 139 — 
why they never burn their dead, 140 — reduced by Cam- 
byses, revolt from the Persians, 321 — with the Pheni- 
cians, have the care of transporting provisions for the 
army of Xerxes, in his expedition to Greece, 330 — 
supply Xerxes with 200 vessels, 343 — expert and grace- 
ful in swimming, 402, n. 

Eleans send ambassadors to Egypt, to consult on the 
Olympic games, 226 — possess no mules, which they 
think the effect of some curse, 197— the Agonothetse 
removed from Elis by Leocedos, 317 — banish their 
commanders after the battle of Platea, 439. 

Electricity, the term derived from the Greek word for 
amber, 175, n. 

Elephants, 20 of their teeth a tribute from the Ethiopi- 
ans and Calantian Indians to the king of Persia every 
three years, 169. 

Eleusis taken by Cleomenes, 267— temple of Ceres and 
Proserpine at, 302, n.— the mysteries an inexhaustible 
source of riches to, 401, n. — the bodies of the Argives, 
who under Polynices fought against Thebes, buried 
there, 426. 

Elis never produce mules, 197 — mares of the Eleans cov- 
ered by asses out of its limits, ib. 

Embalming, remarks on, from different writers, 97, n.— 
Egyptian modes of, ib. — rules concerning, 98 — why 
practised, 140. 

Emmelia, a Greek tune, 317. 

Enareae, Scythians so called, are punished with the fe- 
male disease, 34 — practise divination, 207. 

Eneti, or Veneti, famous for horses, 247, n.— famous for 
mules, 59, n. 

Engraving of the figures of animals on stone first prac- 
tised by the Egyptians, 68. 

Envied, better to be, than pitied, 153. 

Epaphus, bulls esteemed sacred to, by the Egyptian.*, 81. 

Ephesians dedicate their city to Diana, 8 — excluded from 
the Apaturian festival for murder, 46 — put certain 



INDEX. 



465 



Chians to death for entering the city during the cele- 
bration of the mysteries of Ceres, 285. 

Ephesus, temple of, 122 — its distance from Sardis, 260. 

Ephialtes discovers to the Persians a path over the 
mountain to Thermopylae, 373 — put to death by Athen- 
ades, 374. 

Ephori instituted by Lycurgus, 20 — in some respects su- 
perior in dignity to kings, 296, n. — their particular of- 
fice to watch the Spartan kings, 304, n. — the principal 
one called Eponymus, 420, n. 

Epidaurians afflicted by a famine, consult the Delphic 
oracle, and procure fertility to their lands, 269— their 
dances, ib. 

Epidaurus taken by Periander, 153. 

Epigenes, of Sicyon, invented tragedy, 265, n. 

Epigonoi, verses supposed to be written by Homer, 197. 

Epistles, distinction at present observed in the East in 
rolling and sealing them, 179, n. — methods of convey- 
ing, 354, 380, 412 — one engraved on rocks by Themis- 
tocles, 385. 

Epizelus struck with blindness at the battle of Marathon, 
314. 

Erectheus, king of Athens, deified, 269— his temple, 392 
. — why deified, ib. n. 

Eretrians, Darius commands Datis and Artaphernes to 
subdue Eretria and Athens, 307 — leads his army against 
Eretria, 308 — are assisted by the Athenians, but not 
acting with firmness are deserted by them, ib. — their 
city betrayed to the Persians by two of the more emin- 
ent citizens; their temples pillaged and burnt, and 
themselves made slaves, 309 — the captives carried by 
Datis and Artaphernes to Susa, are placed by Darius 
at Ardericca, 315. 

Eridanus, the river, amber said to come from, 175. 

Erythrceans, at war with the Chians, 7 — speak the same 
language as the Chians, 45. 

Eryx, his contest with Hercules, 256, n. 

Eryxo, the wife of Arcesilaus, revenges his death, 231. 

Etearchus, king, his cruelty to his daughter Phronima, 
230. 

Ethelwold, servility of his son, 38, n. 

Etruscans, taught the Romans their games and combats, 
32, n. 

Emgoras, of Sparta, his mares, 310. 

Eubcea, an island large and fertile, 253— its rocks, 308. 

Euboeans, their treatment by Gelon, 359. 

Euelthon, governor of Salamis, his present to Pheretime, 
on her request of an army, 232. 

Evenius loses his eyes for sleeping on his duty, but is re- 
compensed, 442. 

Euesperitcp, their country remarkably fertile, 243. 

Eunuchs employed as the royal messengers, 162 — es- 
teemed by the Persians of greater value than other 
slaves, 406 — black eunuchs preferred in the East, ib. n. 

Euphorion entertained at his house Castor and Pollux, 
317. 

Euphrates divides Babylon into two parts, 55— its waters 
drained by Cyrus, 58 — fertilizes the lands of the Assy- 
rians, 59 — is only passable in vessels, 259. 

Euripus, Aristotle reported to have destroyed himself 
there, 267, n. 

Europa carried away by the Cretans, 2 — her sons, 52. 

Europa an Asiatic, and never saw Europe, 202. 

Europe, tin and amber brought from, to Greece, 175— a 
prodigious quantity of gold in the north of, ib. — some 
account of, 199, 201— its most remote inhabitants, 203. 

Eurybates, of Argos, killed in a single combat, 307, 438. 

Eurybiades, son of Euryclidas, command! the Grecian 
fleet at Salamis, 390— is prevailed on by Themistocles 
to stay and fight at Salamis, 394— honoured by the 
Lacedaemonians, ib. 



Euryleon, takes possession of Minoas, and delivers it 
from the oppression of Pythagoras, 257— is slain by the 
Selinusians before the altar of Jupiter Forensis, ib. 

Eurymachus, son of Leontiades, slain at Platea, 378. 

Eurysthenes, son of Aristodemus, 228 — how discovered 
by the Lacedaemonians to be the eldest son of Aristo- 
demus, 294— at variance with his brother through life, 
ib. 

Eurytus dies fighting valiantly, 377. 

Euxine sea, of all seas most deserves admiration, 213 — 
its length and breadth, ib. 

Expiation, ceremonies of, nearly the same among the 
Lydians and Greeks, 12 — a full account of its ceremon- 
ies given by Apollonius Rhodius, ib. n. 



Family, reply of Iphicrates on being reproached with 
the meanness of his, 260, n. 

Famine, resource against, practised by the Lydians, 31 
—the army of Cambyses suffer by, 144— dreadful ef- 
fects of, at the siege of Jerusalem, ib. n. — among the 
troops of Xerxes, 409— among Artayctes and his peo- 
ple during the siege of Sestos, 448. 

Fa7i, mystical, why carried before the image of Bacchus, 
395, n. 

Fates, the greater and the less, 29, n. 

Father, in certain arts in Egypt and Indostan, the 
son obliged to follow his profession, 128, n. — his 
profession followed by the son, among the Lacedae- 
monians, 297. 

Faults, on due examination, no man would exchange his 
own for those of another, 357. 

Feathers are continually falling in the northern parts of 
Scythia, 191, 197. 

Feet of vanquished enemies, cut off, 207, n. 

Festival, Apaturian, 46 — of Apis, suppressed by Camby- 
ses, 146 — of Bacchus in Egypt, 103— of Bacchus among 
the Budini, 219 — of Bacchus at Nyssa, 169 — of Busiris, 
88 — Carnian, in honour of Apollo, 372— of Cybele at 
Cyzicus, 213 — of Diana at Bubastos, 88 — Hyacinthia, 
420— Hybristica, 302, n.— of Isis in Egypt, 82— of Juno, 
10 — of Lamps in Egypt, 88 — of Latona at Butos, ib. — 
Magophonia, 163 — of Mars at Papremis, 88— of Min- 
erva at Sais, ib. — of Minerva, among the Machlyes and 
Ausenses, in Africa, 237 — of the Sun at Heliopolis, 88 
— Theophanian at Delphi, 16 — of Vulcan, among the 
Greeks, 405 — first introduced by the Egyptiaus, 88 — 
none in Egypt without illuminations, ib. n. — an an- 
cient distinction at, 296, n. 

Figs, unknown to the Persians, 22. 

Fire venerated by the Persians, 140 — extinguished 
throughout Persia on the death of the sovereign, ib. n. 
-the magi worshipped God only by it, 163, n. — applied 
by the Africans to the veins of the top of the scull or 
of the temples of their children, at the age of four 
years, and why, 239 — applied by the Scythians to their 
shoulders, arms, and stomachs, ib. n. — the appearance 
of fire self-kindled was generally deemed by the an- 
cients an auspicious omen, 303, n. — intelligence con- 
veyed by fires, 419, n. 

Firmament, adored by the Persians under the appella- 
tion of Jove, 41. 

Fish, the only food of three tribes of the Babylonians, 62 
— the Egyptian priests not permitted to feed on, 81 — 
the lepitodus and the eel venerated by the Egyptians, 
93 — principal food of the Egyptians, 95, 100 — their 
mode of propagation in Egypt, 100 — the principal food 
of horses and cattle at the Prasian lake, 249 — prodigy 
of the quick motion of salt fish while broiling, 448. 

Fishery in the lake Mceris, 123. 
3 N 



466 



INDEX. 



Flagellation, a custom of the Egyptians, 82, 88— at the 
altar of the Orthosian Diana, 214. 

Flesh, eaten raw by the Indians called Padsei, 170— and 
by the Abyssinians, ib. n. 

Flutes, masculine and feminine, 7- 

Fortune, her inconstancy admirably described byHorace, 
149, n. 

Forum, times of the, 172, n. 

Fountain, remarkable one in Ethiopia, 143 — bitter in 
Scythia, 203, 212— of Apollo in Africa, 231— of Thestis 
at Irasa, ib. — of the sun, 237 — nine fountains near 
Athens, 319— of the Maeander and Catarracte, 330— 
Castalia, 387, n.— of Gargaphie, 425. 

Frankincense, 173, n. — how collected by the Arabians,ib. 

Friend, the life of one preferred to those of a wife and 
children, 177, n. 

Frog, the symbol of the people of Argos, 39S, n. 

Fuel, resources in the eastern countries, where there is 
a scarcity of it, 205, n. 

Funerals, Persian, 44, 140— Egyptian, 97, 140— inter- 
ment common in Greece, 140, n. — the custom of inter- 
ment preceded that of burning, ib. — when burning 
ceased at Rome, ib. n.— Ethiopian, 143— public one at 
Athens, 154, n.— of Alexander the Great, ib. n. — of the 
Scythian kings, 208— of the Scythians in general, 209 
— of the Greek and African Nomades, 240 — the Nasa- 
mones bury in a sitting posture, ib — of the Trausi, 
245 — and of other Thracians, 246 — in the East similar 
to those of the Jews, 247, n— origin of funeral games 
unknown, ib. u. — of the Lacedaemonian kings, 297 — 
lamentations at, still prevail in Egypt and various 
parts of the East, 296, n. — dancing, a part of the cere- 
mony among the ancients, 318, n. — of the Greeks 
slain at Platea, 441 — shrill pipe used at, 9, n. — ancient 
custom of hiring people to lament at, 61, n. 

Furies, particulars concerning them, 227. 
Furs, no where mentioned in scripture, 219, n. 



Galles, a wandering nation of Africans, their custom 
with respect to their wives and children, in case of 
war, 237, n. 

Games, public, in honour of Perseus, 99 — funeral, 247, 
n. — Olympic. See Olympic games — Pythian, 391. 

Garamantes, a people who avoid communication with 
men, 236. 

Gargaphie, the fountain of, 425 — its water stopped up 
by the Persians, 432. 

Garlands, worn at feasts, and given by one friend to 
another, 299, n. 

Gate, the king's, an honourable situation in Persia, 177,n. 

Geese, sacrificed by the Egyptians, 84. 

Gela, the city, some account of, 287, n. 358, n. 

Gelimer, king of the Vandals, strange effect of grief in, 
139, n. 

Gelon, son of Dinomenis, 355 — his power considerable, 
ib.— distinguishes himself in several wars, 358 — ob- 
tains the supreme authority of Gela, and possession 
of Syracuse, 359— his treatment of the people of Me- 
gara and Eubcea, ib. — address to him from the Grecian 
ambassadors, ib. — offers the Greeks assistance on 
certain terms, which they reject, ib. — sends Cadmus 
to Delphi with three vessels and a large sum of 
money, 361 — conquers Amilcar, 362 — said to have 
destroyed Amilcar by a stratagem, ib. n. 

Geometry, origin of, 104. 

Gephyreans, their origin, 261 — compelled by the Boeo- 
tians to retire to Athens, 262— bridges took their 
Greek name from, ib. n. 

Germans, erroneously supposed to have descended 
from the Germanians, in Persia, 40, n. 



Gerrhus, the river, its course, 204. 

Geryon, said to have three heads and three bodies, 191, n. 

Geta, reduced by Darius, 215 — believe themselves im- 
mortal, ib.— believe in no other god than Zamolxi3,ib. 
— follow the army of Darius, 2)6 — said to be the same 
with the Scythians and Goths, 215, n. 

Gestation, human, ten months the period of it, generally 
spoken of by the ancients, 297, n. 

Giants, traditions of in every country, 21, n. 

Gibbon, Mr, his sensible reflection on the subject of 
prodigies, 288, n. 

Gibraltar, the straits of, sailed through by Phenicians, 
in the service of Necho, king of Egypt, 200, n. 

Gillus, Darius endeavours, but without effect, to restore 
him to Tarentum, 182. 

Gindanes, peculiar custom of their wives, 236 — lived on 
the lotus, ib- n. 

Glaris, extraordinary victory obtained by its people 
over the Austrians, 440, n. 

Glass, in Ethiopia supplied by crystal, 143, n. 

Glaucus, of Chios, the inventor of inlaying iron, 8. 

Glaucus, son of Epicydes, story of him and a Milesian, 
304— his story as related by Juvenal, 305, n. 

Glaucus, son of Hippolochus, 46. 

Glisas, anciently famous for its wine, 430, n- 

Gnats, remedy in Egypt against, 101— great numbers 
infest Myus, 254, n. 

Gnomon, received by the Greeks from the Babylonians, 
104. 

Goats, never sacrificed by the Mendesians, out of rever- 
ence to Pan, 84 — in Egypt a goat had public commu- 
nication with a woman, ib. — goat and Pan synony- 
mous words, 85 — their urine used by the Africans 
against convulsions, 239 — recommended in an asthma- 
tic complaint, ib. n. — their blood formerly esteemed 
of benefit in pleurisies, ib. n. — the Athenians deter- 
mined to sacrifice 500 annually to Diana, 313. 

Gobryas, one of the seven conspirators against the magi, 
160 — seizes one of the magi, 162 — interprets to Darius 
the meaning of a present sent to him by the Scythians, 
224 — recommends to Darius a stratagem to deceive 
the Scythians, ib. 

God, memorable saying of Simonides concerning, 277, n. 

Gods, .supposed by the ancients to abandon a city on the 
point of being taken, 9, n. — inconsistent behaviour of 
their worshippers to them, 30, n. — of the Persians, 
41 — names of the twelve, invented by the Egyptians, 
and borrowed from them by the Greeks, 68 — altar of 
the twelve at Athens, 69— almost all their names bor- 
rowed by Greece from Egypt, 86 — names of those not 
familiar in Egypt, ib — worshipped by the Pelasgians 
without any name, ib. — the Egyptians first imagined 
what month or day was to be consecrated to each 
deity, 96— asserted by the Egyptians not to have ap- 
peared in a human form for 11,340 years, 119 — for- 
merly reigned in Egypt, 120 — what meant by their 
nativity, marriage, and tombs, 121, n — of the Arabi- 
ans, 137— of the Scythians, 205— of the Africans, 239— 
of the Thracians, 276. 

Gold, its proportion to silver in the time of Herodotus, 
6, n. — much used by the Massageta?, 65 — its propor- 
tion to silver varied at different times, 169, n — in the 
gold coin of the ancients one fiftieth part is supposed to 
have been alloy, ib. n — in India cast up by ants, 170 — 
in the north of Europe, 175 — the Spartans not allowed 
to have any, 185, n. — the sacred gold of the Scythians, 
190— traffic for, between the Carthaginians and a peo- 
ple beyond the columns of Hercules, 242 — said by Lu- 
cretius to have been held in no estimation, 258, n — 
Croesus gives Alcmseon as much as he can carry, 316 
—great quantities found in the tents of the Persians 
after the battle of Platea, 440. 



INDEX. 



467 



Gold dust descends from mount Tmolus, 31, 276— how 
procured in Cyranis in Africa, 211. 

Golden, a water in Persia so called, drank by none ex- 
cept the king and his eldest son, 57, n. 

Gorgo, daughter of Cleomenes, king of Sparta, remark- 
able for her virtue, 257, n. — her wise saying to her fa- 
ther, 259— explains the secret message of Demaratus 
to the Lacedaemonians, 380. 

Gorgon's head, Perseus visits Egypt for the purpose of 
carrying it from Africa, 99. 

Gorgus, son of Chersis, deprived of his city by his bro- 
ther, takes refuge among the Medes, 277 — Salamis re- 
stored to him, 279 — an officer in Xerxes' fleet, 344. 

Goths, their mythology, 207, n. — supposed the same with 
the Scythians and Getae, 215, n. 

Government, at first theocratic, then monarchic and de- 
mocratic, 120, n. — arguments in favour of a republi- 
can, 163 — of an oligarchy, 164— of a monarchy, 165 — 
the Lacedaemonian, ib. n. — of Great Britain, ib. n. — 
the sixth book of Polybius opens with a dissertation 
on the different forms of, ib. n. — an equal form of, the 
best, 263. 

Grass, presented to a conqueror by the ancient nations 
of the West, to show that they confessed themselves 
overcome, 223, n. 

Grasshoppers, why worn by the Athenians in their hair, 
360, n. 

Greece, formerly discriminated only by the names of its 
different inhabitants, 1, n. — distinguished for its tem- 
perate seasons, 172. 

Greeks, more tenacious of their national dignity than the 
Romans, 1, n. — universally free before Croesus, 3 — 
their profuse sacrifices, 15, n. — Croesus endeavours to 
obtain the alliance of their most powerful states, 17 — 
distinguished by their acuteness ; and the Athenians 
most sagacious, 18 — their manners and customs not 
essentially different from those of the Lydians, 31 — did 
not worship images before the time of Cecrops, 41, n. 
— believe that the gods partake of human nature, 41 — 
said by the Persians not to leave their tables satisfied, 
42 — a passion for boys learned from them, ib. — write 
and reckon with counters from the left to the right, 81 
— the name of Hercules communicated to them by the 
Egyptians, 83— visit Egypt to obtain knowledge, 85, 
n.— received the names of almost all the gods from 
Egypt, 86— their theogony ascribed to Hesiod and 
Homer, 87 — their religious ceremonies derived from 
the Egyptians, 88— do not connect themselves with 
women in their temples, 89 — surpassed by the Egyp- 
tians in the reverence they pay to age, 96 — call Orus, 
Apollo, 120 — considered Osiris the same person as 
Bacchus, ib. and n. — consider Hercules, Bacchus, and 
Pan, as the youngest of their deities, 120— their tradi- 
tion of Bacchus, 121— Egyptian children intrusted 
with the Ionians and Carians to be instructed in the 
Greek language, 124— certain of the Greeks settle at 
Naucratis in Egypt, 131— their anniversary rites in 
memory of the dead, 195— Olen, their first poet, 199, n. 
—not suffered by the Africans to see Irasa, 231— bor- 
rowed from the Africans the vest and aegis, with which 
they decorate the shrine of Minerva, 239— observe the 
same ceremonies with the African Nomades in the in- 
terment of the dead, 240— various articles of science 
introduced among, by the Phenicians, 261— the fleet 
sent by the Athenians to assist the Ionians, the source 

of calamities to the Greeks and Barbarians, 275 

Darius sends emissaries to different parts of Greece, 
to demand earth and water, 293— suffered greater evils 
during the reigns of Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes, 
than in all the preceding generations, 308— weights 
and measures first introduced among, by Pythagoras, 



317, n. — why they called every atrocious crime Lem- 
nian, 320 — Xerxes determines on an expedition against 
them, 323 — their mode of disposing their army, 324, n. 
— Xerxes demands earth and water of them, 331 — 
poor but virtuous, 345— resolution of those who deter- 
mined to resist Xerxes against those who submitted 
to him without necessity, 351— refused, with a few 
exceptions, to adore the Persian kings, 352, n.— pre- 
vious to an engagement with Xerxes, determine to 
suppress all private resentments, 355— send three spies 
to Sardis, ib.— the associates against Xerxes apply a 
second time to the Argives for assistance, who evade 
giving them any, 356 — send ambassadors to form a 
treaty with Gelon, 358 — address of their ambassadors 
to Gelon, 359 — are promised assistance by the Corcy- 
reans, who never fulfil their engagements, 362 — are 
refused assistance by the Cretans, 363 — send forces to 
defend the Olympic straits, but are persuaded by Alex- 
ander to withdraw them, in consequence of which 
they are forsaken by the Thessalians, 364 — resolve to 
defend the straits of Thermopylae,365— and there receive 
Xerxes, their fleet being stationed at Artemisium, ib. 
— three of their vessels taken by Xerxes at Sciathus, 
366 — a second time fix their station at Artemisium, 
369 — take fifteen of the Persian vessels, ib. — encamp in 
the straits of Thermopylae, 371 — numbers of their army 
at Thermopylae, ib. — on the approach of Xerxes con- 
sult on a retreat, but are dissuaded by Leonidas, 372 — 
are defeated by the Persians at Thermopylae, 376 — 
their naval armament at Artemisium, 381— engage in 
a sea-fight with the Persians at Euboea, 382 — take 
thirty of their vessels, and are separated by the night, 
383— defeat the Cilicians, 384— again engage the Per- 
sians by sea, when both fleets retire, ib. — deliberate 
about retiring to the remoter parts of Greece, ib. — 
their contentions at the Olympic games, represented 
by Tigranes to the Persians as a proof of their virtue, 
386— their fleet anchors at Salamis, 389— informed that 
Xerxes had burned the citadel of Athens, part prepare 
to fly, and the rest determine to risk an engagement 
at sea near the isthmus, 393— Themistocles prevails on 
Eurybiades, their commander, to stay and fight at 
Salamis, 394— on a convulsion of the earth, which was 
felt at sea, the Greek confederates supplicate the 
gods, and implore the interposition of the ^Eacidae, ib. 
— defend the Peloponnese against Xerxes, 397— dis- 
sensions among them at Salamis, 398— a catalogue of, 
remarkable for their merit and poverty, given by 
iElian, 400, n.— finding it impracticable to return to 
the isthmus, prepare for battle, ib. — destroy a great 
part of Xerxes' fleet at Salamis, 401— with but small 
loss on their own side, 402— several, whose ships are 
destroyed, escape by swimming to Salamis, ib.— art of 
swimming taught by, ib. n.— pursue Xerxes to An- 
dros, and then resolve to suffer him to escape, 407— 
their account of Xerxes and his invasion of Greece, 
rejected by Mr Richardson, 410, n.— attack Carystus, 

and after wasting its lands return to Salamis, ib. at 

Salamis, set apart, as sacred to the gods, the first fruits 
of their success ; divide the plunder, aud send the 

choicest to Delphi, ib.— erect a statue at Delphi, 411 

sail to the isthmus, ib. — declare that Themistocles de- 
served the second reward, but avoid from envy to de- 
cide who deserved the first, and severally return to 
their own homes, ib.— their fleet at JEgina, against 
Mardonius, 412— arrive at Platea, 425— amount of their 
army at Platea, 427— offer sacrifices previous to battle, 
428— which promise them victory if they act on the 
defensive, 429 — in want of water and provision, change 
their situation, 433 — are pursued by the Barbarians, 
434 — come to an engagement at Platea, and are vie- 



468 



INDEX. 



torious, 435— plunder the Persian camp after the battle 
of Platea, 440— inter their dead after the battle of Pla- 
tea, 441 — besiege Thebes, and put to death the Thebans 
who had taken part with the Medes, ib.— their fleet 
sails from Delos, 443 ; and arrives at Mycale, ib.— de- 
feat the Persians at Mycale, 445— sail from Mycale to 
Abydos, 447— the Peloponnesians return to Greece, 
and the Athenians besiege and take Sestos, ib. — the 
Athenians return from the battles of Platea and My- 
cale to Greece, 448. 

Griffins, 229, n. 

Grinus, son of iEsanius, commanded by the Pythian to 
build a city in Africa, 229. 

Groves at Mona, excellent use made of their supposed 
sanctity by Mr Mason, 303, n. 

Gryphins, 193. 

Gum-arabic used by the Egyptians in embalming, 98, n. 

Gyges, son of Dascylus, various accounts of, 5, n. — mur- 
ders Candaules, and obtains his empire, ib. — sends pre- 
sents to Delphi, 6 — his riches proverbial, ib. n.— takes 
the city Colophon, ib. 

Gymnastic exercises, 99, n. 

Gymnopccdia, some account of, 299, n. 

Gyndes, the river, reduced by Cyrus, through resent- 
ment, 57— divided by Cyrus into three hundred and 
sixty channels, 259. 



H 



Habit, distinction between it and custom, 148, n. 

Habits, military, of the Greeks and Romans, very much 
resembled each other, 258, n. 

Hair worn short by the Argives, and long by the Lace- 
daemonians, after the latter had obtained Thyrea, 26— 
formerly worn long by the Greeks, ib. n. — why cut off 
before, and suffered to grow behind, by the Abantes, 
46, n.— order of Alexander the Great, concerning that 
of his troops, ib. n.— worn long by the Babylonians, 60 
— of the priests in Egypt worn short, in other places 
long, 80 — Egyptians, on the loss of their friends, suffer 
their hair to grow, other nations cut it off, ib.— of the 
eye-brows, cut off by the Egyptians on the death of a 
cat, 90 — of the head, and every part of the body, shaved 
by the Egyptians, on the death of a dog, 91— cut off' by 
the Delian youth, in honour of the Hyperborean vir- 
gins, 198 — offering it to the gods, of great antiquity, ib. 
n.— cut off in honour of the dead, in a circular form ; 
a custom forbidden the Jews, ib. n. — a tuft only worn 
in the centre of the head by the Macse, 236— by the 
Maxyes suffered to grow on the right 6ide of the head, 
but not on the left, 240 — worn long by the Persians, 
285 — shaved by the Milesians in testimony of sorrow, 
286 — Lacedaemonians adorn theirs, before any enter- 
prise of danger, 372 — the Persians cut off' the hair from 
themselves, their horses, and beasts of burden, on the 
death of Masistius, 425— plaited by the Lycians in a 
circular form, 208, n. 

Halys, the river, its course, 3— celebrated for its cold- 
ness, 23, n. 

Hands of vanquished enemies cut off, 207, n. 

Hannibal, an artifice practised by him, 154, n. 

Happiness, Solon's sentiments on, 10. 

Hare conceives when already pregnant, 173. 

Harmocydes animates the Phoceans against the Persian 
cavalry under Mardonius, 423. 

Harmodius with Aristogiton puts Hipparchus to death, 
260. 

Harpagus, Astyages places great confidence in, 35— is 
commanded by Astyages to take Cyrus, and put him 
to death, ib. — delivers Cyrus to Mitridates to be ex- 
posed, 36 ; who, contrary to his orders, preserves him, 



37 ; on the discovery of which Astyages causes Har- 
pagus to eat of his own dead son, 38 — his submissive 
reply to Astyages on that occasion, ib.— invites Cyrus 
to seize on the dominions of Astyages, 39 — insults As- 
tyages in captivity, 40— is appointed by Cyrus to the 
command of his army, 49 — arrives in Ionia, and block- 
ades the different towns, 50— takes Phocaea, ib.— takes 
the city of the Teians, and the other cities of Ionia, 
Miletus excepted, 51— proceeds against the Carians, 
Caunians, and Lycians, ib. ; and subdues them, 53— 
takes Histiaeus prisoner, 289 ; and he and Artaphernes 
crucify him, ib. 

Hawk, whoever kills one, put to death by the Egypti- 
ans, 90 — the ancient Egyptians, in this animal, wor- 
shipped the sun, ib. n. — Osiris worshipped under the 
figure of one, ib. n. — buried by the Egyptians, 91. 

Heads of vanquished enemies exposed as trophies, 206, 
n. — of sacrificed animals imprecated by the Egyptians, 
82— of beasts never eaten by the Egyptians, ib. See 
Skulls. 

Health, attention of the Egyptians to, 94. 

Hecatceas, the historian, 119, 280 — Herodotus did not 
borrow from him, 119, n. — some account of him, ib. n. 
— his account of Miltiades gaining possession of Lem- 
nos, 319 — his advice to Aristagoras, 254. 

Hecatombs, their origin, 317, n. 

Hector, son of Priam, superior to Paris in age and vir- 
tue, 108. 

Hegesistratus, son of Aristagoras, his name considered 
by Leutychides as an omen, 442. 

Hegesistratus, the Elean, escapes from prison by cutting 
off a part of his foot, 429. 

Heifer, Mycerinus inters his daughter in one of wood, 
114 — to touch one esteemed impious by the Cyrenean 
women, 239 — the women of Barce abstain from its 
flesh, ib. 

Helen demanded by the Greeks, 2 — styled Venus the 
stranger, 106— detained by Proteus, 107— the cause of 
the Trojan war, 108— restored by Proteus to Menelaus, 
ib — Attica invaded bytheTyndaridae on her account,437. 

Heliopolis, its inhabitants deemed the most ingenious of 
all the Egyptians, 68— the On of the scriptures, and 
celebrated for the worship of the sun, 69, n. 

Hell, descent into, a form of admission into the myster- 
ies, 391, n. 

HellanodiccE, the judges at the Olympic games, 250, n. 

Hellenians frequently migrated, 17 — called Dorians, ib. 

Hellenium, a temple of the Greeks, 131. 

Hellespont, its length and width, 213 — its original name, 
321, n.— -the Persians throw a bridge across it, 331 ; 
which being destroyed by a tempest, Xerxes orders 
three hundred lashes to be inflicted on the Hellespont, 
and a pair of fetters to be thrown into the sea, 332 — 
another bridge constructed over it by the order of 
Xerxes, ib. — Xerxes preparing to pass the bridge 
throws into the Hellespont a cup, a golden goblet, and 
a Persian simitar, 337. 

Hellopia, why so called, 385, n. 

Helmet, crest first added to by the Carians, 52 ; used by 
the ancients on various occasions, 129 j borrowed by 
the Greeks from Egypt, 237. 

Helots, Spartan slaves, 296, n. 386, n. 

Hemp used by the Thracians for making garments, 210 
— Scythian manner of extracting a perfumed vapour 
from, ib. 

Heraclea, Dorieus, son of Cleomenes, king of Sparta, 
being advised to found it, sails to Italy, 256. 

Heraclidce, their origin, 3— excluded from the kingdom 
of Lydia by the Mermnadae, 6 — of Sparta, demand a 
compensation from Xerxes for the death of Leomdas, 
409 — attempted to return to the Peloponnese, 426. 



INDEX. 



469 



Heralds, their persons always sacred, 156. 

Hercules, his reputed parents of Egyptian origin, 83— 
his temple at Tyre highly venerated, ib.— preposterous 
fable in Greece concerning him, 84— -arriving in Scy. 
thia, discovers a female of unnatural appearance, by 
whom he has three sons, 191— the father of Scytha, the 
founder of the Scythians, 192— worshipped by the Scy. 
thians, 205— an impression of his foot in Scythia, 213— 
said to have measured the stadium at Olynipia by the 
length of his own foot, ib. n. — his size, Avhence esti- 
mated by Pythagoras, ib. n. — whence the proverb, 
" Ex pede Herculem," ib. n. — his contest with Eryx, 
256, n. — his temples on the plains of Marathon and 
Cynosargis, 314 — his altar at Thermopylae, 365 — de- 
serted by Jason, 369 — when burning, aided by the 
spontaneous rise of the Dyras, 371— son of Amphitry- 
on and Alcmena, 121. 

Hercules, Egyptian, one of the most ancient deities of 
Egypt, 83— his oracle, 97— his temple, 106— in the se- 
cond rank of Egyptian gods, 121. 

Hercules, Grecian, not known in Egypt, 83. 

Hercules, Olympian, 84. 

Hercules, Thasian, ib. 

Hercules, Tyrian, supposed to be the Israelitish Samson, 
396, n. — many things in his worship seem borrowed 
from the Levitical law, or grounded on what the scrip- 
ture relates of Samson, ib. n. 

Hercules, columns of, 79, 237 — more anciently called the 
columns of Briareus, ib. n.— a people beyond them, 
237— names of, 242, n. 

Hermippus betrays Histiaeus, 282. 

Hermolycus, son of Euthynus, 445. 

Hermotimus, his unexampled revenge, 406. 

Herodotus, a sketch of his life, iii. — design of his history, 
1 — simplicity of his introduction, ib. n. — his name to be 
eo spelt, and not Erodotus, ib. n. — no author more 
warmly commended, or more vehemently censured, ib. 
n. — an English translation of his history printed in 
1584, 2, n — censured by Voltaire and Gibbon, 8, n. — 
his malignity, according to Plutarch, 11, n. — lived four 
hundred years after Hesiod and Homer, 87 — did not 
write the life of Homer, ib. n. — particularly wishes to 
avoid the discussion of sacred subjects, 89 — instance of 
his not being so credulous as generally imagined, 110 
— did not borrow from Hecataeus, 119, n. — never charg- 
ed with theft by Plutarch, ib. n. — whence the names of 
his books, 135, n. — his manner of reflecting on the facts 
he relates, 149, n. — perfectly uninformed in subjects 
relating to natural philosophy, 171, n. — instance of his 
geographical ignorance, 191, n. — Dean Swift's opinion 
of him, 291, n.— justified against Plutarch, respecting 
the battle of Marathon, 311, n. — declares it incumbent 
on him to record the different opinions of men, though 
he is not obliged indiscriminately to credit them, 357 — 
declares his faith in oracles, 399 — anciently a very com- 
mon name, 412, n. 

Hesiod, the Grecian theogony ascribed to him, 87 — lived 
four hundred years before Herodotus, ib. — a rhapso- 
dist, 261, 

Hieronymus, an Andrian, a famous wrestler, 428. 

Himera, famous for its baths, 288, n. 

Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus, put to death by Aristo- 
giton and Harmodius, 260 — his vision previous to his 
death, ib. 

Hippias, son of Pisistratus, succeeds Hipparchus in the 
government of Athens, and resents his death, 262 — ex- 
cites the Persians against the Athenians, 275— conducts 
the Persian army to Marathon, 309 — his vision, 311 — 
in the act of sneezing loses a tooth, which he considers 
as inauspicious, ib. 

Hippoclides, son of Tisander, his absurd conduct when a 



candidate for the daughter of Clisthenes, 317 — his ex- 
pression on that occasion proverbial, 318. 

Hippocrates, father of Pisistratus, beholds a wonderful 
prodigy, 17. 

Hippocrates, physician of Cos, to his aphorisms in medi- 
cine scarcely a new one added, 97, n. 

Hippocrates, prince of Gela, betrays the Zancleans to the 
Samians, 287. 

Hippocrates, son of Pantareus, succeeds his brother in 
the sovereignty of Gela, 358— loses Ids life in a war 
against the Sicilians, 359. 

Hippopotamus, esteemed sacred in Papremis, but in no 
other part of Egypt, 92— generally supposed the Behe- 
moth of scripture, ib. n. — this controverted by Mr 
Bruce, ib. n. — several particulars of, ib. n. — its nature 
and properties, 93. 

Hipsicratea, to gratify her husband, constantly wore the 
habit of a man, 227, n. 

Histicea, the city of, possessed by Xerxes' fleet, 386. 

Histiaeus, son of Lysagoras, 252— enabled the Persians 
under Darius to repass the Ister, 226— prevented by 
Darius from building a city in Thrace, and taken by 
him to Susa, 251— his manner of conveying a secret 
message to Aristagoras, 254— taken captive by Iatra- 
goras, ib. — by his protestations deludes Darius, who 
sends him against Aristagoras in Ionia, 278— proceeds 
to Sardis, where he perceives himself suspected by 
Artaphernes, 281— assumes the command of the Ionian 
forces against Darius, ib. — is seized by the Chians, but 
released, ib. — his letters to certain Persians at Sardis, 
on the subject of a revolt, intercepted, ib.— attempts to 
land at Miletus, and is wounded in the thigh : again 
sets sail for Chios, and passes over to Mitylene ; and 
with eight triremes properly equipped, proceeds to 
Byzantium, 282— informed of the fate of Miletus, con- 
fides to Bisaltes the affairs of the Hellespont, and de- 
parts with some Lesbians for Chios, 288— gives battle 
to the detachment defending Chios, and kills a great 
number of them, and subdues the residue of the Chians, 
ib.— besieges Thasus, 289— but raises the siege, and is 
taken prisoner in a battle with Harpagus, ib.— his de- 
sire of life, ib.— is crucified by Artaphernes and Har- 
pagus, ib. — his head sent to Darius, who orders it to 
be honourably interred, ib. 

History, its derivation in the Greek, 1, n.— what it im- 
plies in its original sense, ib. 

Hoffman, a mistake in his lexicon, 212, n. 

Homer, the Grecian theogony ascribed to him, 87 — this 
contradicted, ib. n. — lived four hundred years before 
Herodotus, ib. — his life ascribed to Herodotus, not 
written by him, ib. n. — not ignorant of Helen's arriv- 
ing at the court of Proteus, though he no where men- 
tions it, 107 — names of the different parts of his poems, 
ib. n. — did not write the Cyprian verses, ib.— extolled 
for his lies, 160, n. — his epigonoi, 197 — the author of 
various poems, besides the Iliad and Odyssey, ib. n.— 
a rhapsodist, 264, n. — his verses generally selected in 
the poetical contests of the rhapsodists at Sicyon, ib. 

Honey, used to preserve dead bodies, 57 — abundance of, 
among the Zygantes, 241 — various kinds of, 242, n. — 
made of the tamarisk and wheat at Callatebus, 331. 

Horns in cold countries will not grow, or are always 
diminutive, 197^-of peculiar size and form, 238, n. 

Horses, in the lands near Sardis feed on serpents, 25 — 
have no antipathy to camels, 26, n. — a consecrated 
white one of Cyrus lost, 57 — the province of Babylon 
maintains eight hundred stallions and sixteen thousand 
mares for the sovereign's use, 58 — sacrificed to the sun 
by the Massageta?, 65 — sacrificed to Neptune, ib. n.— 
Darius chosen Icing of Persia by the neighing of one, 
166— the Cilicians produced to Cyrus the tribute of a 



470 



INDEX. 



white one every day, 168— particulars concerning, 172, 
n.— mares' milk drank by the Scythians, 189— trained 
to the chace by the Iyrcse, 195— white, esteemed by the 
ancients, and by the modern Tartars, ib. n. — bear the 
extremest cold in Scythia, 196 — wild white ones round 
the river Hypanis in Scythia, 203 — respect paid to one 
by the emperor Hadrian, 204, n. — sacrificed by the 
Scythians, 205— fifty strangled on the death of the king 
in Scythia, 209 — the custom of harnessing four to a 
carriage, borrowed by the Greeks from Africa, 240 — 
of the Sigynse, not able to carry a man, 247— those by 
the Prasian lake feed principally on fish, 249 — of Thes- 
saly much esteemed, 263, n. — that of Artybius assisted 
his master in battle, 278 — Ericthonius the first who 
drove with four, 290, n. — mode of ranging four horses 
for the chariot race, ib. n. — the mares of Cimon inter- 
red, which had three times obtained the prize at the 
Olympic games, 310 — ten sacred Nissean, 334 — Nissean, 
remarkable for their swiftness, ib. n — and size, 424, n. 
— the skins of their heads worn by the Asiatic Ethio- 
pians on their heads, 340 — terrified at the sight of ca- 
mels, 342 — the legs of Pharnuches' horse cut off for 
occasioning his master's death, ib. and n. — a sacrifice 
of white ones offered by the magi to the river Strymon, 
348— in Lacedsemonia, possessed only by the wealthy, 
411, n. 

Hospitality, considered by the ancients as the most sacred 
of all engagements, 133, n. — its rites, in ancient times, 
paid without distinction of person, 150, n. — customs of 
the ancients respecting, 286, n. — of the Athenians, 411, 
n. — from a regard to its ties, the Athenians spared the 
life of Alexander, the ambassador of Xerxes, 416, n. 

Hottentots, castration practised by, 283, n. 

Houses, formed of salt, 239 — of the asphodel shrub, se- 
cured with rushes, 240 — razing that of a criminal, a 
preposterous and unmeaning punishment, 300, n. 

Hunting, singular mode of, 195. 

Husbandman, his life deemed most contemptible by the 
Thracians, 217. 

Hyacinthia, celebration of, 420, n. 

Hybristica, a feast of the Argives, its origin, 302, n. 

Hymees, his exploits and death, 280. 

Hymettus, famous for marble, bees, and honey, 319, n. 

Hypacyris, the river, its course, 204. 

Hypanis, the river, its rise, 203. 

Hyperanthes, and Abrocomus, brothers of Xerxe6, fall 
in contending for the body of Leonidas, 376. 

Hyperbaton, happy example of, in Herodotus, 283, n. 

Hyperboreans, 193, 197, 198, n. — why they use barley- 
straw in their sacrifices to Diana, 198. 

Hypsipyle preserves the life of her father Thoas, 320, n. 

Hyrceades, his daring effort, 27. 

Hyria, built by the Cretans, 363. 

Hystaspes, son of Arsamis, by order of Cyrus, leaves his 
army, to prevent any designs of his son Darius in 
Persia against Cyrus, 64. 



I 



Iacchus, derivation of the word, 395, n. 

Jackall, whence supposed to be the lion's provider, 

241, n. 
James II. anecdote of, particularly characteristic of the 

spirit of British sailors, 410, n. 
Jamidce, Apollo gave the art of divination to, 256, n. 
Jamus, whence so called, 428. 
Iapyges, whence so called, 217, n. 363. 
Jason, his expedition in the Argo, 236. 
Ibis, v/hoever kills one, put to death by the Egyptians, 

90— buried by the Egyptians, 91— why venerated by 

the Egyptians, 94— described, ib. 



Ichneumon, ceremony in Egypt with respect to, 91. 

Ida, mount, a number of troops of Xerxes passing un- 
der, destroyed by a storm, 334. 

Jepht7iah, the account of his daughter resembles the story 
of Iphigenia, 218, n. — his actual sacrifice not to be 
imagined, ib. n. 

Jerboa of Barbary, the same with the two-footed rat of 
Herodotus, 241, n. 

Jerusalem, called Cadytes, 126, n. 

Jews, their dislike of swine, how accounted for by Plu- 
tarch, 84, n.— their custom of mourning and feasting 
at funerals, still observed in the East, 247, n. 

Images, the more ancient nations did not worship them, 
41, n. — the magi abominated all worship of, 163, n. 

Imprecations, very frequent in ancient times, particu- 
larly in the East, 161, n. — two remarkable ones, 
162, n. 

Indathyrsus, a Scythian prince, his answer to the demand 
of Darius of earth and water, 223. 

India, the heat there greatest in the morning, 172 — its 
products, ib. 

Indians, many marks of resemblance between them and 
the Egyptians, 111, n. — are divided into four principal 
casts, 127, n. — a most numerous nation, 169 — the peo- 
ple of Asia who are nearest the East, ib.— manners of 
their different nations, 170— their method of obtaining 
gold, 171 — their dress in the army of Xerxes, 339. 

Indolence, a life of, the most honourable among the 
Thracians, 246. 

Indostan, the son obliged to practise the profession of 
his father in, 128, n. 

Infant, effects of one smiling in the face of men, 272. 

Infernal regions, visited by Rhampsinitus, king of 
Egypt, 110. 

Inheritance, among the Lycians, descended to the daugh- 
ters, 53, n. — various modes of, 321, n. 

Inscriptions, many base and servile ones dedicated to the 
Caesars and their descendants, 212, n. 

Intaphernes, one of the conspirators against the magi, 
160 — his wife prefers her brother's life to those of her 
husband and children, 176 — with part of his family put 
to death by Darius, 177. 

Intelligence, secret, many curious contrivances for con- 
veying, 254, n. See Epistles. 

Interment of dead bodies preceded the custom of burn- 
ing them, 140, n. 

Inycus, anciently famous for its wine, 287, n. 

Io, with many other women, taken captive by the Phe- 
nicians to Egypt, 2 ; this denied by the Phenicians, 3. 

Iolcos, famous for its poisonous plants, 274, n. 

Ion, son of Xuthus, the Ionians named from, 343, 390. 

Jones, Sir William, his poem on liberty, 260, n. 

Ionia, purity of its air, and beauty of its situation, 44 — 
its cities, ib. 

Ionians, the first among the Greeks who undertook long 
voyages, 1, n. — subdued by Croesus, 3 — those of the is- 
lands in alliance with Croesus, 9 — offer allegiance to 
Cyrus, who rejects it, 44 — the appellation disdained by 
the Athenians, 45 — are divided into twelve states, ib. 
—celebrate the Apaturian festival, 46— send ambassa- 
dors to Sparta, 47 — are subdued by Harpagus, 51 — are 
rewarded by Psammitichus king of Egypt, for assisting 
him, 124— preserved a constant communication be- 
tween Egypt and Greece, 125— neglect the advice of 
Bias, to erect a city in Sardinia, 51— together with the 
iEolians are incorporated by Harpagus with his forces, 
ib.— posted by Darius near the Ister to defend a bridge, 
214 ; reject the advice of the Scythians to quit it, 225— 
considered by the Scythians as the basest of manfcind, 
226— their calamities at Miletus and Naxos, 252— a re- 
publican form of government established among, by 



INDEX. 



471 



Aristagorae, 255— possess Sardis, the citadel excepted, 
276 — but retreat, ib. — are defeated by the Persians at 
Ephesus, ib.— and deserted by the Athenians, 277— 
persevere in their hostilities against Darius, and re- 
duce Byzantium and the neighbouring cities, ib. — are 
joined by the greater part of the Carians, ib. — and 
Cyprians, ib. — hasten to join Onesilus of Salamis with 
a numerous fleet against the Persians, 278 — obtain a 
victory over the Phenicians off Cyprus, ib. — on the 
defeat of Onesilus by the Persians off Cyprus, return 
with all expedition to Ionia, 279 — those who had been 
engaged in the expedition against Sardis, are attacked 
by Daurises and other Persian generals, and their 
towns plundered and divided, ib. — assemble with then- 
fleet to defend Miletus against the Persians, 282 — but 
impatient of discipline, refuse to perform their cus- 
tomary duty, 283 — meet the Phenicians with their 
fleet, 284— are routed by the Persians, 285 — a third 
time reduced to servitude by the Persians, 289 — their 
districts divided by Artaphernes, 292 — Datis the Mede 
takes them with his army against Eretria, 308 — ap- 
pear in the army of Xerxes with a fleet of one hundred 
ships, 343 — so called from Ion, ib. 344 — their female 
slaves celebrated, 408, n.— revolt from the Persians at 
Mycale, 444. 

Josephus, a sentiment of his concerning Antiochus Epi- 
phanes censured, 305, n. 

Iphicrates, his reply, on being reproached with the 
meanness of his family, 260, n. 

Iphigenia, 218. 

Irene, pun on the name, 342, n. 

Irasa, the most beautiful part of Africa, 231 — the 
Greeks not permitted by the Africans to see it, ib. 

Iron, the art of inlaying, invented by Glaucus and Chios, 
8— a metal not used by the Massagetae, 65. 

Isagoras, son of Tisander, contending with Clisthenes 
for superiority, divides the Athenian state into fac- 
tions, 263— overcome by Clisthenes, procures a sen- 
tence of expulsion against him and other Athenians, 
266. 

Ins, the first of all the Egyptian deities, 82 — her festival 
in Egypt, ib. — cows sacred to her in Egypt, ib. 239 — 
her form, 82 — her festival and temple at Busiris, 88 — 
called in the Greek tongue Demeter or Ceres, ib — 
Ceres so called by the Egyptians, 125— her temple at 
Memphis, 131— honoured by the Cyrenean women, 
239. 

Island of Chemmis said to float, 125 — Cyanean, formerly 
floated, 213. 

Issedones, their customs, 195. 

Ister, the river, its course similar to that of the Nile, 78. 

Isthfnus of the Chersonese, its extent, 291. 

Judges of England, their independency, 146, n. 

Julian, his dying speech contains many sentiments simi- 
lar to those of Solon in his reply to Croesus, 10, n. 

Juno, Cleobis and Bito rewarded for drawing their mo- 
ther in a chariot to the temple of, 10— worshipped in 
Egypt, 86, n.— her temple at Samos, 133— her temple 
at Platea, 433, 435. 

Jupiter invoked by Croesus, as the deity of expiation, 
hospitality, and friendship,13 — his various epithets and 
characters, 14, n.— the firmament worshipped under 
that name by thePersians, 41— worshipped by the Ethi- 
opians, 77 — his oracle at Meroe, ib. — why represented 
by the Egyptians with the head of a ram, 83 — an edi- 
fice erected to him under the shade of a beech tree, by 
a Theban priestess, 87— his oracle in Egypt, 97. 

Jupiter Ammon, 83 — his oracle, 78, 87 — his temple or- 
dered to be burnt by Cambyses, 144 

Jupiter Belus, his temple at Babylon described, 55— the 
Babylonians fly to hia temple, 187. 



Jupiter, Carian, his temple at Mylassa, 52— sacrificed to 

by the Alcmaeonidae, 264. 
Jupiter Celestial, 295. 
Jupiter Forensis, 257- 
Jupiter, Grecian, 420. 
Jupiter Hercaeus, 299. 
Jupiter Labrandinian, 279, n. 
Jupiter Lacedaemonian, 295. 
Jupiter Laphystius, 370. 
Jupiter Liberator, 183. 
Jupiter, Lycean, 244. 
Jupiter Olympus, 69 — his statue erected by the Greeks 

after the battle of Platea, 440. 
Jupiter Osogus, 52, n. 
Jupiter Papaeus, 205. 
Jupiter Servator, 186, n. 
Jupiter Strati us, 280. 
Jupiter, Thebean, a womau sleeps in his temple, 55 — his 

worshippers sacrifice sheep, and abstain from goats,83 

— Ms image has the head of a goat, 237. 
Jupiter Urius, 213, n. 



K 



Kiki, an oil used by the inhabitants of the lower parts 

of Egypt, 100. 
King, a title frequently given to the Carthaginian ge- 
nerals, 361, n. — the great, the title of the monarchs of 

Persia, 57, n. 
Kings of Egypt successors of Menes, 102, 119 — must be 

of the sacerdotal order, 118, n. 
Kings of Persia going on any expedition named their 

successor, 64, n. 
Kings of Sparta, their privileges, 295— their honours 

after death, 296 — their names, 412. 
Kites never migrate from Egypt, 75. 
Knees, embracing of the, a common act of humility and 

supplication, 438, n. 
Knights of Sparta, three hundred attended on Themis- 

tocles, 411. 
Knots anciently used instead of locks, 178, n. 



Labda, daughter of Amphion, history of her and her 
son Cypselus, 272. 

Labynetus, the same with Nebuchadnezzar, 24, n. — the 
last king of Babylon, 25, n. 

Labynitus, attacked by Cyrus, 57. 

Labyrinth, near the lake Mceris, 121 — four celebrated 
ones of antioulty, 122, n.- Cretan, its inventor, 363, n. 

Lacedaemonians, in alliance with Croesus, 3, 22 — obtain 
good laws through Lycurgus, 20 — and after his death 
erect an edifice to his memory, ib. — are defeated by 
the Tegeans, 21 — after the discovery of the body of 
Orestes are successful, 22 — battle between them and 
the Argives for Thyrea, 26 — refuse to assist the Ioni- 
ans and iEolians, yet threaten Cyrus to resent any in- 
jury against the Grecian cities, 47 — their reverence 
to age, 96— undertake an expedition against Poly- 
crates, 151 — their contempt of oratory, ib. n. — attack 
Samos, but retreat, 154 — their form of government, 
165, n. — permit the Minyae to reside among them, 
227 — punish them for intemperance, ib. — always inflict 
capital punishments by night, ib.— send an army 
under Anchimolius, to expel the Pisistratidae from 
Athens, 262— but without success, 263— in a second 
attempt under Cleomenes are successful, and deliver 
the Athenians from oppression, ib.— assist Cleomenes 
in seizing the citadel of Athens, but are foiled, 267 
^pass a law, forbidding both their kings to march 



472 



INDEX. 



inarch with the army at the same time, ib.— propose to 
their allies the restoration of Hippias to Athens, 271— 
affirm that they were first introduced into the region 
they inhabit by Aristodemus, 294 — their perplexity 
concerning the eldest son of Aristodemus, ib.— distin- 
guished their princes by many honourable privileges, 
295 — their ceremonies on the death of a king, 296 — 
debts remitted by the king's successor, 297 — their sons 
follow the professions of their fathers, ib.— resolve to 
assist the Athenians against the Persians at Marathon, 
but are prevented by an inveterate custom of under- 
taking no enterprise before the full moon, 311 — their 
advice to the Plateans, 312— two thousand arrive at 
Athens, and to gratify their curiosity with the sight 
of the Medes proceed to Marathon, then return, 
after congratulating the Athenians on their victory, 
315 — Thomson's animated description of Sparta, 346, 
n. — throw the messengers of Darius into wells, 351 
— send Sperthies and Bulis to be punished by Xer- 
xes for the murder of the Persian ambassadors at 
Sparta, 352 — who refuse prostration before Xerxes, 
and are sent back by him, without any punishment, to 
their own country, 353 — their custom before any en- 
terprise of danger to adorn their hair, 372 — guard the 
pass at Thermopylae with great skill, against the Medes 
and Persians detached from Xerxes' army, 373 — their 
engagement with the Persians at Thermopylae, 376 — 
why their soldiers wore a red uniform, ib. n. — trembler, 
an established term of reproach with them, 377, n. — re- 
marks on their manners, 378, n. — are overpowered by 
the Persians at Thermopylas, 377 — when they had no 
arms, fought with their nails and teeth, 376, n. — me- 
thod.by which Demaratus informs them of the inten- 
tions of Xerxes against Greece, 380 — discourage 
strangers from visiting Sparta, and when there, con- 
sider them as spies, 411, n. — the wealthy only possess 
horses, ib. n. — gold and silver money not permitted at 
Lacedaemon, 414, n. — send deputies to the Athenians 
to oppose their alliance with Xerxes, 415 — send a de- 
tachment of five thousand men to assist the Athenians 
against the Persians, 421 — obtain five victories by the 
assistance of Tisamenes as a divine, 429 — challenged by 
Mardonius at the battle of Platea, 431 — to deceive, a 
distinguishing maxim of their government, 433, n. — 
victorious at Platea, 436 — bury their dead after the 
battle of Platea, 440. 

Lade, 282. 

Ladice marries Amasis, king of Egypt, 132 — whose im- 
becility is removed by her vows to Venus, ib. 

Laius, son of Labdacus, 262 — a shrine built to the furies 
of him and (Edipus, 229. 

Lamport, son of Pitheas, his impious counsel to Pausa- 
nias, 167. 

Lamps, feast of, in Egypt, 88— Egyptians make, in the 
highest perfection, ib. n. 

Lampsacenes make Miltiades their prisoner; but in- 
timidated by the threat of Croesus, release him, 291. 

Lampsacus, given to Themistocles to furnish him with 
wine, 225, n. — famous for the birth of several great 
men, and the residence of Epicurus, ib. n. 

Laodamas, son of Eteocles, gives a tripod to Apollo, 
262. 

Lapithce, first used bridles and harness for horses, 272. 

Larisscei, peculiarity of their ground, 419, n. 

Lasus of Hermione, detects Onomacritus introducing a 
pretended oracle among the verses of Musseus, 323. 

Latona, oracle of, at Butos, 97, 124 — her temple and 
shrine at Butos, 125— one of the eight primary divini- 
ties, ib. — the nurse of Apollo and Diana, ib. 

Leama, the courtezan, cause of her biting off her tongue, 
260, n. 



Leagrus, son of Glaucon, slain by the Edonians in a 
contest about some gold mines, 438. 

Ledanum, a gum, 173, n.— how gathered by the Ara- 
bians, 174. 

Lemnians, subdued by Otanes, 252 — their women de- 
stroy their husbands, with Thoas their king, 320— the 
Grecians called every atrocious crime Lemnian, ib. 

Lemnos, possessed by Miltiades, 319. 

Leocedes, son of Phidon, first instituted the instruments 
of measuring, in the Peloponnese, 317. 

Leon, son of Meles, carried by his father round the walls 
of Sardis, 27. 

Leonidas, son of Anaxandrides, 255 — intrusted by the 
Greeks with the chief command against Xerxes, 372 
— his ancestors, ib. — how placed on the throne of 
Sparta, ib. — guards the pass at Thermopylae against 
detachments from Xerxes' army, 373 — consents to the 
retreat of his allies, and resolves himself to defend his 
post at Thermopylae, 375 — engages with the Barba- 
rians, and falls, with three hundred of the Spartans, 
376 — the two brothers of Xerxes fall, in contending for 
the body of, ib. — his bones carried back to Sparta forty 
years after his death, ib. n. — memorable things con- 
cerning him, 378, n. — his dead body barbarously treated 
by Xerxes, 380 — satisfaction for his death demanded of 
Xerxes by the Lacedaemonians, 409 — his death re- 
venged on Mardonius, 435. 

Leontiades, son of Eurymachus, 372 — with the greater 
part of the Thebans under his command, has the royal 
mark impressed upon him, by command of Xerxes, 378. 

Lepitodus, a fish venerated by the Egyptians, 93. 

Leprosy, persons afflicted with, secluded from society by 
the Persians, 43 — supposed by the Persians to be in- 
flicted for an offence against the sun, ib. 

Lesbos, its fame, 47, n. — now called Mitylene, ib. n. 

Letters, introduced by the Phenicians into Greece, 261— 
particulars respecting their invention, ib. n. — engrav- 
ed on rocks by Themistocles, 385. See Epistles. 

Leutyckides, son of Menaris, together with Cleomenes, 
asserts the illegitimacy of Demaratus, king of Sparta, 
298 — insults Demaratus, after being elected king in his 
room, 299 — is banished from Sparta, and his house 
razed, 300— goes with Cleomenes against iEgina, ib.— 
the Lacedaemonians resolve to deliver him up to the 
iEginetae, but are prevented by Theasides, 303 — his 
speech to the Athenians on their refusing to deliver 
up their hostages, ib. — departs from Athens without 
success, 306 — his descent, 412 — sails with the Grecian 
fleet from Delos towards Samos, 443 — sails to Mycale, 
ib. — his stratagem to encourage the Greeks against 
the Persians, 444, n.— obtains a victory over the Greeks 
at Mycale, 444. 

Leviathan of Job, variously understood, 91, n. 

Libation, ceremony of offering it, 295, n. 

Liberty, poem addressed to, by Sir William Jones, 260, n. 
— its effects on the Athenians, 268 — speech of Sosicles 
of Corinth in favour of it, 274. 

Libraries, eminent collectors of, among the ancients, 
290, n. 

Libya, whence its name, 201— the part described by He- 
rodotus, now called Barbary, 243, n. See Africa. 

Libyans, in the army of Xerxes, 340. See Africans. 

Lichas discovers the body of Orestes, 21. 

Lie, allowed to be told by Darius, 160— Homer extolled 
for lying, ib. n. 

Life, human, seventy years the term of, 11— its term in 
Persia and Ethiopia, 142. 

Lightning destroys the palace of Scyles, 211 — every thing 
struck by it, was by the ancients deemed sacred, ib. n. 
— destroys numbers of Xerxes' troops at the foot of 
mount Ida, 334. 



INDEX. 



473 



Linen, Colchian, similar to the Egyptian, 104. 

Linus, the first inventor of melody among the Greeks, 
96, n. — the Grecian song so called, ib. n. 

Lions, one of pure gold, placed by Croesus in the temple 
of Delphi, 15 — boars their chief food, 241, n. — destroy 
the camels in the army of Xerxes, in preference to 
other beasts, 350— natural history of, where to be 
found, ib. n. — lioness produces but one young one in 
her life, 173 — this contradicted, ib. n. 

Lissus, the streams of, insufficient for the army of Xer- 
xes, in his expedition against Greece, 347. 

Littlebury, a-mistake of his, in translating Herodotus, 
338, ii. 

Lizards, eaten by the Troglodytae, 433. 

Locke, his words on dreams, 327, n. 

Locks, anciently supplied by knots, 178, n. 

Locri, 287, n. 

Locusts, most probably the food of the Israelites in the 
desert, and why, 95, n. — how eaten by the Xasamones 
in Africa, 235. 

Lodbrog, king Regner, his ode, 207, n. 

London, quantity of cattle annually consumed in, above 
thirty years ago, 367, n. — now contains, on an average, 
a million of inhabitants, ib. n. 

Lotophagi, live entirely on the lotos, 236, and n. 

Lotos of Egypt, its use, 82, 236, n. 

Lucan has beautifully described the appearance of the 
genius of his country to Caesar when arrived on the 
banks of the Rubicon, 302, n. 

Lucina, offering to, by two Hyperborean virgins, 198. 

Lucullus, his expenses whenever he supped in his room 
called the Apollo, 331, n. 

Lycians, their origin, 52 — take their names from their 
mothers, 53, and n. — furnish Xerxes with fifty ships, 
343 — their dress in Xerxes' army, ib. — plaited their hair 
in a circular form, 208. 

Lycidas and his family, stoned to death by the Athen- 
ians, 420. 

Lycomedes, son of JEschreas, 383. 

Lycopas, his valour, 154. 

Lycophron, son of Periander, banished by his father, 152 j 
— killed by the Corcyreans, 154. 

Lycurgus frames laws for the Lacedaemonians, 20 — who 
erect an edifice to his memory, ib. — remarks on liis in- ' 
stitutions, 378, n. 

Lycus, son of Pandion, 53. 

Lydians, anciently called Meonians, 4 — resent the mur- 
der of Candaules, 6 — their customs resemble those of 
the Greeks, 12, 24, 31 — privileges assigned to them by j 
the Delphians, 16 — war between them and the Medes, ! 
23 — hardy and valiant, 25 — all their young women 
prostitute themselves, to procure a marriage-portion, 
31 — the first people on record, who coined gold and 
silver into money, ib. — invented bowls and dice, 31 — 
their resource against a famine, ib. — part of them 
change their names for that of Tyrrhenians, 32— revolt 
against Cyrus, 48— their manners totally changed by 
certain observances enforced among them by Cyrus, in 
consequence of their revolt, ib. — said to possess a fertile 
territory and a profusion of silver, 258 — once called 
Meonians, 340 — in the army of Xerxes, ib. 

M 

Macce, their customs, 236. 

Macedonians, earth and water granted by them to Da- 
rius, 249 — part of them reduced by Mardonius, 293. 

Machyles feed on the lotos, 236. 

Madness, frequently considered by the ancients as an- 
nexed by the gods to more atrocious acts, 301, n.— 
termed a sacred disease by the ancients, 146, n. 



Mceander, its fountains, 330. 

Mceandrius, son of Maeandrius, possessed of the supreme 
authority at Samos, 183 — quits Samos on the arrival of 
the Persians, and sails to Lacedsemon, 184 — receives a 
public order to depart from Lacedaemon, 185. 

Magi crucified by Astyages, 41 — condemned to die when 
unable to interpret dreams, ib. n. — Persian, 44 — two 
brothers excite a revolt against Carabyses, 156 — whence 
so called, 159, n. — some account of them, 163, n. — then- 
presents to Christ indicated their esteeming him a royal 
child, ib. n.— great numbers slain by the Persians, ib. — 
appease a storm on the coast of Magnesia, 369. 

Magic, derivation of the word, 1 63, n. 

Magnesia, the fleet of Xerxes stationed on its coast, 95. 

Mahomet, camels consecrated to, 171. 

Mandane, daughter of Astyages, her dream, 35— married 
to Cambyses, ib. 

Mandrocles, the Samian, constructs a bridge over the 
Bosphorus, highly approved by Darius, 214. 

Maneros, an Egyptian song, 96. 

Mantineans, their conduct after the battle of Platea, 439. 

Marathon seized by Pisistratus, 19 — the Persian army 
conducted thither by Hippias, 309— the Athenians ar- 
rive there, conducted by ten leaders, ib. — manner of 
drawing up the Athenian army for battle there, 313 — 
the battle of, described, ib.— Epizelus struck with blind- 
ness at the battle of, 314— the battle of, represented in 
the portico at Athens, called Pcecile, ib. n. 

Marble, artificially stained, among the ruins of the higher 
Egypt, 133, n.— of Paros, of inimitable whiteness, 155, 
n. — of Paros always preferred by the more eminent 
sculptors of antiquity, 262, n. 

Mardonius, son of Gobryas, sent by Darius to Ionia to 
supersede his other commanders, every where estab- 
lishes a democracy in Ionia, 292 — proceeds with a nu- 
merous fleet and army towards Eretria and Athens ; 
subdues the Thasians and Macedonians ; loses a con- 
siderable number of his vessels and men in a storm, 
292— is wounded by the Brygi, but reduces them, 293 — 
his return to Asia inglorious, ib. — is removed from his 
command by Darius, 307— his advice to Xerxes re- 
specting the Egyptian and Athenian wars, 322— is sup- 
posed to have deceived Xerxes and Artabanus by a 
pretended vision, 328, n.— a general in Xerxes' army, 
341— his advice to Xerxes after the battle of Salamis, 
405— accompanies Xerxes in his retreat to Thessaly, 
and there selects three hundred thousand men from 
the land forces, 409— is joined by Artabazus, 412— sends 
Mys to consult the different oracles, 413— and in conse- 
quence of their declarations, sends Alexander ambas- 
sador to the Athenians, to procure an alliance, ib — 
who reject his offers, 415— marches towards Athens, 
419— is received by the Thebans, ib.— takes possession 
of Athens a second time, ib. — withdraws his army from 
Athens, having first set fire to it, 422 — is entertained, 
with fifty Persians, by Attaginus, at Thebes, ib. — 
marches with his army to Platea, 427 — sacrifices ac- 
cording to the Grecian rites, 429— rejects Artabazus' 
advice, and resolves on a battle with the Greeks, 430— 
challenges the Spartans, 431— is slain at Platea, 435—. 
his body interred, 440. 

Mares, their milk drank by the Scythians, 189 — those 
interred, which had obtained prizes at the Olympic 
games, 310. 

Mariandinians, inventors of the shrill pipe used at fun- 
erals, 9, n. 

Ma rius, Caius, impression made by him on a soldier sent 
to kill him in prison, 162, n. 

Marriage, political, 24, n — law respecting, in Assyria, 

62— between brother and sister, 146, n. — of Cambyses 

with his sisters, ib.— the Adyrmachid;v, in Africa, pro- 

3 O 



+71 



I N D E X. 



sented their daughters to the king just before their mar- 
riage, who might enjoy their persons, 233 — among the 
Nasamones, in Africa, the bride, on the first night 
after her marriage, permits even' one of the guests to 
enjoy her person, 235— the only ceremony observed by 
the Algerines, 235, n. 

Mars, festival in honour of. how observed in Egypt, 89 
— his oracle in Egypt, 97 — the only deity to whom tl>e 
Scythians erect altars, shrines, and temples, 205 — cere- 
monies observed by the Scythians in die worship of. 
him, 206 — worshipped in Thrace, 246 — his hill at 
Athens, 392. 

Marsias' punishment, (allegory,) 330, n. 

Masca?nis, son of Megadostis, appointed by Xerxes gov- 
ernor of Doriscus, 347 — in return for his bravery, he 
and all his descendants received presents from the 
kings of Persia, ib. 

Masistes, son of Darius, insults Artayntes, and narrowly 
escapes his resentment, 445 — cruelty of Amestris to- 
wards his wife, 447 — flies to Bactra, with intention of 
exciting that province to revolt from Xerxes, ib. — is 
intercepted in his way to Bactra by Xerxes, and put 
to death, together with his children and followers, ib. 

Masistius, sent by Mardonius with his cavalry against 
the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, 424 — is killed by 
the Athenians, ib.— his body contended for, 425— the 
Persians mourn for him, ib. 

Mason, Mr, his excellent use of the supposed sanctity of 
the groves at Mona, 303, n. 

Mussagetcp, Cyrus meditates an attack against, 63 — in a 
state of drunkenness are overcome by Cyrus, 64 ; but 
are at length victorious, 65 — their manners, ib. 

Maxyes suffer their hair to grow on the right side of the 
head, and not on the left, and stair/ their bodies with 
vermilion, 240. 

Mead, Dr, Ms treatise on the influence of the sun and 
moon on the human body, 315, n. 

Measures of land, different ones used by the ancients, 

Measuring, instruments of, first instituted in the Pelo- 
ponnese by Leocedes, son of Phidon, 317. 

Mechanics, considered, even among nations the least re- 
fined, in the lowest rank of citizens, 128 ; the Corin- 
thians an exception to this, ib. 

Medea, forcibly carried away by the Greeks, 2 — on her 
arriving among the Arii, they took the name of Medes, 
339— her process of boiling, to make men young again, 
210, n. 

Medes, at war with the Lydians, 23 — revolt from the 
Assyrian government, 32— choose Deioces their king, 
ib.— build Ecbatana, 33— in a battle with the Scythians, 
lose the empire of Asia, 34 — at a feast, cut off the 
greater part of the Scythians in a state of intoxication 
and recover their possessions, 35 — take Nineveh, and 
subdue the Assyrians, ib. — doubtful whether their dia- 
lect is the same with that of the Persians, 36, n. — van- 
quished by the Persians, 40 — take up arms against 
Darius but without success, 41 — antiquity of their un- 
ion with the Persians, 43, n. — the Persians compre- 
hended under the name of, by Herodotus and most of 
the ancient writers, 227, ft. 247, n. — formerly called 
Arii, 339 — endeavouring to gain the pass at Thermo- 
pylae, are repulsed by the Lacedaemonians with great 
Joss, 373. 

Median vest, invented by Semiramis, 348, n. 

Medicine, opinion of its origin, 61, n. — how exercised in 
Egypt, 97 — none of the sciences sooner arrived at per- 
fection, ib. n. 

Medusa, the chief of the Gorgons, her story, 99, n. 

Megabyzus, one of the seven conspirators against the 
magi, 160 — his speech in favour of an oligarchy, 161 — 



highly esteemed by Darius, 227 — reduces in the Helles- 
pont all who are in opposition to the Medes, ib. — con- 
quers the Perinthians, 245 — by order of Darius, leads 
his army into Paeonia, and transports the Paeonians 
from Europe into Asia, 248 — sends seven of his army 
into Macedonia, to require of Amyntas earth and 
water, 249 — arrives with the Paeonians at Sardis,251— 
his advice to Darius respecting Histiaeus, ib. 

Megacles, son of Alcmaeon, at the head of a faction, ex- 
pels Pisistratus from Athens, 17 — marries the daughter 
of Pisistratus, 18 — marries Clisthenes' daughter, 318. 

Megacreon of Abdera, his wittyremark on the excessive 
expense the Abderites sustained in entertaining Xer- 
xes and his army, 349. 

Megara, in Achaia, ravaged by the Persian army, 422. 

Megaro, in Sicily, the people of, how treated by Gelon, 
359. 

Megistias, the soothsayer, his prediction of death to the 
Greeks stationed in the straits of Thermopylae, 375— 
is dismissed by Leonidas at Thermopylae, but refuses 
to depart, ib.— inscription on his tomb, 377. 

Melampus, son of Am ytheon, first taught the Greeks the 
name and sacrifice of Bacchus, 85— is invited by the 
Argives to cure a madness among their women, 428— 
obtains half the kingdom of the Argives for himself, 
and a third part for his brother, ib. 

Melampygi, story of them and Hercules, 374, n. 

Melanchlami have all black garments, and feed on hu- 
man flesh, 219. 

Melanippus, his relics brought to Sicyon, and sacrifices 
and festivals assigned to him, 265. 

Melissa, wife of Periander, put to death by her husband, 
152— on her account, Periander strips all the Athen- 
ian women of their clothes, 274. 

Membliares, different accounts of his descent, 228, n. 

Memnon, Susa the city of, 260. 

Memory, the Egyptians attentive to the improvement 
of, 94 — local, invented by Simonides, ib. n. — the faculty 
of, more valued in ancient times than at present, ib. n. 

Memphis, pyramids of, 69 — the ground on which it stands, 
detached from the water by Menes, 101— different 
opinions of its site, ib. n. — built by Menes, 102. 

Men, degeneracy of their race, 21 , n. 

Mendesians preserve goats, and sacrifice sheep, 83, 84. 

Men-eaters, 194. 

Menelaus, assisted by the Greeks to recover Helen, 108 
— after the capture of Troy, arrives in Egypt, where 
Helen is restored to him, ib. — sacrifices two Egyptian 
children, ib. 

Menes, the first king of Egypt, 68— diverted the Nile, and 
built Memphis, 102. 

Mercury, whence the Grecian figure of, 86 — his temple 
atBubastis, 117 — Egyptian, named Thoth ; the inver- 
ter of sciences, 118, n. — worshipped by the princes of 
the Thracians, who call themselves his descendants, 246. 

Mermaids, Spenser's description of, 191, n. 

Mermnadce, the family of Croesus, 3— exclude the Hera- 
clidae from the empire of Lydia, 6. 

Meroe, a very considerable town, 77. 

Mesambria, built by the Byzantians and Chalcedonians, 
290. 

Messages, curious contrivances for secretly conveying, 
254, n. 

Messana, formerly Zancle, 361. 

Messengers, swiftness of the Persian, 404. 

Metempsychosis, believed by the Egyptians, 111— did not 
originate in Egypt, and not of very great antiquity, ib. 
— adopted by some of the Greeks, ib. 

Metiochus, son of Miltiades, son of Cimon, is taken cap- 
tive and conducted to Darius, who shows him the 
greatest kindoess, 292. 



1 N D E X 



475 



Mice, Sethos delivered from the Arabians by them, 119 

—three species of, in Africa, 241. 
Midas, son of Gordius, consecrates his throne to the 

oracle at Delphi, 6— his gardens, 414. 
Milesians, Alyattes resumed his father's war against, 6 : 
account of that war, 7 ; and its termination, ib. — court 
the friendship of Cyrus, 45 — their factions terminated 
by the interposition of the Parians, 252— revolt against 
Darius, 254— assist the Carians, 280— besieged and 
taken by the Persians, 285 — the greater part of them 
slain, and the remainder carried to Susa, 285 — their 
grief at the capture of Sybaris, 286. 
Miletus, the pride of Ionia, 252. 

Milk of mares, the customary drink of the Scythians, 189. 
Millet grows to an immense height in Babylonia, 59. 
Milo, of Crotona, his incredible strength and appetite, 

317, n. 
Miltiades, son of Cypselus, 225 — origination ot his sov- 
ereignty over the Chersonese, 290— is made prisoner by 
the people of Lampsacum, 291 ; but by the menaces of 
Croesus is dismissed, ib. and n.— on his death is honour- 
ed by the inhabitants of the Chersonese, 291. 
Miltiades, son of Cimon, by stratagem secures the pos- 
session of the Chersonese, ib.— flies from the power of 
the Scythians, 292— is restored by the Dolonci, ib.— in- 
formed of the arrival of the Phenicians off Tenedos, 
sails for Athens, ib.— escapes to Imbros, ib.— proceeds 
to Athens, ib. — one of the ten Athenian leaders against 
the Persians at Marathon, 309— escapes from two inci- 
dents, which threatened his life, 310— his speech to the 
polemarch in favour of an engagement with the Per- 
sians, which has its effect, 312 ; and the Athenians are 
successful, 313— his reputation increased at Athens, 
after the defeat of the Persians at Marathon, 318— sails 
with seventy ships to Paros, ib.— the cause of his re- 
sentment against the Persians, ib.— besieges Paros, 319 j 
but returns home without success, ib.— is generally 
censured by liis countrymen, and capitally accused to 
the Athenians ; but by the interference of the people, 
his life is saved on payment of a fine, ib. — dies of a 
wound received at Paros, ib.— his manner of possessing 
Lemnos, ib. 
Milton, the idea of his Pandemonium whence probably 

suggested, 282, n. 
Mind, its powers increase and improve with those of the 

body, 181. 
Mine, on the brink of the Prasian lake, produced Alex- 
ander a talent a day, 249. 
Minerva, her priestess said to have a prodigious beard 
previously to any calamity among the Pedasians, 54, 
406— her solemnities at Sais, 88— her oracle in Egypt, 
97 — her magnificent portico, built by Amasis at Sais, 
130— her statue at Cyrene, 132— her temple at Lindus, 
133— festival of the Ausenses in honour of, 237— the 
daughter of Neptune, and adopted by Jupiter, ib.— the 
vest and aegis decorating her shrine, borrowed by the 
Greeks from the Africans, 239— origin of the loud cries 
in her temple, 240— the panathenaea in honour of, 260 
—her shrine at Athens, 266— her temple at Sigeum, 
274. i 

Minerva, Alean, her temple at Tegea, 21. 
Minerva, Assesian, her temple destroyed, 7. 
Minerva, Crastian, her temple built by Dorieus, 256. 
Minerva, Paeonia, 245, n. 
Minerva, Pallenian, her temple, 19. 
Minerva Polias, 269. 
Minerva Poliouchos, 49, n. 

Minerva, Pronean, 30— her temple at Delphi, 388. 
Minerva Sciras, her temple, 403. 

M inerva Trojan, Xerxes sacrifices one thousand oxen 
to, 334. 



Miniature, works in, executed by the ancients, never 
equalled by the moderns, 150, n 

Minos formed the design of making himself master of the 
sea, 177— account of, 363, n.— said to perish by a violent 
death, ib. 

Minyce, permitted by the Lacedaemonians to reside with 
them, 227 — punished by them, ib. — escape, and take 
refuge on Taygetus, 228. 

Mithra, Venus so called by the Persians, 41. 

Mitridates preserves Cyrus, 37. 

Mitrobates, governor of Dascylium, reproaches Oroetes, 
176 ; for which he and his son are put to death by Or 
cetes, 179. 

Mnesiphilus, his advice to Themistocles against the Gre- 
cian fleet's leaving Salamis, 393. 

Moderns have never equalled the ancients in engraving 
on precious stones, nor in any works of miniature, 
150, n. 

Mceotis, Palus, called the mother of the Euxine, 214. 

Mceris, king of Egypt, various monuments of him, 102 — 
erected pyramids, ib. 

Mosris, the lake, in Egypt, 122 — its pyramids, 123 — fish- 
ery there, ib. — how formed, ib. 

Mole, why held sacred by the Egyptians, 124, n. 

Monarchy, arguments in favour of, 165. 

Money, the Lydians the first people on record who 
coined gold and silver into, 31 — borrowed in the reign 
of Asychius, king of Egypt, by pledging the body of a 
father, 117 — a coin of the purest gold issued by Darius, 
233 — a coin of the purest silver, called an Aryandic, 
issued by Aryandes, ib. — in remoter times the families 
of kings had but little, 414 — particulars respecting its 
invention and use, ib. n. — gold and silver, not permit- 
ted at Lacedaemon, ib. n. 

Monkies, eaten by the Zygantes of Africa, 242. 

Montesquieu gives an entertaining account of the Trog- 
lodytae, 238, n. 

Moon, adored by the Africans, 239- — adored by the Per- 
sians, 41, 333— swine offered to, by the Egyptians, 85 
— the Lacedaemonians would undertake no enterprise 
before it was at the full, 31 1 — doctrine of its influence 
on the human body now exploded, 315, n. — the time of 
the new moon preferred in the East to begin a jour- 
ney, ib. n. — worshipped by several of the oriental na- 
tions, 333, n. — why the figure of the moon worn by 
the Arcadians in their shoes, 361, n. 

Moors, western, mode of their commerce with the Nigri- 
tians, 242, n. 

Mountains, the Persians offer sacrifices from the sum- 
j mits of the highest, 41— oracular temples mostly situat- 
ed on, ib. n.— a large one opposite to Samothracia 
j overturned by a search after mines, 293. 

Mourning for the dead, time of, in ancient and modern 
Egypt, 98, n. See Funerals. 

' Mules never generate any farther, 185, n. ; yet one said 

I to have produced a young one at the siege of Babylon 
by Darius, 186 ; and another at Sardis, 337— never 

i produced in the district of Elis ; which the inhabi- 
tants consider as a curse, 197— not produced in Scythia, 
223. 
Mummies, a proof of the high degree of knowledge of 

chemistry among the Egyptians, 98, n. 
Muses, why their names annexed to the books of Hero 
dotus, 135, n.— their number, residence, and order, ib 
n. — the city Thespia sacred to, 268, n. 
Music, an important part of Grecian education, 181, n. 
Musicians, the Argives the most skilful, in Greece, ib. 
Mycale, the Ionians assemble on, to celebrate the Pan- 
ionia, 47— victory of the Greeks over the PersianB at, 
441. 
Mycerinus, king of Egypt, succeeds Chephren, til— hid 



476 



INDEX. 



equitable reigp, ib.— inters his daughter in a heifer 

made of wood, ib. — colossal statues of his concubines, 

115 — is informed by the oracle of the period of his life, 

ib. — built a pyramid, ib. — is succeeded by Asychis, 117. 
Mycithus, son of Choerus, consecrates a great number of 

statues in Olympia, 364. 
Mylassa, ancient temple of Jupiter at, 52. 
Mylitta, the Assyrian name for Venus, 62. 
Myrcinus, given by Darius to Histiaeus, 247, 251, 280. 
Myrincei oppose the Athenians in taking possession of 

Lemnos, but are compelled to surrender, 320. 
Myrinidons, whence so called, 271, n. — use of the word 

in English, ib. n. 
Myrtle, a favourite plant with the ancients, 337, n. 
Mys, sent by Mardonius to consult the different oracles, 

413. 
Mysians, injured by a wild boar, request the assistance 

of Atys, son of Croesus, 12. 
Mysteries, Cabirian, 86— of Orpheus, 96 — Pythagorean, 

ib.— Egyptian, 129— of Ceres, ib. 285, 395. 
Myus, infested by gnats, 254, n. 

N 

Naked, for a man to be seen, deemed by the Barbarians 
a matter of the greatest turpitude, 5. 

Names, the Lycians take theirs from their mothers, 53 — 
no distinction of, among the Atlantes, 239 — anecdote 
of a Persian, who founded all his merit on the splen- 
dour of his name, 395, n. — presages drawn from them, 
much regarded by the Greeks and Romans, 442, n. 

Nasamones, 78— their customs, 235, 340. 

Nativities cast by the Egyptians, 9(3 — by the poets of 
Greece, ib. 

Naucratis, courtezans of, generally beautiful, 116 — 
Greeks settled there by permission of Amasis, king of 
Egypt, 131 — formerly the sole emporium of Egypt, ib. 

Naumachice, one of the grandest of the Roman shows, 
3S4, n. 

Naxos, the happiest of the Ionian islands, 252 — stands 
out against a siege by the Persians, 253 — the sacred 
buildings and city, burned by the Persians, 307. 

Necho, king of Egypt, first proved that Africa is sur- 
rounded by the sea, 200. 

Necos, king of Egypt, succeeds his father, 126 — makes the 
canal leading to the Red Sea, ib. — his military enter- 
prizes, ib. — succeeded by his son Psammis, ib. 

Neptune, horses sacrificed to, 65, n. — the Egyptians dis- 
claim all knowledge of, 83 — worshipped by the Afri- 
cans near lake Tritonis, 239 — supposed to cause earth- 
quakes, 351 — and Minerva, said to have placed an olive 
and a sea in the temple of Erectheus at Athens, 392 — 
his altar at the Isthmus, 411 — his figure erected by the 
Greeks after the battle of Platea, 440. 

Neptune, Heliconian, 46. 

Neptune, Hippias, 393, n. 

Neptune, Servator, 369. 

Nets, used in the east to cover beds, by way of protection 
from flies, 101 , n. 

Neuri, said to have the power of transforming themselves 
into wolves, and resuming their former shape at plea- 
sure, 194, n. 218 — compelled by serpents to change 
their habitations, 218 — these serpents no other than the 
Dibii, ib. n. 

Nicknames, the letters of the alphabet given as, by the 
ancients, 272, n. 

Nicodromus, son of Cncethus, agrees with the Athenians 
to deliver iEgina into their hands, 306 — flies from 
JEgina, ib. \ 

Nicolaus, son of Bulis, with Aneristus, son of Sperthies, 
taken and put to death by the Athenians, 353. 



Night, how divided by the Greeks and Romans, 432, n. 
Nile, large additions made to the land of Egypt from its 
mud, 68 — this controverted, ib. n. — height to which it 
rises, ib. n. — does not divide Asia and Africa, 73— its 
branches, ib. — time of its inundation, 74 — hypotheses 
for explaining the cause of its inundation, ib. 75, n. — 
the opinion of Herodotus, 75 — never has the benefit of 
rains, 76 — why no breeze blows from its surface, ib. — 
its sources, ib. — certainly rises in Libya, and probably 
takes a similar course with the Ister, 78 — its priests, 
98 — during its inundation, vessels traverse the fields 
and plains, ib. — its course diverted by Menes, 101 — 
Pheron lost his sight by hurling a javelin into the vor- 
tex; of the stream, 105— excellence of its water, 137, n. 
—no stream or fountain enters into it, 203— this con- 
tradicted, ib. n. — its different names, 75, n. 

Nineveh, its inhabitants formerly the first power in Asia, 
33. 

Nisaius, remarkable for producing horses of an extraor- 
dinary size, 334, 424, n. 

Nitetes, the daughter of Apries, sent by Amasis as his 
own daughter, to be the wife of Cambyses, 135. 

Nitocris, queen of Babylon, her vast works at Babylon, 
56 — her tomb opened by Darius, 57. 

Nitocris, queen of Egypt, her stratagem to avenge her 
brother's death, 102 — suffocated herself, ib. 

Noah, his ark considered as a kind of temple, 120, n. 

Noah, the Danube properly the river of, 203, n. 

Nomades, African, 237 — their customs, 240. 

Nomades, Scythian, totally unacquainted with agricul- 
ture, 194. 

Nonacris, oaths taken there by the waters of Styx, con- 
sidered by the Greeks as inviolable, 301, n. 

Nonnus wrote a volume on the rites of Bacchus, 212, n. 
— character of his paraphrase of St John's gospel, ib. n. 

o 

Oath taken by the Peloponnesians previous to their en- 
gagement with the Persians under Mardonius, 424, n. 

Ocean, a bull sacrificed to, by Cleomenes, 302. See Sea. 

Oceanus, no river of that name known to Herodotus, 75. 

Octomasades deprives his brother of his head, 212. 

Odin's hall, hope of sitting in it inspired the Gothic war- 
riors with invincible courage, 207, n. 

CRbares, groom to Darius, his ingenuity procures his 
master the sovereignty of Persia, 166. 

CEbazus, a Persian, his three sons put to death by order 
of Darius, 213. 

GSobazus, of Cardia, with other Persians, retires before 
the Greeks to Sestos, 447 — is sacrificed by the Apsin- 
thians to their god Pleistorus, 448. 

Offices of nature performed at home by the Egyptians, 
79— out of doors by the Greeks, 80, n. 

Offspring, the Persians esteem a man in proportion to 
the number of his, 43. 

Ointments, precious, their use in hot climates, 210, n. 

Oiolycus, son of Theras, whence his name, 228. 

Oiorpata, the Amazons so called by the Scythians, 219. 

Olen, of Lycia, the first Greek poet, 199, n. — the word, 
an Egyptian sacred term, ib. n. 

Oligarchy, arguments of Megabyzus in favour of, 164. 

Olive, applied by the ancients to various uses, and the 
symbol of different qualities of the mind, 258, n. — those 
of the Athenians deemed the most sacred, 269 — the 
Epidaurians apply to the Athenians for leave to take 
one of their olives, ib. — one placed in the temple of 
Erectheus at Athens, 393. 

Olympia, the stadium at, said to have been measured by 
Hercules to the length of six hundred of his own feet, 
213, n. 



INDEX. 



477 



Olympic game?, the Eleans send ambassadors to consult 
the Egyptians on, 136 — laws concerning the judges of 
them, 250, n. — mode of pairing the combatants, ib. n. 
— the prizes frequently transferred by the conquerors, 
3W), n. — several examples of entertainments given by 
the conquerors in consequence of their victory, 315, n. 

Oh/mpus, seen by Xerxes from Therma, 350. 

Ohpithus, taken by Artabazus, 411. 

Omens, from birds, 162, n. — fire self-kindled deemed by 
the anoients auspicious, 303, n — sneezing considered 
as auspicious, 311, n. — drawn from names, much re- 
garded by the Greeks and Romans, 442, n. 

Onesilus, of Salamis, occasions a revolt of the Cyprians 
from the Medes, 277 — procures assistance from the 
Ionian?, 278 — his combat with Artybius, ib. — is slain, 
279 — yearly sacrifices to him by the people of Ama- 
thus, ib. 

Onomacrilus, an Athenian priest, recites oracular verses 
before Xerxes, which induced him to invade Greece, 
323- 

Opts, an Hyperborean virgin, honoured by the Delians, 
198. 

Oracle of Abas, in Phocis, 14, n. 387,413 — of Amphi- 
araus, 15, 413— of Apollo, 55, n. 9? — of Apollo Isme- 
nian, 413— of Bacchus, 348— of Bacis, 385, 399, 404, 
430 — of Branchidae, 15, n. 49, 254 — of the Dead, near 
the river Acheron, 273 — of Delos, 55, n. — of Delphi, 
14, n. 15, 20, 272— of Diana, 97— of Dodona, 14, n. 86, 
87— of Hercules, 97— of Jupiter Ammon, 14, n. 15, 73, 
87, 97— of Jupiter at Meroe, 77— of Latona, 97— of 
Mars, 97— of Minerva, 97— of Patarse, in Lycia, 55— 
of Thebes, in Egypt, 88— of Trophonius, 15, n. 413. 

Oracles, some account of, 14, n. — oracular temples 
mostly situated on mountains, 41, n. — that of Dodona, 
the most ancient of Greece, 86 — commencement of the 
two oracles of Greece and Libya, 87 — why the name 
of dovee given them, ib.— mischiefs of, 298, n.— Hero- 
dotus declares his faith in them, 399. 

Oracles, answers of, to Alyattes, 7 — to Croesus, 15— to 
Lycurgus, 20 — to the Lacedaemonians, 21 — to Croesus, 
27 — to the Lydians, 29 — concerning Pactyas, 49 — to 
the people of Marea and Apis, 74— to Pheron, 106— 
concerning Psammitichus, 124 — to the Siphnians, 155 
— to Battus, 230 — to the Thereans, ib. — to Arcesi- 
laus, 232— to Clisthenes, 264— to Eetion, 272— to Cyp- 
selus, 273 — concerning the Milesians, 285 — to the 
Thracian Dolonci, 290— to the Argives, 302— to Glau- 
cus, 305— to the Athenians, 354— to the Argives, 356 
—to the Cretans, 363— to the Spartans, 375— of Bacis, 
concerning the battle of Salatnis, 309 — of Bacis, con- 
cerning the battle of Platea, 430. 

Oraxes, vide Araxes. 

Orestes, son of Agamemnon, his body discovered by 
Lichas, 21. 

Orvctes, governor of Sardis, contrives the death of 
Polycrate6, 177 — and accomplishes it, 178 — kills Mitro- 
bates and his son, and a messenger from Darius, 179 — 
by whose command he is put to death, ib. 

Orpheus, mysteries of, 96 — his death, how revenged by 
the Thracians on their wives, 246, n. 

Orthian hymn, sung by Arion, 8— adapted to excite mi- 
litary ardour, ib. n. 

Orus, Apollo, 120, 125. 

Oryxes, animals in Africa so called, 241. 

Osiris, worshipped at Philae, under the figure of the 
Ethiopian hawk, 120, n. — with the Greeks, the same 
as Bacchus, ib. n. — said to be the same with Apis, 
145, n. 

Ossa, seen by Xerxes from Therma, 350. 

Ostracism, first inflicted on Clisthenes, who introduced 
it, 266, n. — not always dishonourable, ib. n. 399, n. 



Otanes, son of Pharnaspes, suspects Smerdis not to lie 
the son of Cyrus, 159 — and by means of Phaedyma, 
discovers that he is not, ib. — with six others, among 
whom is Darius, forms a conspiracy against him, 160 
— and kills him and his brother, 162 — his arguments 
in favour of a republican government, 163 — agrees to 
the establishment of a monarchy, 165 — a mark of dis- 
tinction voted to him and his posterity, ib. — sent by 
Darius to take Samos, 183 — takes Samos, and delivers 
it to Syloson, almost without an inhabitant, 185— re- 
peoples Samos, ib. — marries a daughter of Darius, 279 
— is ordered by Darius with Artaphernes to lead their 
forces into Ionia and iEolia, where they take Clazo- 
menae and Cyma, 280. 

Otanes, son of Sisamnes, his appointment under Darius, 
251 — is made a judge by Cambyses, in the room of his 
father, who had been put to death for corruption, 251. 

Othryades, ashamed to survive three hundred of his 
countrymen in a combat with the Argives, kills him- 
self, 27. 

Otters, produced by the Nile, and venerated by the 
Egyptians, 93 — their skins used by the Budini to 
border their garments, 219. 

Ovid, banished to a rude and uncivilized country, 219, n. 

Oxen, their flesh said to be eaten raw from the livingox 
by the Abyssinians, 170, n. — in Scythia, without horns, 
196 — in a part of Africa, walk backward whilst feed- 
ing, 238. 



Pactolus flows through the centre of the forum at Sardis, 
276— brings, in its descent from Tmolus, a quantity of 
gold dust, ib. 

Pactyas effects a revolt of the Lydians in the absence of 
Cyrus, 48 — informed of the advance of an army against 
him, flies to Cyme, ib. — is delivered up by the Chians, 
49 — this account contradicted by Plutarch, ib. n. 

Pecan, various usage of the word, 245, n. 

Pceonians conquer the Perinthians, ib. — submit to the 
Persians, and are removed to Asia, 248— those led 
captive by Megabyzus, by the encouragement of Ari- 
stagoras, return to Paeonia, 276. 

Painting, probably known in Egypt in the first ages, 
but no painter there of celebrity, 132, u. — date of its 
origin, ib. n. — relics of ancient painting, beautiful, ib. 
n. — an excellent subject proposed for an historical 
painting, 186, n. 

Palestine, Syrians of, borrowed the custom of circum- 
cision from Egypt, 103. 

Palm, common in Babylonia, 59 — process of its cul- 
tivation in Babylonia, ib. — why called Phoenix, 93, n. 
a type of the resurrection, ib. n. 

Pan, how represented by the Mendesians, 84 — in the 
Egyptian language, the namefor a goat, ib. — esteemed 
by the Egyptians the most ancient of the gods, 120— 
the son of Penelope and Mercury, 121— his appearance 
to Phidippides, 310 — his temple on mount Parthenius, 
ib. n. — a temple erected to him by the Athenians, ib. 

Panathenea, a festival in honour of Minerva, 260. 

Pangceus, the mount, 248. 

Panionius, his severe punishment by Herraotimus, 407. 

Panionium, 46— probably Suggested to Milton his idea 
of his Pandemonium, 282, u. 

Pantaleon, destroyed by Crcesus, 31. 

Panticapes, the river, its course, 204. 

Pantites, in disgrace, puts an end to his life, 378. 

Paper, its invention and improvement, 261, n. 

Paphlagonians, their cavalry esteemed, 370, n. 

Papyrus, converted by the ancients tc various uses, 100, 
n. — now scarce in Egypt, ib. n. 



478 



INDEX. 



Parians, always accounted people of good sense, 223, n. i 
— their method of restoring peace to the Milesians, ib. j 
— besieged by Miltiades, 318. 
Paris, seized with Helen, and sent to Porteus at Mem- 
phis, 107. See Alexander, son of Priam. 
Parnassus, particulars concerning, 387, n. 

Paros, marble of, of inimitable whiteness, 155, n.— I 
always preferred by the ancient sculptors, 262, n. 

Parricide, the Persians will not believe it ever was | 
committed, 43. 

Parthenius, mount, whence so called, 310, n. 

Patarbemis, his nose and ears cut off by order of 
A pries, king of Egypt, 127. 

Pausanius, son of Cleombrotus, aspired to the sove. 
reignty of Greece, 253— conducts live thousand Spar- 
tans against the Persians, 421 — engages with the Per- 
sians at Platea, 435 — and is victorious, ib. — consecrates 
a vessel of brass on his victory at Platea, 212, and n.— 
protects the concubine of Pharandates, 438— his reply 
to Lampon, 439 — receives a tenth of the plunder at : 
Platea, 440 — his words to the Grecian leaders, on the 
luxury of the Persians, and the poverty of the Greeks, 
ib. 

Pauw, M. a false quotation of his, 209, n. 

Pelasgians, their language, 17 — the Grecian figure of 
Mercury derived from them, 86 — worshipped the gods 
by no name, ib.— expelled Attica by the Athenians, 
319 —those who settled at Lemnos surprise the Athe- 
nian females, while celebrating the feast of Diana ; 
carry many of them to Lemnos, and make them their 
concubines, 320 — put their children to death, and then 
determine to kill their mothers, ib.— their earth, cattle, 
and wives,cursed with sterility, ib.— by command of the 
oracle, go to Athens, and engage to submit to what- 
ever satisfaction the Athenians shall propose, ib. — 
agree to surrender Lemnos to the Athenians, on terms 
■which are accomplished by Miltiades, ib. — derivation 
of their name, 390, n. 

Pelopidaz, the descendants of Agamemnon, why so call- 
ed, 260, n. 

Peloponnese, defended by the Greeks against Xerxes, 
397. 

Peloponnesians, their oath at the isthmus, previous to 
their engagement with the Persians, 424, n. — after the 
battle of Mycale, return to Greece, 447. 

Pelusium, Sennacherib's army put to flight there, 119. 

Peneus, the river, formed of several rivers, 351. 

Pentathlon, various opinions of, 307. 

Perdiccas, manner of his obtaining the throne of Mace- 
donia, 413. 

Perfumes, particulars concerning, 141, n. 210, n. 

Periander, son of Cypselus,7 — some account of him, 152, 
n. — sends 300 children of the Corcyreans to be made 
eunuchs, 152 — kills his wife, ib. — banishes his son Ly- 
cophron, ib. — takes Epidaurus, and makes Procles 
his prisoner, 153 — invites his son Lycophron to the 
throne, who, with much persuasion accepts it, but is 
killed by the Corcyreans, 154 — his cruelty, 273. 

Pericles, his mother, being pregnant, dreamed that she 
brought forth a lion, 318. 

Perinthians, conquered by the Paeonians, 245— conquer- 
ed by the Persians under Megabyzus, ib. 

Perseus, one of the most ancient heroes in the Grecian 
mythology, 99, n. — no other than the sun, ib. n. — visit- 
ed Egypt, for the purpose of carrying from Africa the 
Gorgon's head, ib. — had no mortal father, 294 — said by 
the Persians to be an Assyrian by birth, 295. 

Persia, its increasing empire, 14 — disagreement between 
the Grecian and Asiatic history of, 158, n.— divided by 
Darius into provinces, 167— its satrapies, ib.— its an- 
nual revenue under Darius, 169. 



Persians, clothed with skins, 22 — drank water only, ib.— 
haughty but poor, 29 — not certain whether their dia- 
lect the same with that of the Medes, 36, n.— all their 
words, expressive of personal or other distinction, 
terminate in the Doric san, the same with the Ionian 
sigma, 43 — all their names end alike, 44 — have no sta 
tues, temples, nor altars, 41 — sacrifice to Jove on 
mountains, *ib. — their deities, ib. — mode of worship, 42, 
72, n. — their festivals, 42 — drink wine profusely, ib. — 
deliberate on the weightiest matters when warm with 
wine, but re-consider them on the morrow, ib. — their 
salutations, ib. — esteem themselves above the rest of 
mankind, ib. — fond of foreign ma'nners, ib. — learned a 
passion for boys from Greece, ib. — have a plurality of 
wives, 43, 160— esteem a man in proportion to the 
number of his offspring, 43 — mode of educating their 
children, 43, 160, n.— put none to death for a single 
offence, 43 — will not believe that any one ever killed 
his parent, ib. — abhor falsehood, 43, 160, n. — their 
opinion of the leprosy, 43 — are averse to white pigeons, 
ib. — venerate all rivers, ib. — custom of the magi with 
respect to interment, 44 — enclose their dead in wax, 
and then place them in the ground, ib. — never burn 
their dead, 140 — burying alive a common custom with 
them, 348 — their magi, 44 — their method of providing 
themselves with water in the Syrian deserts, 137— soft- 
ness of their skulls attributed to their use of turbans, 1 38 
— their kings drank no water but that of the Choaspee, 
57 — hold the sons of sovereigns in the greatest reve- 
rence, 140 — their king lives chiefly on bread, 142 — 
places of residence of their monarchs after the reduc- 
tion of Babylon, 187, n. — the treasures of their king 
deposited at Susa, 258 — on the death of their prince, 
his successor remits every debt due to the prince or 
the public, 297 — law respecting those who gave advice 
to the king, 325, n. — adoration always paid to their 
kings, by those admitted to their presence, 352, n. — 
venerate fire, 140— extinguish fire throughout Persia 
on the death of the sovereign, ib. n. — their longest 
period of life, 142 — had amongst them a distinction of 
nobility, 163, n. — their native race small and ugly, 169, 
n. — beauty of their ladies now a constant theme of 
praise, ib. n. — their arms and dress, 257, 341 — wear 
their hair long, 258, 285 — whence their name, 3S9 — 
almost always comprehended by Herodotus and other 
ancient writers under the name of Medes, 372 — anec- 
dote of a Persian, who founded all his merit on the 
splendour of his name, 395, n. — swiftness of their mes- 
sengers, 404— why they considered the Greeks as their 
public enemies, 2— engagement with the Lydians, 25 
— under Cyrus, revolt against the Medes, 40 — take 
Astyagcs prisoner, and destroy the greater part of his 
army, 40 — and thus get possession of Asia, 41— get 
possession of Phocea, 50 — some of them put to the 
sword by the Massagetae, 64— attack and beat the Mas- 
sagetae in a state of intoxication, ib. — paid no tribute 
to Darius, 169— besiege Barce, 243 — enter Barce by 
stratagem, and surrender it to the power of Phereti- 
ma, 244 — seven Persians sent by Megabyzus, to require 
of Amyntas earth and water in the name of Darius, 
249 — which are granted, and they are entertained by 
Amyntas, ib. — but, for their indecency towards some 
Macedonian women, are put to death by stratagem, 
250 — defeat the Ionians at Ephesus, 276— obtain a com- 
plete victory over the Cyprians, 278 — defeat the Ca- 
rians on the banks of the Marsyas, 279 — again defeat 
the Carians, together with the Milesians, 280— fall in- 
to an ambuscade of the Carians, and lose a vast num- 
ber, ib. — rout the Ionians, besiege Miletus, and take 
and plunder it, 285— make themselves masters of Ca- 
ria, 288— in a battle with Histiaeus, take him prisoner, 



I N D E X. 



479 



and slay the greater part of his forces, 289— take Chios, 
Lesbos, Tenedos, and the Ionian cities on the continent, 
ib. — bnrn the city of the Naxians, 307 — besiege Carys- 
tos, which surrenders to them, 303 — get possession of 
Eretria, pillage and burn its temples, and make the peo- 
ple slaves, 309 — sail to Attica, and are conducted by 
Hippias to Marathon, ib. — are defeated at Marathon 
by the Athenians assisted by the PJateans, 313 — retire 
to Asia, 314 — their loss of men in the battle of Mara- 
thon, ib. — march under the command of Xerxes against 
the Athenians, 328 — surpass all the rest of Xerxes' 
army, 341 — their band called Immortal defeated by the 
Lacedaemonians, 373 — their fleet suffers in a storm near 
Euboea, 394— their joy on hearing that Xerxes was 
master of Athens, 405— their sorrow on hearing of the 
defeat of Xerxes at Salamis, ib. — their station in the 
army of Mardonius at Platea, 423 — are dissuaded by 
Cyrus from removing to a better country, 449. 

Person, Philip of Crotona honoured by the Egestae for 
the accomplishments of his, 257. 

Penngilia, observed principally in honour of Ceres and 
Venus, 210, n. 

Petalism, a mode of banishment, 399, n. 

Phaterum, plundered by the ^ginetse, 269— the naval 
troops of Xerxes arrive at, 396. 

Phallus, consecration of, 85, n.— its use in the sacrifice of 
Bacchus, taught the Greeks by Melampus, ib. 

Phanes, of Halicarnassus, pursued by order of Amasis, 
but escapes, 136 — his sons put to death in his sight, 138. 

Pharandates, son of Teaspes, his concubine seeks protec- 
tion from Pausanias, 438. 

Pharnaclius orders the legs of his horse to be cut off, 342, 
andn. 

Phayllus fits out a vessel at his private expense, to assist 
the Greeks at Salamis, 391, n.— thrice victorious at the 
Pythian games, 391. 

Phcmius, the most ancient rhapsodist on record, 264, n. 

Phenicians, asserted by the Persians to have been the 
original exciters of contention between the Greeks and 
Barbarians, 1 — exported to Argoa the produce of 
Egypt and Assyria, ib. — the head of all the nations of 
Asia, 2, n. — borrowed circumcision from Egypt, 103 — 
those who are connected with Greece do not use cir- 
cumcision, ib.— refuse to assist Cambyses against the 
Carthaginians, 141— sent by Necho king of Egypt, to 
penetrate the northern ocean, and sail round Africa, 
200— introduced letters in Greece, 261— the Ionians 
obtain a victory over thein off Cyprus, 278— burn the 
cities of the Byzantians and Chalcedonians, and reduce 
all the other parts of the Chersonese, except Cardia, 
290 — arriving off Tenedos, pursue and take a vessel 
belonging to Miltiades, and conduct his son to Darius, 
292 — their sagacity in making trenches for the army of 
Xerxes, 329 — with the Egyptians, have the care of 
transporting provisions for Xerxes' army, in his expe- 
dition to Greece, 330 — supply Xerxes with a number 
of vessel*, 342 — of different countries, ib. n. — several 
executed by order of Xerxes, 402. 

Pheretime, mother of Arcesilaus, on requesting an army 
of Euelthon, receives a gold spindle, and a distaff with 
wool, 232— on her son's death, applies to Aryandes to 
revenge his cause, ib. — wiio delivers all the land and 
sea forces of Egypt to her command against the Bar- 
ceans, 233— crucifies such of the Barceans as had been 
concerned in the murder of her son, 244— perishes 
miserably in Egypt, ib. 

Pheron, king of Egypt, succeeds his father Sesostris, 105 
— loses his eyes, ib. — and recovers them, 100 — burns a 
number of women, ib.— is succeeded by Proteus, ib. 

Phidippides, Pan appears to, commanding him to reprove 
the Athenians, 310— arrives at Sparta, on the second 
day of his departure from Athens, "311. 



Philip of Crotona, son of Butacides, his adventures, 257 
— honoured for his accomplishments of person, ib. 

Philip of Macedon, his method of preventing pride and 
insolence in himself, 307, n. 

Philitis, pyramids called after, 114. 

Philocyprus, prince of Soli, celebrated in verse by Solon, 
279. 

Phocceans, the first of the Greeks who made long voy- 
ages, 50 — attacked hy Harpagus, desert Phocaea, and 
proceed to Cyrnus, ib. — obtain a Cadmean victory, 51 
— quit Cyrnus, and retire to Rhegiura, ib. — build the 
city Hyela, ib. 

Phoceans, their method to prevent the incursions of the 
Thessalians in the straits of Thermopylae, 365 — their 
stratagems against the Thessalians, 386 — fortitude of 
their women in an attack by the Thessalians, ib. n. — 
in defiance of the Thessalians, refuse to desert the cause 
of Greece, 387 — their country overrun by the army of 
Xerxes, ib. — their valour, on a report that they were 
about to be put to death by the Persian cavalry, 423. 

Phoenix, a sacred bird in Egypt, rarely seen, 93 — incredi- 
ble story of its burying its parent, ib. 

Phoenix, the stream, 371. 

Phraortes, king of the Medes, his ambitious views, 33 — 
perishes in an excursion against the Assyrians, ib. 

Phronima, daughter of Etearchus, is ill-treated by her 
step-mother, 230 — delivered by her father to Themison, 
to be thrown into the sea, becomes the concubine of 
Polyranestus, by whom he has Battus, ib. 

Phrygians esteemed by the Egyptians more ancient than 
themselves, 67 — said to enjoy the greatest abundance 
of cattle, and of the earth's produce, 258 — reported to 
be the oldest of mankind, 340, n. 67, n. — their religious 
madness and effeminacy, 97, n. 

Phrynichus, the poet, fined for representing the capture 
of Miletus, 286. 

Phya, a Paeaniean woman, near four cubits high, in the 
character of Minerva, introduces Pisistratus into 
Athens, 19. 

Phylacus, a hero of Delphi, 389. 

Phylacus, son of Histiaeus, rewarded by Xerxes, 401. 

Physicians, in Egypt, are confined to one disease, 97 — 
anciently hired for a whole city by the year, 180j n. — 
fees of the ancients, for single incidental visits, very 
inconsiderable, ib. n. — of Crotona, most eminent, 181 — 
of Cyrene, most eminent, next to those of Crotona. ib. 
— Egyptian, condemned to the cross by Darius, but 
pardoned through the intercession of Democedes, ib. 

Pierre, Eustace de St, his gallant behaviour at the siege 
of Calais, by Edward III. 441, n. 

Pigeons, the Persians have an aversion to white ones, 
43. 

Pigmies, a race of, in Africa, 78. 

Pillar erected by Crcesus, to define the boundaries of 
Phrygia and Lydia, 331. 

Pillars erected for various uses in earlier ages, 281, n. 

Pindar, quoted by Herodotus, 148. 

Pines, to destroy like, a proverb denoting a final destruc- 
tion, 2'.) I, n. 

Pi raits, the most celebrated port of the Athenians, 401, n. 

Piromis, colossal figures at Thebes, so called, 120. 

Pisistratidce repel the Lacedaemonians, 263 — but in a 
second engagement are compelled by them to retire 
from Athens, ib. — use unremitting endeavours to cri- 
minate the Athenians, 307 — persuade Xerxes to invade 
Greece, 322. 

Pisistratus, son of Hippocrates, 17 — by stratagem obtains 
the supreme power at Athens, ib. — is expelled from 
Athens, but restored, 18 — marries the daughter of 
Megacles, ib. — flies to Eretria, ib. — with assistance 
seizes on Marathon, 19 — his moderatim, ib. n. — a third 
time master of Athens, ib. — the first '•oUector of Ko- 



480 



INDEX. 



mer's works, 10, v.— purifies Delos, 20— famous for 
collecting- books, 290, n.— his reproof to the idle, 309, n. 

Pit of punishment, the Athenians threw the people of 
Darius into, 351. 

Pitane, the name has afforded exercise for much criti- 
cism, 154, n. 

Pitch drawn from the bottom of the water at Zacyn- 
thus, 242. 

Pittacus of Mitylene, a memorable saying of, 9. 

Plague, caused by the vapours in Egypt, 94, n. 

Plane-tree, of gold, presented by Pythius to Darius, 330 
— a beautiful one in Lydia, ordered by Xerxes to be 
adorned with chains of gold, and the guard of it assign- 
ed to one of the immortal band, 331. 

Platea, a colony sent there by the Thereans, 229; ano- 
ther account of this, 230 — different ways of writing the 
name, ib. n. — Greeks arrive at, 425 — battle of, 435. 

Plateans join the Athenians at Marathon, in return for 
former assistance against the Thebans, 312 — limits de- 
termined between them and the Thebans, ib. 

Pledge, the Nasamones pledge their word by drinking 
alternately from each other's hands, 235— the only ce- 
remony observed in the marriages of the Algerines, 
ib. n. — rise of the phrase " I'll pledge you," ib. n. 

Pleistorus, the god of the Apsinthians, 448. 

Pliny, his mistake of the words of Herodotus, 174, n. — 
his mistake respecting the Troglodytae, 238, n. 

Plutarch, his essay against Herodotus, 2, n. — a passage 
in, amended, 197, n. — instance of the weakness of his 
tract against Herodotus, in point of argument, 275, n. 
— instance of his malignity against Herodotus respect- 
ing the battle of Marathon, 31 1, n. 

Pole, received by the Greeks from the Babylonians, 105. 

Polemarch, his office, 312, n. 364, n. 

Polycenus, Ins Stratagemata recommended to young stu- 
dents in Greek, 225, n. 

Polycrates, son of .flEaces, at war with the Lacedaemon- 
ians, 149— his prosperity, ib. — follows the advice of 
Amasis, and casts into the sea a most valuable seal 
ring, 150 ; recovers it, ib. ; and in consequence loses 
the alliance of Amasis, ib.— the Lacedaemonians under- 
take an expedition against, ib. — compels the Lacedae- 
monians to retreat from the siege of Samos, 154— an 
artifice used by him, ib. — his death contrived by Oroe- 
tes, 177 — his daughter's vision previous to his death, 
178— is put to a miserable death, ib.— filled Greece with 
the ministers of voluptuousness, 150, n. 

Polydamas encounters three Persians at once, and slays 
them all, 346, n. 

Polygamy, argument against, 100, n. — its ill effects 
visible among the Turks, ib. n. 

Porus, stone of, 262, n. 

Posidonius distinguished himself at the battleofPlatea.437. 

Posts, regularity and swiftness of the Roman, 404, n. 

Potidcea besieged by Artabazus, 411. 

Prasians, their habitations and manners, 249. 

Prasis, lake, a mine on its banks produced Alexander a 
talent a day, ib. 

Predictions, uses made of a belief in, by poets of all ages, 
308, n. 

Prexaspes, his son killed in his sight by Croesus, 147 — 
after a confession of having killed Smerdis, kills him- 
self, 162. 

Priest of the Nile, 98— every high priest in Egypt places 
in a temple a wooden figure of himself, 120— and sol- 
dier, the only rank honourably distinguished in Egypt, 
128— and king, anciently united in the same person, by 
the Spartans, 295. 

Priestesses of Dodona, 87. 

Princes of the East, their lofty titles, 57, n. 

Princes of the Spartans, distinguished by them by many 
honourable privileges, 295. 



Principle*, two, a good and :i bad, held by the magi, 
163, n. 

Prisoners of war, their various treatment in different 
ages, an interesting subject of inquiry, 149, n. 

Procles, how discovered by the Lacedaemonians to be the 
youngest son of Aristodemus, 294— at variance with 
his brother through life, ib. 

Prodigies, collection of, by Julius Obsequens, 25, n. — 
generally precede the calamities of any city or nation, 
288 — before the defeat of the Chians by Histiaeus, ib. — 
one of a tremulous motion at Delos, 308— one at the 
temple of Delphi, on the approach of Xerxes' army, 
388. 

Professions of fathers followed by their sons, among the 
Lacedaemonians, as in Egypt, 297; 

Propontis, its breadth and length, 213. 

Proserpine, called Auxesia, 269, n. — Athenian rites in 
honour of, 395. 

Protesilaus, his temple in Elaeos, 331— his wealth frau- 
dulently taken from Elaeos, and his tomb stript by Ar- 
tayctes, 447. 

Proteus, succeeds Pheron, 106 — the same with Osiris and 
Canobus, ib. — no antique figure of him, ib. n. — detains 
Helen, 107— restores Helen to Menelaus, 108— is suc- 
ceeded by Rhanipsinitus, 109. 

Proverbs, the meaning of many English ones, to be dis- 
covered in the customs and language of Greece and 
Rome, 281, n. 

Proxeni, their office, 296, u. 

Prytanes, their office, 266, n. 

Prytaneum of Athens, 46 — of several places, ib. n. — its 
derivation, 370, n. 

Psammenitus, son of Amasis, and king of Egypt, 138 — a 
prodigy during his reign, ib. — trial of his disposition 
when taken captive by Cambyses, 139— lives with 
Cambyses, 140 ; but revolts against him, and is put to 
death, ib. 

Psammis, king of Egypt, succeeds his father, 126 — is suc- 
ceeded by his son A pries, 127. 

Psa?ntnitichus, king of Egypt, prevails on the Scythians 
to retire from Egypt, 34 — his mode of discovering who 
were the most ancient people, 67 — said to have ascer- 
tained the sources of the Nile, 76— pours a libation from 
his helmet ; is deprived of a considerable part of his 
power by the other eleven kings of Egypt, and con- 
fined to the marshes, 124 — consults the oracle of La- 
tona, ib. — with the assistance of some Ionians and 
Carians, vanquishes the eleven kings, ib. — builds the 
vestibule of the temple of Vulcan, at Memphis, and an 
edifice for Apis, ib. — rewards the Ionians and Carians, 
ib. — spends twenty-nine years in the siege of Azotns, 
125— is succeeded by his son Necos, 126. 

Psylli, their expedition against the south-wind, 235 — 
celebrated for managing serpents, ib. n. 

Pteria, battle of, 24. 

Punishment by death, never inflicted by the Persians foi 
a single offence, 43 — severe, in what cases allowed by 
the Persians, ib. — by death, not allowed by Sabacus in 
Egypt, for fifty years, 117 — capital, always inflicted by 
the Lacedaemonians by night, 227 — Athenian pit of, 25 1 . 

Purple, Pythernus habited in, to get a number of Spar- 
tans together, 47 — particularly affected by women, ib. 
n.— of the ancients, 142, n. 406, n. 

Pygargi, probably quadrupeds, 241, n. 

Pyramids of Memphis, 69 — on the side of Egypt, towards 
Libya, 70 — of Egypt, injured by an acrid matter exud- 
ing from the soil, 71 — erected by Mosris, 102— consid- 
ered by Voltaire as a proof of the slavery of the Egyp- 
tians, 111, n. — the different uses for which they are 
supposed to have been erected, 112, n.— the great one 
built by Cheops, a work of twenty years, ib. ; its di- 
mensions, ib. n. : mode of its construction, ib. ; was 



INDEX. 



481 



coated, 113, n.— its cost, 113— one of them constructed i 
by means of the prostitution of Cheops' daughter, ib. I 
—one built by Chephren, 114— not the sepulchres of j 
Cheops and Chephren, for whom they were designed, 
ib. n.— one built by Mycerinus, 115— one of brick, built 
by Asychis, 117— in the lake Moeris, 123— of Egypt, 
formerly huge rocks, 69, n. 

Pythagoras, of Samos, 96, n. 162— said to have introduc- 
ed weights and measures into Greece, 317, n. 

Pythagoras, governor of Miletus, 280. 

Pythes, son of Ischenous, greatly distinguishes himself, 
366— preserved by the Persians for his valour, and re- 
stored safe to his country, ib. 403. 

Pythian. See Delphi. 

PytMi, their office, 296. 

Pythius, son of Atys, entertains Xerxes and his army 
with great mgnificence, and engages to supply him 
with money for the Athenian war, 330— gives Darius 
a plane-tree, and a vine of gold, ib.— in return for his 
liberality, is presented by Xerxes with seven thousand 
gold staters, 331— requests of Xerxes to dispense with 
the presence of his eldest son in his Grecian expedi- 
tion, 333— the body of his eldest son is, by order of 
Xerxes, divided in two, ib. 

Q 

Quail-fighting among the ancients, 12, n. 
Quails of Egypt, a great delicacy, 95, n. 

R 

Rabbi, meaning of that word, when used by an inferior 
to a person above him, 322, n. 

Race of torches, Athenian, in honour of Pan, 310— in 
honour of various deities, ib. n. 

Rain, lands in Egypt never fertilized by, 72— falls but 
seldom in Egypt, ib. n.— unknown in Ethiopia, 75— 
this contradicted, ib. n.— at the Egyptian Thebes a pro- 
digy, 138— none for seven years in Thera, 229— never 
falls in some parts of Africa, 239. 

Red Sea, what, 55, n. 199. 

Relaxation, necessity of, 130. 

Religion, the ancients remarkably scrupulous in every 
thing which regarded, 89, n.— without it the conduct 
always irregular, 150, n. — of the Pagans how best ex- 
plained, 379, n. 

Remetnber, a word memorable in English History, 307, 
n. 

Reptiles, eaten by the Troglodytae, 238. 

Republic, arguments in favour of, 163. 

Resurrection, the phoenix a type of, 93, n. 

Reverence, paid by the Egyptians to age, 96— rising from 
the seat seems to be a prevailing mark of reverence 
every where, ib. n. 

Reward of merit, an ancient mode of, 191, n. 

Rhadinace, an oil collected by the Persians at Ardaric- 
ca, 315. 

Rhampsinitus, king of Egypt, succeeds Proteus, 109— 
constructs an edifice for his riches, ib.— remarkable 
story of two thieves who privately entered his trea- 
sury, ib.— descended beneath the earth, 110— plays at 
dice with Ceres, ib.— is succeeded by Cheops, 111. 

Rhapsodists, etymology of the word, 264, n. — some ac- 
count of, ib. n. 

Rhegium, whence its name, 287, n. 

Rhodes, some account of, 358, n. 

Rhodopis, the courtezan, 115— Strabo's account of, ib. n. 

Rhcecus, son of Phileus, a skilful architect, 156. 

Riches of individuals in more ancient times, 330, n. 

Ring, seal, Babylonian, 60— of Polycrates, 150, n. 

Rivers, venerated by the Persians, 43. 



Rizzio, David, manner of his death, 162, n. 

Robes, the ancient custom in oriental countries, of giving 
them as a mark of distinction, still prevails, 165, n. 

Romans, less tenacious of their national dignity than the 
Greeks, 1, n. — a portion of Lacedaemonian manners 
communicated to them, 20, n. — learned their games 
and combats from the Tyrrhenians, or Etruscans, 32, 
n. — for seventy years had no statue or painting of the 
deity in their temples, 41, n.— carried the art of em. 
balming to greater perfection than the Egyptians, 97, 
n. — their method of disposing their army, 324, n. — the 
art of swimming a material part of their education, 
402, n. — the emperors obtained reputation from the 
success of their lieutenants, 406, n. — their religion con- 
trived to throw the chief influence of affairs into the 
hands of the better sort, 207, n. 

Rosamond, queen of the Lombards, her story resembles 
that of Candaules, 4, n. 

Rose, a species of, in Macedonia having sixty leaves, 414. 

Running to attack an enemy, practised by the Greeks 
first at the battle of Marathon. 313. 



Sabacus, king of Ethiopia, master of Egypt fifty years, 
117 — did not punish any crime with death, ib. — in con- 
sequence of a vision withdrew himself from Egypt, 
118. 

Sacrifices, human one, by Menelaus, 108 — public by the 
Athenians every five years, 313 — Persian mode of, 348, 
n. — human, supposed to be first introduced by Saturn, 
the Abraham of Scripture, 108, n. 

Sadder, the Persian, 44, n. 

Sadyattes, 6. 

Sagartii, their manner of engaging an enemy, 341. 

Sais, buildings at, 129. 

Sailors, British, anecdote of James II. particularly char- 
acteristic of their spirit, 410, n. 

Salamis, the Grecian fleet anchors at, 389 — its fertility, 
400, n.— sea fight at, between the Greeks and Persians, 
401. 

Salt, why called divine by Homer, 88, n.— pillars of, in 
Africa, 237 — a hill of, 238 — of the same use as money 
in Abyssinia, ib. n. — houses formed of it, 239 — two 
sorts, white and purple, ib. 

Salutation, Persian mode of, 42. 

Samiatis, expelled by Polycrates, build Cydou in Crete, 
151 — obtain assistance from the Lacedaemonians against 
Polycrates, ib. — protect three hundred children of the 
Corcyreans, 152 — forsaken by the Lacedaemonians, 
embark for Siphnos, 154— defeat the Siphnians, 155— 
are totally vanquished by the Cretans and iEgipetae, 
ib. — produced the greatest monuments of ait in Greece, 
ib. — taken by the Persians, 185 — put to the sword by 
Otanes, ib. — erect a column to commemorate an act of 
valour of their officers, 284 — possess themselves of 
Zancle, 287 — spare the lives of three hundred Zan- 
cleans, 288. 

Sa?nos, forcibly possessed by Polycrates, 149— expedition 
of the Lacedaemonians against it, 151 — and of the 
Corinthians, 152 — its cakes, ib. n. — besieged by the 
Lacedaemonians, 154 — taken by Darius, 183 — given by 
him to Syloson, ib. — delivered to Syloson almost with- 
out an inhabitant, 185. 

Samson supposed to be the Hercules of Tyre, 396, n. 

Sand, mountain of, destroys the Persian army marching 
against the Ammonians, 144 — fatal effects from moving 
sands, ib. n. 
Sandals provided by Anthilla in Egypt for the queens, 

101. 
Sappho, her manners reported dissolute by those only 
who lived a long time after her, 47, n. 
3P 



482 



INDEX. 



Sardanapalus, his treasures possessed by robbers, 123. 

Sardanis, his memorable speech to Croesus, 22. 

iardis, 3 — possessed by the Cimmerians, 6 — becomes the 
resort of the great and affluent, as well as those cele- 
brated for their wisdom, 9 — battle between Cyrus and 
Croesus near it, 26 — taken by Cyrus, 27 — taken by An- 
tiochus, ib. n. — intrusted by Cyrus in his absence to 
Tabalus, who is besieged in the citadel by Pactyas, 48 
— its distance from Susa, 260 — its distance from Ephe- 
sus, ib. — except the citadel, possessed by the Ionians, 
and accidentally burnt, 276 — Xerxes arrives there 
with his army against the Athenians, 331 — various 
masters through whose hands it passed, 281, n. 

Sardinia, reputed remarkably unhealthy, 103, n. — gave 
rise to many peculiar phrases, ib. n. — Histiaeus swears 
to render it tributary to Dari us, 277. 

Sardoces, son of Tharmasias, escapes from the cross, 
369 — taken with fifteen of the Persian ships by the 
Greeks, ib. 

Sarpedon, expelled from Crete by his brother, 52. 

Sataspes, son of Teaspes, attempts to sail round Africa, 
but is discouraged and returns to Egypt, 2O0 — is exe- 
cuted by Xerxes, 201. 

Satrce, never subdued, 347. 

Satrapy, 58 — Persia divided by Darius into twenty, 167. 

Saturn, sacrifice of children to, 362, n. — the Abraham of 
Scripture, supposed to have first introduced human 
sacrifices, 103, n. 

Saul, his mental derangement resembles that of Camby- 
ses, 148, n. 

Sauromatce, account of, 219- 

Scceus, son of Hippocoon, gives a tripod to Apollo, 262. 

Scalping, practised by the Scythians, 206 — why intro- 
duced, ib. n. 

Scaptesyla, 293- 

Sceptres frequently carried by princes in their hands, 
according to ancient authors, 301, n. 

SchvBnus, an Egyptian measure, 69. 

Scilly islands, supposed to be the Cassiterides, 175, n. 

Scylax, of Caryandia, discovers a considerable part of 
Asia, 201 — his punishment by Megabates, 253- 

Scyles, son of Aripithes, beheaded for endeavouring to 
introduce foreign ceremonies into Scythia, 212. 

Scyllias, a skilful diver, deserts from the Persians to the 
Greeks, 382. 

Scymetar, the Scythians worshipped Mars under the 
symbol of, 206, n. 

Scytha, his descent, 192. 

Scythes, king of the Zancleans, besieges a Sicilian city, 
287 — is seized and put in irons by Hippocrates, anally 
of the Samians, ib. — escapes and passes the remainder 
of his life in the Persian court, 288. 

Scythia, Darius undertakes an expedition against it, 189 
— account of its origin by the Scythians, 190 — other 
accounts of its origin, 191 — formerly belonged to the 
Cimmerians, 192 — further account of the country, and 
neighbouring nations, 194 — peculiarities of the cli- 
mate, 196 — has no towns nor fortified cities, 202— its 
rivers, 203 — its grass, 204 — barren of wood, 205 — its 
extensive plains, 213 — an impression in Scythia of the 
foot of Hercules, ib.— a description of that part of 
Scythia which is continued from the mouth of the 
Ister to the sea coast, 217 — neither asses nor mules 
produced in Scythia, 223. 

Scythians, a number of their Nomades protected by Cy- 
axares, and intrusted with the education of some 
boys, 23 — reputed excellent archers, ib. n. — revenge 
an affront offered them by Cyaxares, 23— occasion a 
war between the Lydians and Medes, ib. — their his- 
tory remarkably obscure, 34, n.— arrive at the terri- 
tories of the Medes, 34— in a battle with the Medes, 
obtain entire possession of Asia, ib.— advance towards 



Egypt, but are prevailed on by Psammetichus to re- 
turn, ib. — some of them are punished for plundering 
the temple of Venus at Ascalon, ib. — lose the domi- 
nion of Asia, 35— are subdued by Sesostris, 103 — de- 
prive their slaves of sight, 189 — drink mares' milk, ib. 
— lead a pastoral life, 190 — returning from Media, are 
opposed by their slaves, but repel them with whips, 
ib. — their own account of their origin, ib. — account of 
their origin according to the Greeks at Pontus, 191 — 
other accounts of their origin, 192, 193 — a barbarous 
people, 202 — their wisdom in constantly abiding in 
waggons, ib. — support themselves by their cattle, ib. 
n. — habitation of a modern Scythian described, ib. n. 
their laws, ib. n. — their divinities, 205 — their mode of 
sacrifice, ib — keep no swine, 206 — their military cus- 
toms, ib. — every one drinks the blood of the first per- 
son he slays, ib. — present the heads of the enemies 
they kill to the king, ib. — their mode of scalping, ib. 
— their use of human skins, ib. — their divinations, 207 
their alliances, 208— mode of burying their kings, ib.— 
manner of burying the people in general, 209— anoint 
their bodies, 210 — tenacious of their customs, ib. — 
their numbers, 212— conceiving themselves unable to 
repel Darius, apply to their neighbours, 218 — their 
connections with the Amazons, 220 — are assisted by a 
few only of their neighbours against Darius, 221 — 
their plan of operations against Darius, ib. — the 
answer of their king to the challenge of Darius, 223 — 
make several attacks on Darius, ib — the braying of 
asses greatly distresses their horses, ib. — send a mes- 
senger to Darius with a present, 224 — oppose them- 
selves to Darius in battle, ib — pursue a hare, which 
ran between their army and that of Darius, ib. — pur- 
sue Darius, but miss of him, 225 — are deceived by the 
Ionians, 226 — their Nomades, incensed against Darius, 
advance to the Chersonese, put Miltiades the prince 
to flight, and retire after an interval of three years, 
292 — the madness of Cleomenes imputed to his com- 
munication with them, 304 — to imitate them, pro- 
verbial for intemperate drinking, ib. n. — their virtues 
and wisdom according to Lucian, 205, n. — supposed 
the same with the Getae and Goths, 215, n. 

Sea, supposed by the Greeks to be incapable of congela- 
tion, 196, n. — said by the ancients to ebb and flow 
seven times a day at the Euripus, 267, n. — in the tem- 
ple of Erectheus in the citadel of Athens, a cistern, 
393, n. — a cistern so called in scripture, ib. n. 

Seals cut with a stone by the Ethiopians, 340. 

Semiramis, her admirable works at Babylon, 56 — vari- 
ous opinions of the time when she lived, ib. n. — an 
emblem, 186, n. 

Sennacherib, army of, put to flight by means of mice, 119. 

Seneca, his mistake of a passage in iElian respecting 
the Sybarites, 317, n. 

Senegambia, 243, n. 

Serpents, horses feed on, 25— sacred in the vicinity of 
Thebes, 93 — symbolical worship of, in the first ages 
very extensive, ib. n. — a symbol of the sun, ib. n. — 
winged, 93 — flying, infest Egypt and Arabia, 173 — their 
excessive increase prevented by nature, ib. — com- 
pelled the Neuri to change their habitations, 217 — 
these no other than the Dibii, ib. n. — eaten by the 
Ethiopian Troglodyta3,238, n. — small, in Africa, with 
a horn, 241 — a large one said to defend the citadei 
of Athens, 389. 

Sesatnun grows to an immense height in Babylonia, 59. 

Sesostris, king of Egypt, his exploits, 102 — columns 
erected by him after his victories, 103 — said by Vale- 
rius Flaccus to have been vanquished by the Getae, ib. 
n. — the greater part of his pillars not to be found, 104 
— two figures of him, ib. — returned to Egypt with au 
immense number of captives, ib. — his brother's trea- 



INDEX. 



483 



chery, ib. — makes canals in Egypt, ib. — distributes the 
lands in Egypt, ib. — no other monarch of Egypt master 
of Ethiopia, 105 — placed figures of himself and his fa- 
mily before the temple of Vulcan, ib. — is succeeded by 
his son Pheron, ib. 
Sestos, besieged and taken by the Athenians, 447. 
Sethos, king of Egypt, and priest of Vulcan, succeeds 
Anysis, 118 — deserted by his soldiers when attacked 
by Sennacherib, ib.— encouraged by a vision, marches 
to Pelusium, with a party entirely composed of trades- 
men and artizans, and is successful, ib. 119 — at his death 
the Egyptians chose twelve kings, 121. 

Severus, the emperor, his splendid funeral pile, 15, n. 

Shade, in all oriental climates, desirable for sleep and 
repasts, 284, n. 

Shaving the head, practised by the Egyptians from a very 
early age, 138— a testimony of sorrow, 286, n. 

Sheba, supposed to be Thebes, 70, n. 

Sheep, why the Thebans abstain from, 83 — in Arabia, 
with an enormous length of tail, 175. 

Shield, the Carians invented ornaments to, and a handle, 
52 — borrowed by the Greeks from Egypt, 237 — the 
Persian bucklers made of osier covered with skin, 
435, n. 

Ships of the ancients, 2, n.— of the Phoceans, 50— of bur- 
den, how constructed by the Egyptians, 101 — ceremony 
in the ancient mysteries of carrying one about, related 
to Noah and the deluge, ib. — of the Syphnians painted 
red, 155 — of the ancients, drawn on shore, whenever 
they wanted to remain any time in one place, 33S, n. — 
twenty, sold by the Corinthians to the Athenians, 306 
— three triremes consecrated by the Greeks after the 
battle of Salamis, 410. 

Shoes of the ancients, 60, n. — standing in another's, 281, n, 

Shrew-mice, buried by the Egyptians, 91. 

Sibylline books, story of, 428, n. 

Sicily, fertile in corn, 360, n. — its cheese esteemed, ib. n. 

Sicinnus, sent privately by Themistocles, to inform the 
leaders of Xerxes' fleet of the consternation and dis- 
sentions of the Greeks at Salamis, 399. 

Sick, law of the Babylonians concerning, 61 — put to death 
by their relations among the Padaean Indians, 170 — 
among certain Indians retire to some solitude, ib. 

Signals in battle, art of making them brought to great 
perfection, 314, n. — various kinds of, 382, n. 

SigyncB, their horses not able to carry a man, 247. 

Sileni, the elder satyrs, 414, n. 

Silphium, 234, n. 

Silver, its proportion to gold in the time of Herodotus, 
6, n. — not used by the Massagetae, 65 — the Spartans not 
allowed to have any, 195, n. — none possessed by the 
Scythians, 209. 

Simonides, of Ceos, 276 — his memorable saying concern- 
ing God, ib. 277, n. 

Simonides, of Chios, the inventor of local memory, 94, n. 

Simonides, son of Leoprepis, 377. 

Simplicity of manners, in the East, similar in ancient and 
modern times, 414, n. 

Sinope, various accounts of, 192, n. 

Siphnos, its riches, 154 — its present state, 155, n. 

Sisamnes, put to death by Cambyses for corruption in 
his office of judge, 251. 

Skin of a man, used by many Scythians a3 a covering to 
their horses, 206 — punctures on, a mark of nobility 
with the 1 hracians, 246 — of Sisamnes, found guilty of 
corruption, fixed over the tribunal at which he had 
presided, 251. 

Skins of animals, dresses made of them, of the highest 
antiquity, 22, n. — were anciently prizes at games, 99, 
n. — used for books, instead of the biblos, 261 — of sacri- 
ficed animals assigned by the Spartans to their princes 
in war, 295. 



Skulls of the Egyptians hard, of the Persians soft, 138— 
of enemies made use of as drinking cups by the Scythi- 
ans, 207 — the veins of, burnt by the African shepherds 
at the age of four years, 239 — letters inscribed upon 
the skull of a slave by Histiaeus, 254 — instance of one 
without a suture, 440, and n. 
Slaves, why deprived of sight by the Scythians, 189 — 
their cruel treatment at Rome, ib. n. — particulars con- 
cerning, 258, n. — usurp the government of Argos, and 
after a tedious war with their masters, are subdued, 
303 — the first, were captives in war, 309, n. — Ionian 
female, celebrated for their graces and accomplish- 
ments, 408, n. 

Sleeping, after dinner, an invariable custom in warmer 
climates, 19, n. — a race of men said to live beyond Scy- 
thia, who sleep away six months of the year, 195. 

Smerdis, put to death by his brother Cambyses, 14G — by 
iEschylus is called Merdis, ib. n. 

Smerdis, the magus, is placed on the throne of Cambyses, 
156— pretending to be Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, reigns 
seven months after the death of Cambyses, 159 — the 
Artaxerxes in Ezra, who obstructed the work of the 
temple, ib. n.— discovered to be not the son of Cyrus, 
160 — is slain with his brother, 162. 

Smindyrides, son of Hippocrates, a Sybarite, eminent for 
his refined luxury, 317. 

Smyrna, Gyges carries his arms against, 6 — how lost by 
the iEolians, 47. 

Sneezing, considered as an auspicious omen, 311, n.— a 
custom with the Latins, when any one sneezed, to cry, 
" Save you!" ib. n. 

Snow, described by falling feathers, 191, 197. 

Soldiers receive the highest honours, even in the least 
refined nations, 128— and priests, the only ranks hon- 
ourably distinguished in Egypt, ib. 

Soli, taken by the Persians after a five months' siege, 279. 

Solomon, the quantity of gold employed by him in over- 
laying the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, 330, n. — 
quantity of gold which he had in one year from Ophir, 
331, n. 

Solon resorts to Sardis, 9 — is kindly received by Croesus, 
10— his sentiments on happiness, ib. — is dismissed by 
Crcesus with indifference, 11— his conversation with 
JEsop, ib. n.— his reply to Crcesus, recollected by the 
latter in captivity, 28 — their conversation related by 
Plutarch, ib. n. — celebrates Philocyprus in verse, 279 — 
his design entirely the reverse of that of Lycurgus, 
379, n. 

Song, ancient Egyptian, 95 — Grecian, called Linus, 96, n. 
— in Greece, supposed to have preceded the use of let- 
ters, ib. n. — an original Caribbean song, ib. n. — an 
American war song, 206, n. 

Soothsayers, an animated fragment of Ennius against, 
208, n. 

Sophanes, son of Eutychides, most eminent of the Athen- 
ians at the battle of Platea, 437 — kills Eurybates in 
single combat, 438 — slain by the Edonians, in a contest 
about some gold mines, ib. 

Sophocles, anecdote of, at the rejoicings on the victory of 
Salamis, 404, n. 

Sondes, his speech to the Lacedaemonians in favour of 
liberty, 271. 

Sostrates, most fortunate of the Greeks in commerce, 
229. 

Soul, the Egyptians first defended its immortality, 111 — 
various opinions concerning it, ib. n. — metempsychosis, 
111. 

Spaco, wi r e of Mitridates, saves the life of Cyrus, ;*(.>, 

Spartans. See Lacedaemonians. 

Speech of Cyrus to the Ionians and iEolians, 44- Cyrus 
to a Lacedaemonian ambassador, 47 — Cambyse to the 
Persians, previous to his death, 158 — Darius and Otane* 



484 



INDEX. 



to the rest of the conspirators against the magi, 160— 
Gobryas against the magi, 161 — Otanes in favour of a 
republic, 163— Megabyzus in favour of an oligarchy, 
164 — Darius in favour of a monarchy, 165— Coes to 
Darius, 216— the Scythian ambassadors to their neigh, 
bours who had assembled in council, on the approach 
of Darius, 221— Indathyrsus to the ambassador of 
Darius, 223— Gobryas to the Persians, 224— Histiaeus 
to the Scythians, 226— Aristagoras to Cleomenes, 257— 
the Spartans to Hippias, and the representatives of 
their Grecian allies, 271— Sosicles to the Spartans, ib. 
Darius to Histiaeus, 277— Histiaeus to Darius, ib.— the 
Persian commanders to the Ionian princes deposed by 
Aristagoras, 482 — Dionysius to tlie Ionians at Lade, 
433— Leutychides to the Athenians, 304— Clisthenes to 
the suitors of his daughter Agarista, 318 — Xerxes on a 
war with Greece, 323 — Mardonius on a war with 
Greece, 324— Xerxes to Artabanus, 335, 336— Artaban- 
us to Xerxes, 325, 335, 336— Xerxes to the Persians, 
336 — Harmocydes to the Phoceans, 423 — the Tegeans, 
on a dispute with the Athenians, respecting their sta- 
tion in the Grecian army at Platea, 425; and of the 
Athenians on the same subject, 426 — Alexander to the 
Athenian commanders, 431 — Pausanias to the Athen- 
ian chiefs, ib. — Mardonius to the Spartans, ib. — Mar- 
donius to Thorax, Eurypilus, and Thrasydeius, 434 — 
Pausanias to the Athenians, ib. — Lampon to Pausan- 
ias, 439 — Pausanias to Lampon, ib. 
Spelt, Egyptian bread made with, 80, 95. 
Sperthies and Bulis present themselves before Xerxes, to 
make atonement for the death of the Persian ambassa- 
dors,352 — refuse to prostrate themselves beforeXerxes, 
and are dismissed by him, ib. 
Sphinxes, a type of the Egyptian theology, 130, n. 
Spies, always treated by all nations in the same manner, 
355, n. — their office in Homer's time not infamous, ib. n. 
Spitting, in the presence of another, deemed an act of 

indecency, 33. 
Squares, large public ones for trade among the Greeks, 48. 
Stadium, an Egyptian measure, 70, 112. 
Stag, never seen in Africa, 241. 

Statues, the Persians have none, 40— one of a woman in 
gold, three cubits high, at Delphi, 16— first engraved on 
stone by the Egyptians, 68 — of Isis, 82— of Io, ib. — 
Egyptian, of Jupiter, S3— of Pan, 84— of Summer and 
Winter, 109— colossal, at Memphis and Sais, 131— of 
Vulcan, 148— equestrian, of Darius, 167— of Damia and 
Auxesia, 269 —of Jupiter, at Delphi, 440— of Neptune, 
at Delphi, ib. 
Stesagoras, son of Cimon, succeeds to the authority and 
wealth of Miltiades, 291 — dies of a wound in the head, 
received in the Prytaneum, ib. 
Stesicrates, his proposal to convert mount Athos into a 

statue of Alexander, 125, n. 
Stesileus, son of Thrasylus, slain in the battle of Mara- 
thon, 314. 
Stone, the shrine of Latona at Butos, of one enormous 

solid stone, 125. 
Stones, precious, the exquisite performances of the an- 
cients on them, never equalled by the moderns, 150, n. 
Stoning to death, an ancient punishment, and still in- 
flicted in Abyssinia, 419, n. 
Storax, two species imported to Europe, 173, n. 
Storm of three days on the coast of Magnesia, does con- 
siderable damage to the fleet of Xerxes, 368. 
Stratagem, employed by Cyrus, to induce the Persians 
to revolt from the Medes, 39 — employed by Darius 
against the Scythians, 224 — employed by Amasis at the 
siege of Barce, 243 — by Pigres and Mantyes, to obtain 
the government of Paeonia, 248 — of Alexander, son of 
Ainyntas, against the seven Persians sent by Megaby- 
zus, to demand of Amyntas earth and water, 250— of 



Histiaeus, for conveying his intentions secretly, 254 — 
of Cleomenes against the Thessalians, 263— of Mil- 
tiades, the son of Cimon, to secure the possession of the 
Chersonese, 291— of Cleomenes against the Argives, 
302— of the Phoceans against the Thessalians, 386— of 
Artemisia, at the battle of Salamis, 401— of Leuty- 
chides, to encourage the Greeks against the Persians 
at Mycale, 444, n.— of a Roman general after a long 
siege, 7, n. 

Strattes, tyrant of Chios, his death concerted, but not 
accomplished, 412. 

Strength of body, a principal recommendation to honour 
in early ages, 141, n. 

Strymon, the river, celebrated by ancient writers, 19, n. 

Styx, particulars relating to the waters of, 301, n. 

Subsistence, every Egyptian compelled annually to show 
his means of, 131. 

Successio?i, hereditary, its principle universal, but its or- 
der various, 321, n. 

Sun, adored by the Persians, 41— the great god of the 
Massagetae, 64 — horses sacrificed to, by the Massagetae, 
65— the overflowing of the Nile, attributed to, 75— two 
obelisks sent by Pheron to the temple of, 106 — said by 
the Egyptians to have four times deviated from his or- 
dinary course, 119, and n. — the chief of the gods, in the 
ancient mythology of Egypt, 121, n.— table of, in Ethio- 
pia, 141 — the beetle, an emblem of, 145, n. — with the 
Indians, hotter and more vertical in the morning than 
at noon, 172 — fountain of, 237 — all fountains originally 
dedicated to, ib. n. — execrated by the Atlantes, 238 — 
adored by all the Africans, 239 — temple of, 237, n. — 
supposed by the ancients to have the power of turning 
aside any evils which the night might have menaced, 
260, n.— eclipsed at the departure of Xerxes' army from 
Abydos against Greece, 333— the tutelar deity of 
Greece, ib.— his access and recess represented by the 
Phrygian rites in honour of Adonis, 421, n. — sheep 
sacred to, in Apollonia, 442. 

Superstition, frequent instances in ancient history of in- 
temperate but artful men's availing themselves of it, 
300, n.— Athenian, 417, n. 

Suppliants, their rites similar to those of hospitality 
among the ancients, 286, n. 

Surgery, the ancients had no contemptible knowledge 
of, 97, n. 

Surplice, probable rise of, 96, n. 

Susa, its distance from Sardis, 259 — the city of Memnon, 
260, 357. 

Swallows never migrate from Egypt, 75. 

Sweeping, a mode of taking islands, practised by the 
Persians, 289. 

Swift, Dean, his opinion of Herodotus, 291, n. — Dr Jor- 
tin's opinion of his learning, ib. n. 

Swiftness, instances of, in Pliny, 311, n. 

Swimming, a material part of youthful education among 
the Greeks and Romans, 402, n. — the Egyptians expert 
and graceful in, ib. n. 

Swine, how used by the Egyptians for the purposes of 
husbandry, 72 — sacrificed by the Egyptians, 84 — regard- 
ed by the Egyptians as unclean, ib. — Plutarch's ex- 
planation of the Jews' dislike to, ib. n.— offered by the 
Egyptians to Bacchus and Luna, 185 — not permitted by 
the Scythians to be kept in their country, 206 — never 
bred by the Africans, from Egypt as far as lake Tri- 
tonis, 239 — the women of Barce abstain from the flesh 
of, ib. 

Swords, at first of brass, 157, n. — more anciently worn 
over the shoulder, ib. n.— two worn by the Pomans,ib.n. 

Sybaris, taken by the inhabitants of Crotona, assisted by 
Dorieus, 256. 

Syba?-ites, their effeminacy, 256, n. — their ingratitude te 
the Milesians, 28f. 



INDEX. 



4 80 



Syloson, of Samos, gives Darius a cloak, 128— in return 

for which Darius gives him Samos, 183. 
Symbols, used by the ancients, of their respective deities, 

41. n. 
Syracuse, possessed by Gelon, 359. 
Syria, the name of Cappadocia, 3, n. 
Syrians, almost exterminated by Croesus, 24 — conquered 

by Neeos near Magdolum, 126. 
Syrtes, well described by Lucan, 234. 



Table, posture of the ancients at, 423, n. 

Talent^ particulars concerning the different weights of, 
167, n.— the Babylonian compared with the Euboic, 
168. 

Talthybim, herald of Agamemnon, 352 — his temple at 
Sparta ; his posterity honoured, ib. 

Tanagra, battle at, between the Spartans, Athenians, 
and Argives, 429. 

Tanagr&i,their country famous for fighting-cocks,268,n. 

Tanais, the river, its rise and course, 204 — whence so 
called, ib. n. 

Tar, springs of, in Zacynthus in Africa, 242, n. — of 
Pieria, 242. 

Tarentines, their severe defeat by the Cretans, 364. 

Targitaus, the first inhabitant of Scythia, 190. 

Tarsus, of Cilicia, the first commercial power in that 
part of Asia, 397, n. 

Tartars, their habitations described, 202, n. 

Tattaowing, a custom of great antiquity, 246, n. 

Tauri, distinguished by peculiar customs, 218. 

Tauris, inhumanity practised at, 448, n. 

Taurus, mount, whence its name, 190, n. 

Tears, checked by extreme affliction, finely expressed 
by Shakspeare, 139, n. 

Teavus, the river, its waters a remedy for several dis- 
eases, 214 — a column erected by Darius at, 215. 

Teeth, of one entire bone, 440, and n. 

Tegeans conquer the Lacedaemonians, 21 — unsuccessful 
after the discovery of the body of Orestes, 22 — dispute 
between them and the Athenians, 425. 

Teians, their city taken by Harpagus, commander of 
the army of Cyrus, 51 — pass into Thrace, and build 
Abdera, ib. 

Telamon, invoked by the Greeks at Salamis, 395. 

Telines obtains to his posterity the honour of being mi- 
nister of the infernal deities, 358. 

Tci), William, remarkable story of, 147, n. 

Telli'ts, of Eleum, the soothsayer, his stratagem against 
the Phoceans, 386. 

Tellus, the Athenian, deemed the most happy, by Solon, 
10. 

Tellus, the wife of Jupiter, 205, and n. 

Telmessus, son of Apollo, his priests, 25. 

Temple of iEacus, 271 — Amphiaraus, 413 — Andocrates, 
425 — Apollo Triopean, 45 — Apollo at Patarap, 55, n. — 
Apollo at Delos.ib. n — Apollo at Butos, 125 — Apollo 
erected by the Milesians, 131 — Apollo Ismenian, 261 — 
Apollo Didymean, 285 — Apollo at Abas, 387 — Apollo 
at Delphi, 398— Apollo Ptous, 41.'}— Apollo at Athene, 
268 — of Bacchus, at Byzantium, 21 4 — Ceres, on the 
Hippoleon promontory, 204 — Ceres Thesmophoros. at 
Paros, 306 — Cybele, at Sardis, burnt, 276 — Diana, at 
Butos, 125 — Dictynna, in Cydonia, 155— Erecthsns, 
392— the Furies of Laiusand CEdipus, 228— the Greeks, 
called Hellenium, 131— Juno, at Samos, ib. 1S3— 
Jupiter Carian, at Mylassa, 52 — Jupiter Osogus, ib. n. 
Jupiter Bolus, at Babylon, 55— Jupiter Thebcan, ib.— 
Jupiter Olympus, at Pisa, 69— Jupiter by the Mru 
netse, 131— Latona, at Butos, 124, 125— Mercury, at 

" Bubastis, 117— Minerva Assesian, 7— Minerva Pallc. 



nian, 19— Minerva Alean, 21— Minerva at Lindue, I.TJ 
Minerva Crastian, 256— Minerva at Sigeum, i7.'>— 
Minerva Pronea, 388— Minerva Scira«, 403— Nepton • 
Erecthean, 392, n. — Neptune Hippias, WW, n.— Par:, 
on mount Parthenius, 310, u.— Pan at Athens, ib — 
Protesilaus, in JElaeos, 331— Thyia, 366— Venus (.1.-- 
tial, at Ascalon, 34— Venus" Cyprian, ib— Venus Cy. 
therean, ib.— Venus the stranger, 106— Vulcan. 105. 
Temples, the Persians have none, 41— oracular, mostly 
situated on mountains, ib. n. — division of the ancient, 
55, n — first erected by the Egyptians, 68. 
Terillus brings an army of three hundred thousand 
men into Sicily, under the command of Ainilcar, 
against Gelon, 362- 
Thales, the Milesian, foretells an eclipse, 21 — a«<i-tj 
Crcesus in constructing a bridgeover the river Haly§, 
ib. — his advice to the lonians, 51. 
Thasians, reduced by Mardonius, 292 — ordered by Da- 
rius to pull down their walls and remove their ship9 
to Abdera, 293— their riches, ib. 
Thaws, besieged by Histiaeus, 289. 

Theasides, son of Leopropis, dissuades the emissaries of 
the JEginetae from taking with them Leutychides, 
whom the Lacedaemonians had agreed to deliver up, 
304. 
Thebans, of Egypt, why they abstain from sheep, 83. 
Thebans, of Bceotia, desirous of revenge on the Athe- 
nians, consult the oracle, 268— commence hostilities 
with the Athenians, 269 — the Athenians assist the 
Plateans against, 312 — limits determined between the 
Thebans and Plateans, ib. — though hostile to the 
Greeks, send them assistance against Xerxes, S7S — 
seeing thePersians victorious at Thermepylm, separate 
from the Greeks, and preserve their lives, 975 — Am- 
phiaraus their ally, 413 — besieged by the Greeks, 111. 
Thebes, formerly the name of Egypt, ":S 
Thebes, in Egypt, 7fJ — supposed to be the Sbeba of the 
scriptures, ib. n.— rain a prodigy at, 138— image of 
Jupiter there, 237. 
Themistocles, son of Neocles, advises the Athenians to 
prepare for a naval engagement with Xerxes, S54 — 
commands the Athenians against Xerxo-. 96 I — la en- 
gaged by the Eubceansto risk the event of a battle at 
Euboea with the Barbarians, 381— endeavours to de- 
tach the lonians and Carians from the army of 
Xerxes, 381 — the cause of several pretended miracle-, 
389, n. — his artifice to procure money for providing a 
complement of men for the Grecian Beet, 80s, n.— 
prevails on Eurybiades, the commander of the (.n- 
cian fleet at Salamis, to stay and fight there, lb, — en.h 
Sicinnus to the fleet of Xerxes ami Inform! their 
leaders of the consternation and d istensi on of the 
Greeks at Salamis, SOP— forthe Mm of hi, country, 
confers with his particular enemy, Aristide-, omi— re- 
proached by Polyarltus, JOB dlmoades the Athenians 
from pursuing Xerxes in his retreat, 107-40. the 
habit of an Ionian female slave, escaped f n>m the fury 
of his incensed countrymen, 106, n. — SSflpatchl 

sengers to Xerxes, who inform him of the re-. .lotion 

of the Athenian'- QOl to pursue him in b 

this matter differently related by Plutarch, il>. n — 

without the knowledge of the other Grecian 
extorta large rams from the Islanders, MS — the Greeks 

declare him to deserve thoMCond reward ■•! ralow, 

in the war with the Persians, 1 1 1 —fa 
tertaincd, and honourably distinguished, "t I 

mon, lb — Mi reply to the baveetlvei ofTlmo d e mn e, In. 
rAeorforut, of Samoa, ■ lilver goblet od h 

ship at Delphi. 16—4116 first -tatuary on rSCOrdj con. 

structed the labyrinth at S;i and made a 11 unite 

east oi bim-clt in bra -. ib. n.— made a seal-ring for 
Poly-crate-, 150. 



486 



INDEX. 



Theomestor, son of Androdamus, made prince of Samos 
for his behaviour in the Grecian war, 401. 

Theoris, a vessel every year sent by the Athenians to 
Delos, to offer sacrifice to Apollo, 306, n. 

T/iera, so called from Theras its founder, 228— no rain 
there for seven years, 229. 

Theras, sent from Lacedaemon to establish a colony, 228 
— arrives at Thera, formerly called Callista, ib. 

Therma, Xerxes halts and encamps at, in his expedition 
against Greece, 350. 

Thermopylce, an excellent plan of the straits of, where 
to be seen, 365, n. — Livy's description of the straits 
greatly admired, ib. n. — defeat of the Greeks at, 376. 

Theron with Gelon, vanquishes Amilcar, 362. 

Thesmophoria, mysteries in honour of Ceres, 129, 285. 

Tkespia, a city sacred to the muses, 268, n. 

Tkespis, not the inventor of tragedy, 265, n. 

IViessalians, assist the Pisistratidae against the Lacedae- 
monians, 263— forsaken by the Greeks, prove them- 
selves remarkably useful to Xerxes, 365 — exasperated 
by former injuries, demand of the Phoceans fifty ta- 
lents, or threaten to reduce them under the power of 
Xerxes, 387 — conduct the army of Xerxes to Doris, ib. 

Thessaly, its horses much esteemed, 263, n. — formerly a 
marsh, 350. 

Thetis, magi sacrifice to, for the appeasing of a storm, 
369. 

Thieves, story of two who plundered the riches of 
Rhampsinitus, 109. 

Thoas, king of the Pelasgi, put to death by the women of 
Lemnos, together with all their husbands, 320. 

Thoes, animals in Africa, 241. 

Thomson, his animated description of Sparta, 346, n. — 
his poem to liberty worthy of attention, ib. n. 

Thonis seizes Paris, and sends him with Helen to Pro- 
teus, 107 — pretended by some to have invented medi- 
cine, in Egypt, 106, n. 

Thracians, subdued by Croesus, 9 — subdued by Sesostris, 
103 — make their garments of hemp, 210 — conquered by 
Megabyzus, and reduced under the power of Darius, 
245 — next to India, of all nations the most considera- 
ble, ib. — lament the birth of a child, and rejoice at 
funerals, ib. — have several wives, 246 — their most be- 
loved wives sacrificed on their husbands' tombs, ib. — 
sell their children, ib. — regardless of their young wo- 
men, but watchful over their wives, whom they pur- 
chase, ib. — esteem a life of indolence, ib. — delight in 
war, ib. — their deities and funerals, ib. — hard drinking 
their characteristic, 304, n. — part of the army of Xer- 
xes, 340, 367 — through veneration, never cultivate the 
line of country, through which Xerxes led his army 
against Greece, 3-18 — drive away the sacred chariot of 
Jupiter, which Xerxes had left with the Paeonians, 409 
— sacrifice CEbazus to their god Pleistorus, 448. 

Thrasybulus, king of Miletus, Ms stratagem to put an 
end to the Milesian war, 7— his enigmatical advice to 
Periander, 273. 
Throne, the king's, to swear by it the most solemn oath 

among the Scythians, 208. 
Thucydides, his manner of reflecting on the facts he re- 
lates, 149, n. 

Thunder, prodigy of, in favour of Darius, 166 — from a 
cloudless sky, the highest omen with the ancients, ib. 
n. — destroys numbers of Xerxes' troops at the foot of 
mount Ida, 334 — destroys a number of the Barbarians 
in their approach to the temple of Minerva Pronea, 389. 
Thyia, daughter of Cephissus, her temple, 366. 
Thyrea, the Argives and Lacedaemonians fight for, 26. 
Tigers, said to prefer the flesh of an African to that of 
an European ; the European to the American, 350, n. 
Tigris, three rivers of that name, 259. 



Tigranes, son of Artabanus, considers the contentions of 
the Grecians in the Olympic games as a proof of their 
virtue, 386 — one of the handsomest and tallest of his 
countrymen, commands sixty thousand laud forces of 
Xerxes at Mycale, 443. 
Timagoras, condemned to death by the Athenians, for 

prostration before the king of Persia, 353, n. 
Timogenides, son of Herpys, his advice to Mardonius, 
429 — his person demanded by the Greeks, after the 
battle of Platea, 441 — delivered up to Pausanias, who 
puts him to death, ib. 
Timesitheus, of Delphi, put in irons and condemned to 

die by the Athenians, 267. 
Timesius, of Clazomenae, founder of Abdera, venerated 

by the Teians, 51. 
Timo, priestess of the infernal deities, shows Miltiades 

the means of possessing Paros, 319. 
Timodemus, of Aphidna, his enmity to Themistocles, 

411. 
Timoxenus betrays Potidaea to Artabazus, 411. 
Tin, carried from Europe into Greece, 175. 
Tisamenus, son of Antiochus, offers sacrifices on tho 
part of the Greeks at Platea, 428— obtained the privi- 
leges of a citizen of Sparta for himself and his brother, 
ib. — the Spartans obtain five victories by his assistance, 
429. 
Titormus excelled in bodily prowess, 327. 
Tmolus, mount, gold dust descends from, 31, 276. 
Tombs, the Nasamones swear by placing their hands on 

those of men most eminent for virtue, 235. 
Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae, her proposal to Cyrus, 
63— her son taken prisoner by Cyrus, 64— her son, re- 
leased by Cyrus, destroys himself, ib.— defeats Cyrus, 
and insults his dead body, 65. 
Torches, race of, at Athens, in honour of Pan, 310 — race 
of, in honour of various deities, ib. n. — before the use 
of trumpets, a torch was the signal for battle, 382, 
n.— a torch handed about at the feast of Vulcan, 405— 
intelligence conveyed by means of, 419, n. 
Torcne, the roaring of the sea there, so loud as to be- 
come proverbial, 329, n. 
Tournaments, their origin may be traced in the public 

games of Greece, 316, n. 
Traffic, mode of, between the Carthaginians and a peo- 
ple beyond the Columns of Hercules, 242. 
Tragedy, invented by Epigenes of Sicyon, 265, n. 
Transmigrations, frequent among the Assyrians and 

Persians, 281, n. 
Trausi, their customs, with respect to the birth of their 

children, and the burial of their dead, 245. 
Tree, singular property of the fruit of one among the 
islanders in the Araxes, 62— singular property of the 
leaves of trees on mount Caucasus, 63. 
Trembler, an established term of reproach in Sparta, 

377, n. 
Tributes, no specific ones in Persia, during the reigns of 
Cyrus and Cambyses, 167— the annual tribute paid to 
Darius, 169. 
Triope, temple of, 45. 
Tripods, ancient, of two kinds, 30, n. 
Tritons, the ancients believed in the existence of, 236, n. 
Trochilus, kindly treated by the crocodile, and why, 92. 
Troglodytes, their swiftness, food, and language, 238 — 

Montesquieu gives an entertaining account of, ib. n. 
Trojan war, various accounts of its precise period, 106, 

n. — ascribed to Providence, 109. 
TropJwnius, oracle of his cave, 14, n. 413. 
Troy, the Persians date the cause of their enmity to 
Greece from the destruction of, 2 — besieged and taken 
by the Greeks, on a supposition that Helen was de- 
tained there, 108. 



INDEX. 



487 



Trust reposed, the wisdom of discharging, illustrated by i 

the story of Glaucus, 301. 
Truth, to speak, one of the first rudiments of Persian 

education, 160, n. — a violation of, implies a contempt 

of God, and fear of man, ib. n. 
Turbans, the constant use of, softens the skull, 13S. 
Turks, their ill treatment of ambassadors in case of war, 

J 56, n. — their wives, 160, n. — swear by the. Ottoman 

Porte, 208, n. 
Twins, perplexity arising from their resemblance, 291. 
Tycta, a festival of the Persians, 416. 
Typhon, expelled from the throne of Egypt, by Orus, 

120 — a bull sacrificed to, gave occasion to the golden 

calf of the Israelites, 302, n. 
Tyre, called by Isaiah the daughter of Tarshish, and the 

daughter of Sidon, on different accounts, 396, n. 
Tyres, the river, its rise, 303. 
Tyrrhenians, origin of the appellation, 32 — taught the 

Romans their games and sports, ib. n. 



Veil, wearing one, a part of the ceremony of devotion 
among the Romans, 299, n. 

Venus, most ancient of all her temples at Ascalon, plun- 
dered by the Scythians, 31 — by the Assyrians called 
Mylitta ; by the Arabians, Alitta ; and by the Persians, 
Mithra, 41, 62 — her statue by Praxiteles, 45, n. — her 
statue de Medicis, ib. n. — Babylonian custom at her 
temple, 61 — her temple at Atarbechis in Egypt, 82 — a 
full account of her, where to be found, ib. n. 

Venus, celestial, worshipped by the Scythians under the ! 
name of Artimpasa, 205. 

Venus the stranger, her temple, 106 — no other than He- 
len, ib. 

Vermin, eaten by the Budini, 219. 

Vest, the Median, invented by Semiramis, 313, n. 

Vesta, the ancients much divided io opinion respecting 
her, 205, n. 

Victims, offered to celestial gods, had their heads turned 
upwards, 46, n. 

Victory, Cadmean, obtained by the Phoca?ans, 51. 

Vines, none in Egypt, 95— this contradicted, ib. n. — one 
of gold, presented by Pythius to Darius, 330 — several 
of gold, mentioned by ancient writers, ib. n. 

Vipers, their excessive increase, how prevented by na- 
ture, 173. 

Virgil, his design in placing the souls of infants weeping, 
in the infernal regions, 36, n. 

Virgin, to die one, and without children, esteemed by 
the ancients a very serious calamity, 178, n. 

Visions, a method used by the ancients to avert the ef- 
fects of, 260, n. 

Visits, mode of making them in the East, 166, n. 

Voice, loudness of, its use iii military expeditions among 
the ancients, 226, n. 

Voltaire, M. aboimds in false and partial quotations, 
209, n. 

Urine, Pheron'3 blindness cured by, 106, n. — of goats, 
used by the African shepherds against convulsions, 
239 — of cows, applied as a specific in some dangerous 
obstructions, ib. n. — of goats, a specific in an asthmatic 
complaint, ib. n. 

Urius, a name of Jupiter, 213, n. 

Urns, Roman, of what materials, 148, n. 
Vulcan, priests of at Memphis, (iS— his temple at Mem- 
phis, 102, 117, 119, 121, 131— Sethos a priest of, 118— 
his temple and statue insulted by Cambyses, 148— a 
torch handed about among the Greeks at Ins feast, 
405. 



w 



Waggons, the Scythians dwell in, 220. 

Walking-sticks of the Babylonian*, 60. 

War, god of, sacrifices to, 418, n. 

Water, the only liquor drank by the ancient Persians, 
22 — adored by the Persians, 11— transported by the 
Memphians to the Syrian desert", 137— of the Nile 
never becomes impure; is said to be preserved by the 
Egyptians in jars for three or four years, ib. n.— a 
fountain in Ethiopia, on the water of which neither 
wood nor any thing lighter would float, 143 — a foun- 
tain of bitter water in the country of the ploughing 
Scythians, 203. 

Water-works, constructed by Eupalinus at Samos, 156. 

Wax, the Persians inclose dead bodies in, 41. 

Way, sacred, from Athens to Eleusis, celebrated, 290, n. 
— whence the name of that leading from Rome, ib. n. 

Weaving, Egyptian mode of, 79. 

Weep, to bid a person, was a proverbial form of wishing 
him ill, 223, n. 

Weights and measures, first introduced into Greece, by 
Pythagoras, 317, n. 

Willow twigs, u?ed by the Scythians in divination, 207. 

Winds, adored by the Persians, 41 — the increase of the 
Nile attributed to the Etesian, 71 — account of the Ete- 
sian, ib. n. — south and south-west, most common in 
the higher parts of Libya, and most frequently attend- 
ed with rain, 76— sacrifice ottered to by the Delphians, 
366 — of the ancients and moderns, 368, u. 

Wine, not drank by the ancient Persians, 22 — drank pro- 
fusely by the Persians, in the time of Herodotus, 42 — 
allowed to the Egyptian priests, 81— why never drank 
by the Egyptians before the time of Psammitit lm-, 98, 
n. — whence the Oriental aversion for it, ib. n. — con- 
sidered by the ancient Egyptians as the blood of the 
gods, who had formerly fought against them, 123, n. — 
annually exported from Greece to Egypt, 137. 

Wine, barley, much information in " A Dissertation" 
on it, 95, n.— invented by Osiris, 120, n. 

Wine, palm, the principal article of commerce in Baby- 
lonia, 59 — in Egypt, used in embalming, 98. 

Wolves, the Neuri said to have the power of transform- 
ing themselves into, 194, n.— buried by the Egyptians, 
91. 

Women with their clothes put off their modesty, 4 — 
naked, wait on the Tyrrhenians, il>. n.— young, of 
Sparta, by the institutes of Lycurgus, were to dame 
naked at feasts and sacrifices, 5, il— young, of Lydia, 
procure their marriage portion by prostitution, 31 — 
the Scythians afflicted with their disease, 34— < Irian, 
resent the death of their parents, Id — a female only 
permitted to sleep in the chapel of the temple of Jupi- 
ter BelnSj 55 — a woman sleeps in the temple ot the 
Theban Jupiter, ib. — in Babylonia, sold by auction to 
the men, 60 — Babylonian, custom of ablution after com- 
munication with, 61 — their prostitution at the temple 
of Venus, >:>.— Considered by the hfsasagetSB a- com. 
inon property, o\"i — CyTUS, OD hi> wile'- death, com- 
manded public marks ot sorrow, t'>7— in Egypt, h.ne 
the management ol the loom to the men, and are en. 
gaged abroad in commerce, 7'.'— in Kg\pt, carry bur- 
dens on their shoulders, ih.— in Egypt, are compelled 
to Support their parents, ib— a goat has public coin, 
municalion with a woman, SI — the tfosajri had public 
communication with, B0, n — u by. in Egypt, -..mcaie 
not immediately OH their decease delivered to the em- 
bahners, 98— the Egyptians, lik.- the OrsekS, confine 
themselves to one, !»<>— yet the Owjsla did n,.I 
go, 100, n. — argument why only one -hould be n-mirj 
to one man, it. n— a number of them burnt by I'hcron, 



488 



INDEX. 



106— the courtezans of antiquity derived great profits 
from their charms, 113, n. — courtezans of Naucratis, 
116 — various wars on account of, 136, n. — different laws 
at Athens and Lacedaemon, respecting the marriage of a 
sister, 146, n. — in the East, jealously secluded from the 
other sex,159, n—number of wives allowed to theMaho- 
metans,160,n.— beauty of thePersian,169,n.~ the Indians 
have open and unrestrained communication with, 170 — 
the address of, O woman ! sometimes signifies contempts 
sometimes tenderness, 181, n.— several, destroyed by the 
Babylonians, 185 — anciently employed to bake bread, 
ib. n. — fifty thousand sent to Babylon by order of 
Darius, 188 — a female seen by Hercules, half a woman 
and half a serpent, 191 — the wives of the Minyae, by 
exchanging dresses with their husbands, effect their 
escape from prison, 227 — Hipsicratea, to gratify her 
husband, constantly wore the habit of a man, ib. n. — 
the Adyrmachidae, in Africa, presented their daugh- 
ters to the kin^ - just before their marriage, who might 
enjoy their persons, 233— among the Nasamones, on 
the first night after marriage permit every one of the 
guests to enjoy their persons, 235— wives of the Gin- 
danes, in Africa, Avear round their ancles as many ban- 
dages as they have known men, 236— of the Ausenses, 
their custom, 237— of the Zaueces guide the chariots of 
war, 241— a plurality of wives in Thrace, 246, 249— sa- 
crificed on the tombs of their husbands in Thrace, 246 ; 
among the Getae, and now in India, ib. n. — in Thrace, 
young, are suffered to connect themselves indiscrim- 
inately with men, but wives are purchased, and strict- 
ly guarded, 246— by the Macedonians kept separate 
from the men, 249— fatal effects to seven Persian mes- 
sengers from their indecency to the Macedonian wo. 
men, 250— two wives not allowed to one man in Spar- 
ta, 255— of Corinth, all stripped by Periander, 273— 
severity of the Egyptian laws respecting, 283, n.— 
performed the offices of the bath, 285, n.— those in 
Greece who were free-born never appeared at funer- 
als, except at those of their relations, 296, n.— were 
much more rigorously secluded in Greece than in 
Rome, ib. n.— a woman in Sparta, remarkable for her 
ugliness, becomes exceedingly beautiful, 297— ten 
months the period of their gestation generally spoken 
of by the ancients, 298, n.— Argive, whimsical law re- 
lating to, 302, n.— Athenian surprised by the Pelasgi 
while celebrating the feast of Diana, near Brauron, 
and killed together with their infants, 319— of Lemnos 
destroy their husbands, 320— Phocean, their fortitude, 
386, n.— Argive, a madness among, 428— to say that a 
man behaved like a woman, a most contemptuous re- 
proach with the ancients, 445, n.— extraordinary in- 
stances of their cruelty, 447, n.— of Corinth, celebrated 
for their beauty, 181, n. 

Wood, Mr, a gross mistake corrected in his Essay on 
Homer, 70, n. 

Words, play on, affected by the ancients, 180, n. 

Worms, Pheretima destroyed by, 244. 

Writing, performed by the Greeks to the left, by the 
Egyptians to the right, 81. 

X 

Xanthians burn their city in despair, 54. 

Xanthippus, son of Ariphron, 318, 412— capitally accuses 
Miltiades, 319— crucifies Artayctes, governor of Sestos, 
331. 

Xenagoras, son of Praxilaus, rewarded by Xerxes for 
saving the life of Masistes, 445. 

Xenophon, his manner of reflecting on the facts he re- 
lates, 149, n. 

Xerxes, son of Darius, drinks of the water of Choaspes, 



57, n.— signification of his name, 308— dispute between 
him and Artabazanes concerning the succession to the 
throne, 321 — is declared by Darius his successor, and 
succeeds him, 322 — is persuaded by Mardonius to un- 
dertake a war against the Athenians, ib. — reduces 
Egypt more effectually than Darius, and confides the 
government of it to Achaemenes, 323 — before he leads 
his army against Athens, consults the principal Per- 
sians, ib. — reproves Artabanus, who had endeavoured 
to dissuade him from the Athenian Avar, 326 j is excited 
to it by a vision, ib. — a second time consults the Per- 
sians, 327 — is urged to the Athenian war by a second 
vision, ib. — prevails on Artabanus to assume his habit, 
and retire to rest in his apartment ; when the same 
phantom appears to Artabanus, and induces him to 
recommend the prosecution of the war,ib. — sees a third 
vision, which is interpreted by the magi to portend to 
him unlimited and universal empire, 328— employs four 
years in assembling his army and collecting provisions, 
and in the beginning of the fifth begins his march 
against Greece, ib. — digs a passage through mount 
Athos, 329— a letter supposed to have been written by 
him to mount Athos, ib. n.— is entertained with all his 
army by Pythius, who engages to supply him with 
money for the war, 330 — his present to Pythius in re- 
turn for his offer, ib.— adorns a plane-tree with chains 
of gold, ib. — arrives at Sardis, ib. — sends heralds into 
Greece, demanding earth and water, ib.— causes a 
bridge to be thrown over the Hellespont, 331 ; which 
being destroyed by a tempest, he orders three hun- 
dred lashes to be inflicted on the Hellespont, and a pair 
of fetters to be thrown into the sea, ib. j and those who 
presided over the construction of the bridge to be be- 
headed, 332— causes another bridge to be constructed 
over the Hellespont, ib.— marches his army for Abydos, 
when the sun withdraws his light, 333— his cruelty to 
the eldest son of Pythius, ib.— his character compared 
with that of Darius, ib. n.— order of his departure 
from Sardis, 334— orders a thousand oxen to be sacri- 
ficed to the Trojan Minerva, ib.— arrives at Abydos, 
and surveys his army, ib.— sees a naval combat, ib.— 
weeps at the sight of his fleet and army, 335— his con- 
versation with Artabanus, ib.— dismisses Artabanus to 
Susa, and a second time calls an assembly of the Per- 
sians, 336— pours a libation into the sea, and addresses 
the sun, on preparing to pass the Hellespont, 337— 
passes the Hellespont, ib.— drives his troops over a 
bridge by the force of blows, ib.— seven days and nights 
consumed in the passage of his array over the Helles- 
pont, ib.— two prodigies seen by him, and disregarded, 
ib.— marshals and numbers his army at Doriscus, 338— 
amount of his land forces, ib.— nations who composed 
his army, 339— his fleet, 342— takes a survey of his 
whole armament, proposing certain questions to each 
nation, and noting down their replies, 344 — conversa- 
tion between him and Demaratus on the probability of 
his success against Greece, 345— appoints Mascamis 
governor of Doriscus, 347— in his progress from Doris- 
cus to Greece, compels all the people amongst whom 
he comes to join his army, ib.— description of his march 
into Greece, ib.— buries Artachaees with great magni- 
ficence, 348— great expenses of the Greeks in enter- 
taining Xerxes and his forces, 349— halts and encamps 
at Therma, 350— names of the Greeks who send him 
earth and water, 351— his magnanimity in refusing to 
take the lives of Sperthies and Bulis, as an atonement 
for the death of the Persian ambassadors at Sparta, 353 
—orders three Grecian spies to be shown all his forces, 
that by their report the Grecians may be induced to 
submit, 355— his reason for not seizing some provisions 
of the Greeks, 356— claims kindred with the Argives, 



INDEX. 



489 



ib.— prevails on the Argives to withhold their assist- 
ance from the Lacedaemonians, 357 — takes three 
iceek vessels at Sciathus, 366— number of his fleet and 
rmy, 367 — his grace and dignity of person.ib. — station 
' is fleeton the coast of Magnesia, 368 — his fleet sus- 
js a considerable loss by a storm, ib. — fifteen of his 
vessels, through mistake, sail into the midst of the 
Greek vessels at Artemisium, and are taken by them, 
369— the rest of his fleet arrive at Aphetae, ib.— arrives 
with his land forces in the territories of the Melians, 
370— encamps at Trachinia in Melis, ib.— his expedi- 
tion to Greece and his return well expressed by the 
words of Ezekiel, representing Gog's army and its 
destruction, 371, n. — endeavours to gain the pass of 
The rmopylae, without success, and with a prodigious 
loss of men, 373— is shown a path over the mountain 
to Thermopylae, ib. — defeats the Greeks at Thermo- 
pylae, 376— after the engagement at Thermopylae, 
goes to view the dead, and treats the body 
of Leonidas with barbarity, 380— his fleet engages 
with that of the Greeks, and loses thirty ships, 383— 
is distressed by a storm, ib — again engages the 
Greeks, when both fleets retire, 384— on the retreat 
of the Greeks from Artemisium, his whole fleet sails 
thither, proceeds to Histiaea, takes possession of the 
city, and over-runs part of Hellopia, and all the coast 
of Histiseotis, 385— conceals from his army the real 
number of the slain at Thermopylae, ib.— with his 
army, over-runs Phocis, 387— his army divided into 
two bodies, one of which proceeds towards Athens, 
the other to Delphi, 388— his army, approaching to 
plunder the temple of Delphi, are deterred by prodi- 
gies, and in their flight lose a great number of men, 
ib.— penetrate Attica, and burn all before them, 391— 
take and set fire to the citadel of Athens, 392— orders 
the Athenian exiles to go to the citadel, and there 
sacrifice according to the custom of their country, ib. 

the defeat of his army inferred by Dicaeus from a 

prodigy, 395— his naval troops pass from Trachis to 
Histiaea, and thence to Phalerum, ib.— is joined by 
several reinforcements from those nations which had 
not yet declared for him, 396— visits his fleet in per- 
son, ib.— and inquires of the several commanders, 
whether they are willing to engage the enemy, ib.— 
resolves to be a spectator of the battle of Salamis, 397 
—his land forces advance to the Peloponnese, ib.— 
loses a great part of his fleet in an engagement with 
the Greeks at Salamis, 401— is deceived by a stratagem 
of Artemisia into a favourable opinion of her, ib.— 
great numbers of his men drowned at Salamis, 402— 
puts to death several Phenicians, who had accused 
the Ionians of perfidy, ib.— views the battle of Salamis 



from mount JEgaWos, ib. — his remaining ships fly to 
Phalerum, and join the land forces, 403 — after the 
battle of Salamis, determines on flight, 404 — yet makes 
seeming preparations for another naval engagement, 
ib. — sends a messenger to Persia with intelligence of 
his defeat at Salamis, ib — resolves to return to Persia, 
leaving the conduct of the Grecian war with Mardo- 
nius, 406 — and retreats, 407 — promises the Lacedaemo- 
nians a satisfaction for the death of Leonidas, 409 — 
arrives at the Hellespont, ib. — loses numbers of his 
troops by sickness, ib. — arrives at Sardis, 410 — story 
of his conduct during a storm in his retreat, ib. — 
makes a treaty of friendship with the people of 
Abdera, ib. — is informed by Themistocles of the reso- 
lution of the Athenians not to pursue him in his re- 
treat, 408 — this matter differently related by Plutarch, 
ib. n. — attaches himself to the wife of Masistes, 446 — 
marries his son Darius to the daughter of Masistes, 
ib — connects himself with Artaynta, the wife of his 
son, ib.— his intrigue with Artaynta discovered by 
his wife Amestris, ib. 



y, the letter, in an epigram imputed to Virgil, intimated 

a systematic attachment to virtue, 224, n. 
Year, first divided by the Egyptians, 08. 



Zacynthus, its tar springs, 242, n. 

Zamolxis, esteemed a god by the Thracians, 215— a man 
who lived three years in a subterranean edifice, 315. 

Zande, why so called, 287. 

Zancleans invite the Ionians to Calacte, wishing to 
found there an Ionian city, 286 — under the conduct of 
Scythes, lay close siege to a Sicilian city, 287 — to re- 
cover their own city, call to their assistance Hippo- 
crates, prince of Gela, who betrays them to the Sami- 
ans, ib. 

Zante, its tar springs, 242, n. 

Zaueces, their women guide the chariots of war, 241. 

Zea, a kind of corn, the principal diet in Egypt, 80. 

Zopyrus, son of Megabyzus, mutilates himself, in order 
to eflect the capture of Babylon, 186— takes Babylon 
by stratagem, 187; and is rewarded by Darius, 188 — 
his daughter violated by Sataspes, 200. 

Zoroaster, the founder of the doctrine of two principles, 
163, n. 

Zygantes, have abundance of honey ; stain their bodies 
with vermilion ; feed upon monkies, 241. 



3Q 



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